For a decade and a half, the Asylum Street Spankers have worked a musical corner where anything is possible. Cue up one of their nine albums, and you’ll hear odes to drinking, marijuana and sex, a kids’ song, a ’30s standard or a Christmas tune. Stylistically, the Austin collective — whose membership has included close to two dozen musicians since their 1994 formation — is every bit as diverse, encompassing jazz, blues, country, ragtime, swing, folk and even metal. Their new CD, God’s Favorite Band, self-described as the “world’s first agnostic gospel album,” is packed with songs that address the spiritual nature of mankind in the off-kilter fashion that has become the Spankers’ trademark. The band’s co-founder, washboardist/songwriter/vocalist Wammo, took a moment away from his new baby girl to chat about the album and the band’s Salvation & Sin Tour.
Pardon the phraseology, but how in God’s name did you come up
with the concept of “agnostic gospel”?
We started a gospel brunch in Austin long ago, and now they’re
everywhere. So I think you can credit the Spankers for inventing the
gospel brunch. [Singer] Christina [Marrs] has always been a huge gospel
fan, and she turned me onto Mahalia Jackson, and [guitarist] Guy
Forsyth turned me onto the Golden Gate Quartet, and both of them
together showed me that gospel has a lot more soul than going to
church. This music is the closest thing I’ve ever had to a religious
experience.
As usual, there’s a pretty broad range of songs on the
subject.
Well, after we did the gospel brunches, we decided to do more gospel
shows at the Saxon Pub in Austin, and those were nighttime gospel
shows, so we were able to relax a little more and have fun with it. You
can tell by the record that I’m not a very devout person. I wrote
“Volkswagen Thing” for the gospel brunches. I wanted to write a gospel
song that I felt comfortable with, something with some humor and my
philosophy of religion. “Right and Wrong” I wrote for the shows at the
Saxon Pub, and that one I really dig. I’m very proud of it. And doing
“It Ain’t Necessarily So” was fun; it was half to piss Christina off
because it’s not a gospel song. I’ve always wanted to sing it. Then we
did “Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,” and that’s the straight
arrangement from the Golden Gate Quartet. They do it 20 times better,
but somebody’s going to hear our record and Google that song and find
that other recording and go, “Oh my God!” and get turned on to this
amazing vocal group. I’m glad that I said “Oh my God.”
That’s a fairly big leap for an agnostic.
I consider myself a hypocritical atheist. Which means I don’t
believe unless there’s turbulence or tires screaming.
You recorded the album live at the Saxon. What inspired that
decision?
We did a month of gospel shows, so it was like, “Let’s record them
and if we like something, we’ll release it.” We can always use another
record. It’s truly an act of faith that we’re releasing this on CD.
Nobody buys CDs anymore. There’s a whole generation that’s grown up
thinking music is free and the idea of paying for music is like paying
for air. It’s a beautiful thing that some kid hears “Ain’t
Misbehavin’,” and in a millisecond finds out everything about Fats
Waller and hears his music and downloads it. That’s great, and it may
be elevating us as a species, but it may be holding back a few
musicians.
Well, the salvation part of the tour is self-evident. What
comprises the sin portion of the evening?
Spanker classics. I’ve been doing a lot of my new songs. I’m a
songwriting fool; I just keep churning out the tunes. I get bored
quickly with the Spanker hits — “Beer” and “War on Drugs” —
so I’ve been singing a song I wrote with Guy Forsyth called “PBR,”
which is about the glories or Pabst Blue Ribbon, and a new one called
“White Boy” and “Leaf Blower.” And I’ve got a new one called
“Parade.”
The phrase “God’s Favorite Band” has been attached to you guys
from the start. How did that come about?
We used to do a regular Wednesday-night gig at the Electric Lounge,
and the bar owner, Mike Henry, put it in the ads. “Every Wednesday,
God’s Favorite Band: The Asylum Street Spankers.” It just seemed
obvious that’s what we should call it when we decided to put out this
record.
So who’s God’s least favorite band?
There are so many that come to mind. I’ll go with Maroon 5. Or maybe
Evanescence. There are so many horrible corporate bands out there. I
would think God’s a big metal fan; I don’t think all those
Satan-worshipping bands would be God’s least favorites. I think he
would think that’s really funny. But boy bands? I bet he just shakes
his head.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.