Customer Reviews

Spanker Madness

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love this album! Asylum Street Spankers are very talented musicians that can't easily be pigeonholed into one musical genre. It is a great blend of folk, jazz, country, rockabilly and more, but the album has a cohesive sound throughout. This is the type of music that is most popular at drunken parties, but it's great to listen to anytime (except in front of your grandmother, your priest, or the DEA.) It skewers the war on drugs, and presents some positive viewpoints on drug use. If you have a libertarian attitude and want some quality music, check this album out.

Their picking and singing is as good as it can get--and the song writing's pretty darn good, too. Of course, this album will not be liked by anybody who belongs to the Friends of the Drug Czar Society, but old preverts like myself will find it a delight. In fact, I'm sending out two copies as birthday presents to friends today. The bottom line is, if you like great acoustic picking and singing and are amenable to cannibis tunes, this CD's for you.

What I've always loved about the Spankers is that they make you think while you're having a ball! And this album is a new peak in terms of thoughtful hilarity. Between the witty playing and funny lines are lots of intelligent social commentary about drugs and attitudes toward them. After all the oh-so serious singer-songwriters of today are forgotten, people will still be listening to this smart, funny music alongside Dylan and Abbey Road.

Just like their Dirty Ditties and Nasty Novelties, the whole album follows a theme. In this case drugs. Fun songs goes great after watching Reefer Madness, The Musical.

I suppose that this album was doomed to a mixed reception before it was even released, and as such, I feel obligated to provide at least one honest review of the album as a piece of music. Rather than complaining about the subject matter, or, in turn, baselessly praising the album for it, I'll do my best to be objective.

Toward that end, I'd like to first complain about the subject matter. Well, maybe complain is too harsh a word--warning is a better term. The legalization of drugs rubs me the wrong way for reasons that are actually quite interesting (I don't like it when people change the rules), and I find musicians, actors, artists, writers, and people in general who obsess over the subject to be somewhere between annoying and unbearable. This album can get on my nerves because of that. These folks are from AUSTIN, people. I've spent eighteen years living half an hour south of the place, and I can tell you that that one fact powerfully suggests that they're going to have one liberal agenda or another and guarantees that they're going to be loudmouthed about it. If you're the Okie From Muskogee, you won't like the record. You just won't. Don't buy it. Really. I'm not kidding.

Now, on to the music. If you can get past the rather shallow, poorly thought out and equally poorly researched politics which occasionally pop up in the record, this is an excellent piece of work. Potheads or not, the Asylum Street Spankers are a very talented group of musicians, and it does show. The songs are well performed, with little that I can offer in the way of complaint. The album arrangement is perhaps a bit weak, but I chalk that up more to the fact that the thing was probably produced by five guys in a smoke filled basement. If you want quality music with an old time quality and you either won't pay attention to or won't be annoyed by the lyrics, buy it. You'll like it.

Final verdict: if the album can't appeal to all, it can't get five stars. Four stars for exceptional quality fused with comparatively horrendous (and certainly divisive) politics.

Worthless, mindless, banal, boring [music]. They try to be funny with constant use of drug humor but it falls flat-they just sound dumb.
No socially redeeming value. There should be a warning sticker "WARNING: EXPLICIT STUPIDITY". I'd sell it back on marketplace but I think it would be morally irresponsible. I'd throw it in the garbage but we have enough toxins in our landfills. I could only force myself to listen to it once.
They have a good sound and seem to be halfway decent musicians but they should put their diapers back on and try to grow up this time. Whatever.