Posted by Paul Devlin:
Team Austin performs one of their many group pieces in this outtake from SlamNation.
Tag Archives: Wammo
BLAST! – Wammo – “Give It Hell”
Posted by Paul Devlin:
Wammo is the multi-talented front man for one of America’s most distinctive bands, The Asylum Street Spankers.
Wammo was also featured in our film SlamNation. He visits often when he’s in New York City and offered to write a theme song for the movie, BLAST! while it was still in post-production. The result is this charming, exclusive performance edited by Rina Svet in her early days with DevlinPix.
SlamNation: Team Austin – “Tube”
Posted by Paul Devlin:
“Group Pieces” are a truly unique art form that has emerged from the National Poetry Slam competition. The concept of a team of poets created by the competition naturally led to interest in collaboration. Some of the most innovative performing art I have ever seen on stage has been Group Pieces at National Slams, with poets using their voices and movement to create a masterful mix of vocal music and rhythm. Multi-dimensional poetry.
But a slam team is a fragile, ephemeral phenomenon, and a Group Piece exists as performance for a very short time. It is near-impossible to re-create after poets go their separate ways. As Taylor Mali points out, if a Group Piece is not recorded that season, it is usually lost forever.
Thankfully, this classic Group Piece from Team Austin was recorded for SlamNation. Wammo, Danny Solis, Phil West and Hilary Thomas were masters of the Group Piece that year. They were favorites to win, but as can be seen in the movie, the competition played out differently…
Slam Poem: Wammo – “Too Much Light In This Bar”
Posted by Wammo:
Performing in the National Slam is like eating pumpkin pie for breakfast – as soon as it’s over, you wish you had done something else.
I’ve been singing in bands for over 30 years and I’ve toured all over the world, so believe me when I tell you that the only person more pretentious and self centered than a lead singer, is a slam poet. A slam poet is a lead singer without the vocal chops. Oh sure, they can put a few words together and maybe they can sing a little but they certainly don’t have the social skills to keep a band together, much less build a national following. They have to throw a big convention where they can gather with losers like themselves, drink, screw, steal each other’s ideas and con thousands of people into actually paying to hear their pathetic, pedantic ramblings. All this under the guise of art. Of course, after they lose, they get wasted and go skinny dipping but enough about me.
Let me close by telling you that I’ve known Paul Devlin for fifteen years and I truly consider him to be someone I’ve known for more than a decade. There is one thing of which I’m sure, all of his films are lies.
He edited SlamNation to make it look like my team lost. He’ll probably edit this piece as well. If Paul Devlin’s name appears anywhere in this sentence, you can be sure Paul Devlin put it there for Paul Devlin’s own evil purpose.
Check out Wammo’s last poem “Doing Time On Isle 13!”
Slam Poem: Wammo – “Doing Time On Isle 13”
Posted by Wammo:
When Paul Devlin told me he was going to post a video of one of my 1996 National Poetry Slam performances and asked me if I’d like to blog about it, I thought to myself, “The nerve of this guy, who the hell does he think he is? Drudging up publicity for me and trying to get people interested in my work. Why I oughta… Next thing you know, he’ll be posting a link to my website, where intelligent and insightful people go to buy art. Where does he get off?” We all know that Paul Devlin is an anagram for Plan U Devil, so it figures he’s up to something devious.
Besides, how the hell am I supposed to remember some poem I performed in 1996? Do you know how much I’ve had to drink since then? I sure as hell don’t and I was there…
For more from Wammo stay tuned for his next poem: Too Much Light In This Bar!
Happy New Year everyone!