As Iman noticed when he wrote about them, we are late on Spanking Charlene, but they are a East Coast band and I live on the West Coast, so it’s not entirely my fault. But joking apart, they are a true rock’ n’ roll band, just judging by the listening of their already-one-year-old album ‘Where Are the Freaks?’ To be honest, frontgirl Charlene McPherson seems to be the kind of tough girl not to mess with, her powerhouse vocals are all about strong (and borderline dirty) attitude and the music is all about hard rock, gritty guitar riffs and bluesy roots in the veins of the greatest rock tradition. When just listening to the first song 'Secrets', Charlene’s growls jumps to your eardrums, sounding like a mix between Blondie’s Debbie Harry, and mean girls Joan Jett and Pat Benatar. But there seems to be many nuances in the vocals as Charlene could pass for a classic blues-country-rock star entertaining a roomful of tough cowboys, or for the frontgirl of the punk-rock-band-of-the-moment. She is regularly throwing vitriolic, honest or plain kinky titled-songs to your face, such as ‘You Suck’, ‘Stupid me’ or ‘Tie me up’, and nobody is gonna complain.
‘You Suck’ is a good example of the album’s colorful tone with plenty of guitars overriding each other, Charlene’s vocals always dominating the game and shouting a real anger with more guitar solo backing her up. ‘Stupid Me’ is bluesy-er with a catchy power-chorus that gives Charlene the occasion to push her voice even more,.. the kind of song that you will get stuck in your head very fast without, honestly, being able to sing along properly. ‘My Girl’ follows the same vein without repeating the same hook, and the title track, ‘Where are the Freaks?’ has a darker bar ambiance with a mean harmonica and plenty of hard guitar riffs.
Most of the songs venture into classic 70s rock territory, but are never willing to soften up, keeping a borderline punk rock attitude thanks to guitarist Mo Goldner… Charlene is after you or at least after someone, all track long, like a vicious and sexy animal and she is not giving up.
The band, which also includes bassist Alison Jones and drummer Phil Cimino beside McPherson and Goldner, knew how to surround itself by big names: Eric 'Roscoe' Ambel, former Steve Earle and Joan Jett guitarist, produced the album, and E Street Band’s Steven Van Zandt, who loves the band so much he even played keyboards on the record, produced the two last tracks of the album: ‘Dismissed With A Kiss’, a powerful and destructive tune which could well be one of the hits of the album, and ‘Canarsie’, a devilish country-charged rocking number that could have its place among any classics of the genre.
‘Where Are the Freaks?’ is a fun and energizing album to listen to, and the band didn’t even find a moment to slow down as it is often the case for such incendiary and explosive stuff. But if you want to have your raw-real moment of good old rock’ n’ roll, just blast this from your home,… open your window and your neighbors will thank you.