Christmas Spanking

Asylum Street Spankers

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 6, 2001)
• Original Release Date: November 6, 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Bloodshot Records
• ASIN: B00005R8EH
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #198,584 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Intro

2. You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch

3. Merry Christmas, Baby

4. What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?

5. Zat You, Santa Claus?

6. Baby, It's Cold Outside

7. 12.25.61

8. Blue Christmas

9. Mele Kalikimaka

10. We Three Kings

11. Silent Night

12. Red Nosed Reindeer Blues

13. Linus And Lucy

14. Trim Your Tree

15. The Christmas Song

16. Far Away Christmas Blues

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

For those who like their holiday spirits on the saucy side, Austin's foremost purveyors of acoustic swing, naughty blues, and retro hipster jive deliver a good spanking to an eclectic selection of seasonal fare. Recorded at a couple of different Texas concerts, A Christmas Spanking is more playful than polished, with "Red Nosed Reindeer Blues" taking Rudolph on a ride through Muddy Waters's neighborhood, while Vince Guaraldi's cartoon classic "Linus and Lucy" turns into a romp from flamenco through scat. Standards from the songbooks of Charles Brown ("Merry Christmas, Baby") and Mel Torme ("The Christmas Song") mix with original material such as "12.25.61," in which the band's frontman Wammo pays birthday tribute to himself. The torching vocals of Christina Marrs shine brightly through a ukulele-driven rendition of "Blue Christmas." Though there's plenty of novelty fare, the interplay of clarinetist Stanley Smith, guitarist Django Porter, and fiddler Korey Simeone is nothing to laugh at. --Don McLeese

Product Description

Though unable to resist cashing in on the holiday bandwagon, the Spankers decided to look beyond the usual holiday fare when choosing songs for this record. The search resulted in an album that careens from obscure jazz and blues tunes to songs from animated classics. Enjoy a holiday album so fearless in its variety and execution you might even find yourself enjoying it in January.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of my new favorite Christmas CDs, January 27, 2002

By	Eric (St. Louis) - See all my reviews

I found a copy of this CD in a used CD store and had to listen to it because of the name. I was VERY pleasantly surprised. This is NOT your typical Christmas album, but it is A LOT of fun. I played it at work and it became a hit there as well. From a rousing rendition of "grinch" to a very catchy version of the Peanuts christmas tune, you'll be very entertained. And if you've ever wondered where to get "Silent Night" played on the saw, well here it is.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Christmas album unlike any other!, November 27, 2001

By	All Access Customer (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Leave it to the Spankers to cash in on Christmas in a way that doesn't pile on the warm and fuzzies or insult our intelligence. Though I was initially suspicious of the band's motives, I now think that this album deserved to be made. Not only is it more musically adventurous and more varied than anything the Spankers have done before, it also confronts and accepts the ambivalence most of us feel about the holiday season, while still imparting loads of warmth and joy. It's great that they didn't just go the silly route or the sappy route. Instead, the Spankers managed to make a holiday album that 's both a lot of fun and rewarding to a careful listener. And Christina's "Blue Christmas" is devastating.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Makes the old sound new, November 20, 2003

By	John Sloan "sloanjohn" (right there) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A Christmas Spanking is a refreshingly original Christmas album. It's not original in the sense of creating new Christmas songs; just some new interpretations of songs that you probably already know. The one original song, "12.25.61", is just a silly song by the lead singer (who simply goes by the name of Whammo) about having his birthday fall on Christmas day. The album was recorded live at a Christmas concert, so the recording quality tends to be a little muddy and the audience is occasionally distracting, but this just adds to the off-the-cuff feeling of the album.
Some of the highlights include "Mr. Grinch" which switches musical styles several times during the song, a bluesy version of "Rudolph", the Charlie Brown classic "Linus and Lucy" where the piano is replaced by a harmonica, and a ukulele version of "Blue Christmas" (it sounds strange, but it really works). Not everything works that well; their "Zat You, Santa Claus?" just can't come close to the Louis Armstrong original, and "Silent Night" on the musical saw sounds like it's about a baby born in a haunted house, not a manger. But overall, this is a fun record by a talented band that makes old-fashioned music sound good today.