Austin's all-acoustic ensemble covers a lot of ground on this typically eclectic outing. Blues, folk, jazz, rockabilly, klezmer, new wave, and even punk go through
the Asylum Street Spankers' retro wringer, and all emerge in the band's typically swinging, if slightly gimmicky, fashion.
The Beastie Boys' "Paul Revere" is transformed into an authentic rockabilly breakdown, somewhat like a combination of
Manhattan Transfer and Sun-era
Elvis.
Black Flag's "TV Party" goes the hoedown route and now sounds like something the cast from Hee Haw recorded, complete with snappy TV jokes and theme songs from Bonanza, The Flintstones, and Jeopardy. Not as giggly but far better is a radically reworked version of the blues chestnut "Got My Mojo Workin'" sung as a slinky, finger-popping torch song by group co-founding member Christina Marrs. The swinging Dixieland side of the group is well represented by
Sophie Tucker's "Some of These Days," a straight version enhanced by banjo, fiddle, and clarinet. A no-frills cover of
the B-52's' "Dance This Mess Around" might be fun for those who don't know the original, but
the Spankers' version doesn't noticeably improve or even alter the original and, worse, interrupts the flow of the album. The suggestive "Tight Like That," made popular by
Tampa Red, gets the lyrics to
Jim Carroll's "People Who Died" grafted onto the chorus, successfully combining two especially disparate genres in a very funny and unexpected -- at least once -- juxtaposition.
Bessie Smith's salacious "Sugar in My Bowl,"
Ivory Joe Hunter's "Since I Met You Baby," and the pop standard "Shine on Harvest Moon" are all relatively unaltered, although
the Spankers' winking humor is unmistakable.
Mercurial is frisky, good-natured fun and a fine way to break into the band's lively retro sound and entertaining, self-deprecating but reverent Americana approach. ~ Hal Horowitz