wammo loves you

Wammo, the vocalist/harmonica player/washboard player/beer drinker for the indescribable austin jug band the Asylum Street Spankers (watch for a future post on them) has a new solo album out.

my sister found Wammo's first solo album, "Fat-Headed Stranger" in the throw-away bin at her college radio station years ago and passed it on to me. it was one of the strangest and coolest things i'd ever heard. wammo is a slam poet in addition to being a musician and his solo albums have reflected that even more than his work with the Spankers. wammo's lyrics and delivery are his strongest points. in particular, the song "There Is Too Much Light In This Bar" was an instant all-time favorite.

wammo's second solo album, "Faster Than The Speed of Suck" had some good parts but was a little too chaotic to be very listenable. it was burdened with a concept. the album was supposed to be based around two people driving from austin to new orleans with a broken tape-deck so they were stuck with the radio. it was a clever way to rationalize wammo's frequent genre-hopping (he has one song that's a mix between country and gangsta rap) and a good excuse for some hilarious fake radio commercials and announcements. but in the end i think the interspersed dialogue and channel switching just got in the way of the songs.

the new one is called "Lowriders on the Storm" and sounds pretty promising (i only got my copy yesterday so i haven't been able to spend much time with it yet). it's louder and more rocking. there don't seem to be as many of the semi-spoken word songs as on Fat-Headed Stranger. this might make it not grab the listener as quickly, but i'm hoping that it makes it better for repeat listenings and keep it from being too much of a "novelty" album.

at any rate, the song "Mulletica" is thoroughly amusing. listen and love wammo. none of the usual spots seem to have it yet, but you can order the CD through the Spankers' online store (and order some spankers albums too while you're there).