ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS

The Asylum Street Spankers, formed in Austin, Texas in 1994, is an American old-timey, swing, jazz, and dirty-blues band. Their tone is raucous and irreverent, and their material often concerns illicit drug references and sexual connotations. For many years, they performed their show acoustically, without any type of amplification at all. The band derived its name from an Austin street where they would often busk that was nicknamed Asylum Street, now named Guadalupe Street, and the term "spanker" which is an old musician’s term for "one who plays his instrument vigorously and proficently". It was along Guadalupe that the group played a number of early shows; Asylum Street led (and still leads) to a state asylum. Listen at Last.fm
Founded twelve years ago at a booze and hallucinogen-fueled party at the Dabbs Hotel along the river in Llano, Texas, the Asylum Street Spankers stand as one of America's most distinctive groups. Defiantly acoustic, fiercely independent and absurdly good, the Spankers have been led by founders Christina Marrs and Wammo from being a country-blues revival act playing happy hours in Austin, through nearly 40 musicians, endless touring and constant evolution to being an internationally reknowned underground institution. Fueled by an ethos born of their punk roots, Marrs and Wammo have built their lives around making unique music that surprises and entertains.