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Related Links

The Charms' official Web site

Brett Milano reviews The Charm's Charmed, I’m Sure .

Brett Milano reviews The Charm's So Pretty

Charlie Chesterman's official Web site

Fowley signed on to produce the Charms’ next record and proceeded to feed them ideas for songs. And his sense of rock theatricality struck a chord with Vee in particular. "I’m in love with Kim Fowley," she notes. "You can hear his influence, because he’d give me songwriting assignments. He said that we should write songs that made you want to rip your clothes off. He said I should write a female answer to ‘Witch’ by the Sonics, so ‘Doll Dreamer’ is my version of that. And he said, ‘Ellie Vee should get on stage and say she’s the queen of rock!’ So I wrote ‘Rock & Roll Magazine,’ where I say that." At this, Wizda gives her a look across the table: "I thought that song was about masturbation." Responds Vee, "No, I think songs come from the subconscious. But that one . . . okay, maybe it is about that."

So things were looking good as both Fowley and Little Steven were set to work on the next Charms album. And then — well, then they weren’t. Exactly what happened remains a mystery, but the Charms wound up working with local producer Richard Marr. "Famous people are weird," Vee sighs in lieu of explanation. "We’d rather leave it a little mysterious for now. We got a lot of good feedback from them both, and then some other shit went down. And we like the idea of putting out a release every year, so we decided to go ahead with it."

The lack of a star producer doesn’t hurt. With the metal sound of last year’s So Pretty toned down, Pussycat is the most raucous and garagy of their three releases. "Life in Movies" is both their catchiest and their most romantic song, but the outright sexuality in "Gimme That Shot" is more in keeping with their persona. "You know what it is?" Vee asks. "I’m really reserved in my everyday life. The two places where I let it go are sex and being on stage. That’s where I get my high." The band also love the road — which is fortunate, since they’ve spent most of the past two years there. "We even like sharing hotel rooms," Wizda says. "Hell, we can have fun in a convenience store. You just have to know all the pitfalls. Like when you find coffee in one of those stores and it says ‘French roast,’ that really means it tastes like French toast."

CHARLIE CHESTERMAN is apt to get taken for granted, since he’s been doing the same thing well for a couple of decades. As the frontman for Scruffy the Cat, he was playing alternative country when it was still "cowpunk." He’s refined that sound with his current band Chaz & the Motorbikes, releasing well-crafted rootsy albums that are sometimes a bit low-key.

Maybe that’s why he’s cranked things up this time, releasing his fifth and sixth post-Scruffy discs at once (both on his own Tin Whistle label). Skunk on the Loose is to these ears the best of his studio albums, two parts country to one part rock, balancing juiced-up playing with all-pro songwriting. (The leadoff "Hide Your Love" would make an ideal single for any number of Nashville stars, who probably wouldn’t rock it as hard as this band do.) Well, My Heart Went Boom! is a live set from two radio broadcasts that’s a de facto greatest-hits disc (including one Scruffy song, "Kissing Galaxy"). Put them together and it seems that Chesterman’s out to get rediscovered.

"Glad you think it sounds that way," he acknowledges. "Like I’m raising my hand in the back of the classroom and saying, ‘Here I am.’ But really, what’s been happening with me is . . . uh, nothing. The Skunk album was supposed to come out in 2001. So now that it’s out, I’m both really elated and so over it that I don’t care." In fact, he went through a rock-and-roll midlife crisis around the time the disc was wrapped up. "Everyone in the band became a father, that was one thing. The other was that I kind of flipped out, had a few fits of anxiety, and I wound up firing my drummer. That’s a really good way to kill a band’s momentum."

All the same, Skunk on the Loose sounds the most up-to-date of Chesterman’s albums, putting him right in line with rootsy rockers like Jake Brennan and Robbie Fulks. (He opens for the latter at T.T.’s on June 2.) It’s a good payoff, since Chesterman was ahead of his time in the ’80s. No other rock bands in town were using banjos or steel guitar when Scruffy were around. "Yeah, and now that everybody is, I’m sticking with two guitars, bass, and drums. There’s some things I always have on every album — I love rock-and-roll instrumentals, so I usually put one on. There’s always one that’s my Aerosmith-type rock song and one that’s maybe a little more personal to me. And there’s always songs where I throw references to rock history in — like on this one where I say, ‘I got my Del Shannon and my Freddie Boom-Boom Cannon.’ But sometimes the references are so obscure that nobody gets them but me."

With their original drummer reinstated, the Motorbikes have three in-town dates set for June, the T.T.’s date plus the Paradise on the 23rd and the Kirkland the 25th. And to continue making up for lost time, Chesterman swears he’ll have another new album out before his birthday next February.

The Charms play their CD-release party this Friday, May 20, at T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline Street in Central Square; call (617) 492-BEAR. Chaz & the Motorbikes play T.T.’s on June 2.

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Issue Date: May 20 - 26, 2005
Click here for the Cellars by Starlight archive
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