Asylum Street Spankers

Mommy Says No! is ostensibly a kids’ album but it’s the same load of fun as everything else this crazy, talented and daring 10-piece band from Austin, Texas, has done. Like Asylum Street Spankers’ earlier My Favorite Record, Mommy Says No! is heavy on originals. Versatile lead singer Christina Marrs’ sweet “Be Like You,” featuring Marrs on ukulele and toy piano, opens the album. Male lead vocalist Wammo’s “You Only Love Me For My Lunchbox,” on which he also plays harmonica, has his usual creative lyrics: “Now all the other kids are standin’ in line / ’Cause they ain’t never seen a lunchbox so fine / And everything inside it tastes so divine.” True to the Spankers’ genre-exploring fearlessness (they can go from 1800s old-timey to jazz ballad in a matter of songs or seconds), the title song, also written by Wammo, is a rapid-fire punk-rock tromp on which he plays bass, guitar and an aluminum can. Love Marrs’ musical saw on her “Don’t Turn Out the Light” and on Harry Nilsson’s “Think About Your Troubles.” Asylum Street Spankers’ also cover Nirvana’s “Sliver” and Doris Day’s wonderful ditty, “Everybody Loves My Baby.”