Media Reviews The Charms: Easy Trouble “I think a lot of the best music is always going to be made by the people who can’t afford to fuck it up.” - Brett Milano, Music Journalist, in Easy Trouble: The Charms Ain’t that the truth. In the age of big booming business, record companies pour money into bands who have already established themselves, hoping to earn a high return on their investment. They spend thousands on famous producers, costly equipment, and great mixers. They hire a promotional team to do nothing but promote a band – get them on late night TV shows, in magazine spots, and ensure rotating radio airplay. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on ridiculously expensive tours, complete with pricey lighting, sound, and paraphernalia. They make sure that their band plays at the most prestigious location in each city, just in case nobody else has noticed just how wonderful their band must be. Oh, and then there is that contract. The elusive recording contract. This can stretch into the millions as well, and guarantees an artist an album, or two, or five. Sounds like a lot of money to invest in the performance of one band, doesn’t it? It’s not an entirely stupid deal. A band or artist does not receive this contract until after their album has been released on a major label and has earned glowing reviews and sales. Then the label’s promotional team steps in, and the band is all over the place. You can’t walk in a record store without seeing a poster outlining their soon-to-be-released album, or single, or whatever. Because of the advertising, people take notice of them, and decidedly pick up the CD, and later go to their concert, and the world continues to turn on and on. But what happens after the band has earned the contract and is resting on the laurels of success? Uh-oh. In most cases, the band doesn’t work as hard. They’ve already achieved what they were after. Money. Fame. Success. And thus, sucky music ensues - as the contract is still in force - and we listeners are stuck listening to Brittney Spears hit us one more time. The record company almost always retains creative control over whether or not an album is released. Since most major labels prefer conservative bets (they tend to lose less money that way), they stick with formulaic songwriting, rather than doing anything – ironically- that could truly be considered creative; if it worked once, it will work again, and again, and hopefully again and again. After all, they have to protect that return on investment, right? It’s a terrible cycle, and one that will hopefully eventually be broken. Let me get to the point of this review. The Charms don’t earn easy money; not just yet. The members are working, and they are working damn hard. Thus, they are creating things that are, well, good. Creative things. Things that make people excited about hearing their music and attending their shows. The Charms want to be known; they want to be a household name - a band that people sit and talk about for years to come. They know these things don’t really come easy. Easy Trouble documents The Charms’ successes and their hardships, their gains and their losses. It tells the story of how they began in Boston in 1999 and how far they have come since then. Ellie Vee (the band’s lead singer) and Joe Wizda (guitarist) represent the rest of the band in telling their story. Steev Riccardo (the band’s manager) and Brett Milano (music journalist) provide their support as well. While not the most electrifying of documentaries to watch (it is slightly long-winded at 90 minutes), it provides superior insight into how independent bands actually function, and the amount of work that goes into sustaining them. The Charms have been blessed with a smart manager: Steev Riccardo knows how to promote a band. Fifteen minutes into the movie, he tells of his philosophy on making (or breaking) a band: “If you’re an independent band, you’ve got to have a new album every year; you’ve got to tour every year. It’s a roller coaster ride, but you have to stick with it.” Independent bands don’t have the monetary basis to rely on a record label doing album promotion for them: album promotion is done almost entirely by word of mouth and hard work. They won’t get anywhere sitting in a garage thinking of what they might do – they have to actually do it, and be on top of their particular music scene at all times. That means always doing the right things, touring in smaller cities that bigger bands might not bother going to, and constantly putting out something new so that word of mouth never stops talking. The Charms have excelled at all of these things: they have an exceptionally well-designed web page, they’ve put together several marvelous music videos, they have friends in all of the right places (Kim Fowley, Little Steven, Gene Simmons) – in short, they are poised to make a jump into the horizon. Did I mention that they have a plan? Not the sort of plan to just play music forever and ever and hope that something comes along - but a plan to build on their particular style – a style of harder-edged pop-punk. For their last album, Pussycat, The Charms hired two different mixers to smooth over the final cuts. One was Toshi, who has mixed for The Strokes and They Might Be Giants. The other was Bill Motoya, whose previous clients include W.A.S.P. and Slayer. This is an odd combination, but it makes beautiful sense for The Charms – this is the type of music they are hoping to craft. The band’s members (principally Ellie Vee) have that particular charisma that is imperative for all bands, but predominantly punk ones. Ellie knows how to enthuse her crowd. She holds a tambourine in one hand and sings into a microphone, gyrating the entire time. Her bleach-blond hair and colorful dress style stands out. When the band plays together they radiate a positive energy that would make any crowd member excited to be a part of the show. With continuing hard work, The Charms can soon expect to be a household name.

Really cool documentary about an up and coming band. I like how they talk about both the good and the bad and not try and polish it up. The live footage and music throughout is all really good too.