I am giddy with excitement. My first issue of Miniature Donkey Talk magazine arrived today. I am afraid this will only further fuel my obsession with these adorable diminutive creatures, but what the hell. Life is too short to live it without miniature donkeys; don't you agree? I need to check into the NYC laws re farm animals; how cool would it be to take my miniature donkey out for a walk down 2nd avenue? Or have her tied up outside a cafe while I sip coffee and munch on a bagel.

Speaking of animals, we had a great time playing the Pattenburg House last week with our buddies Joe Cassady & The West End Sound, Mike, Melissa, Nicole and the rest of the crew. Too much fun. Well maybe not too much, but just enough.

Got tickets to see Mr. Dylan in November at United Palace Theater. I am ashamed to say I have never see him live. It's time.

Our great friend Daniel was visiting this week from Sweden. Always great to hang with him at the Rodeo Bar & Lakeside Lounge. He and Mo are going to see Bruuuuuce tonite at Giants stadium. Should be rockin'....

-eric

SOMEBODY WRITE SOMETHING DAMNIT!

Over the last few weeks every time the band finds ourselves all together, Eric says "hey ya know someone should really blog something...." We all agree, nod vigorously, and convince ourselves people care to read about what Spanking Charlene is up to. and then none of us do it.... Like songwriting, someone (I am still not sure who - Mo or Eric) made a rule that we should have a new song every time we play at the Lakeside Lounge. Sort of a challenge/writing exercise if you will. I know everyone works differently, I've taken the classes I get it but I can't really write until something comes to me and I know ALOT of people see that as lazy but when I force myself the songs that come out are not so great. Mo is prolific, always writing something, always has a melody or a riff or something he is working on, the kind of thing he gets up in the middle of the night, locks himself in the bathroom and records. Me not so much, its a work in progress. But I'm with Neil Young, when your muse is available do whatever you can to chase it and keep it, even it means disregarding plans and friends/family. Its important. So this past weekend when I felt I was being chastized and forced to sit in the "writing" chair with my pen and paper, I lashed out at the "man" whoever thought of this dumb ass rule of a new song every month, I roared and my band excused me. ( for this month) and now the "someone should really blog" YES - someone should and here I am.

What have we been up to? Well on Friday, May 29th we went to the Bowery Ballroom to see one of our favorite bands.. X. If you don't know who X is, please find out....

http://www.xtheband.com/

We love X, we've all seen them numerous times and always have a great time at their shows. This year it seemed the crowd was a little older ( as X is a little older) but it was great to see really young kids in X t shirts moshing away in the front. They had some sort of contest where the fans could vote for the set list so they did a couple songs I had never heard them do live before. Such as "Johnny Hit and Run Pauline" a song that if it accidentally comes on in my IPod shuffle I scream, its the kind of song that makes you want to hide under your bed, its a GREAT song but an anxiety inducing one. The band was great, the openers were okay ( not easy to open for a band like X I imagine ) but I couldn't help noticing that Exine didn't look so good, just not herself, though she sang her ass off and sounded better than I have ever heard her. But we were all surprised when this statement was released a few days later...

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2009/06/02/xs-exene-cervenka-reveals-she-has-multiple-sclerosis/

What a blow to such an incredible woman. Our heart goes out to her.

Saturday May 30th we went to the Lakeside, also a place that if for Gods sake you haven't been - get there. Every person who I have ever taken to the Lakeside falls in love with it. If you want hipsters and what the hell else ever walk over to 11th Street and go to that Pete Wentz Bar Angels and Demons or is it Angels and Guys who wear eyeliner... whatever. The Lakeside has become home to so many people I know, it's comfortable, like your favorite pair of jeans and I have never in the many years I have been going there have I seen a crappy band play there and they have music every night and its free, so the odds of there being atleast one crappy band would be high right? nope no such thing.. http://www.lakesidelounge.com/

But I digress, we went to see Chip Robinson and the Roscoe Trio. (ooh and Doggie on the drums filling in for Phil Cimino) If you know me then I have sure told you how much I love Chip Robinsons new record Mylow, I have a new favorite song from it every other week and continually hear things that I didn't hear the first 100 times I listened to it. www.myspace.com/mylowthealbum Eric "Roscoe" Ambel http://www.ericambel.com/ our good friend, producer, fixer of all things broken, cycling monster and supremo make your socks fall off musician played his baby blue guitar ( a guitar I thought was white because I have never seen it in the light and he being the sweet person he is, never once corrected me when I continually referred to it as the white guitar) and even with a fill in drummer, the band was amazing. There is something about seeing a great band that makes you want to be a better band. When Roscoe is blasting away and Chip is stomping all over the stage, its clear to everyone there that they are lost in the music and when you are witness to that you just go right along with them and get plenty lost yourself. And that my friends is a GREAT SHOW. I also should mention that our very own Alison Jones plays with the Roscoe Trio and held it down with the monster bass quite nicely. I don't ever really get to see Alison play, since she is standing next to me on stage and I'm not looking right at her so its fun to see her onstage holding her own.

So whats next on the horizon for Spanking Charlene while we wait patiently from orders and instructions from Wicked Cool Records.. The Lakeside Lounge of course. We will be playing there on Saturday, June 13th at 10:00pm. This is an extra special show for me of huge proportions for one reason and one reason only. There will be a McPherson in attendance. Yes, my older brother Shannon is flying in to NYC for 2 days to see his little sister. YES, there are 2 of us, yes it is scary. If you see him, say hi... He'll be the 6'4' red headed guy with the tattooed arms. ( i believe they call them SLEEVES?) Girls - HE IS SINGLE but be gentle because while he may look like a heavy metal biker bouncer guy, he's actually a pretty laid back, quiet guy. I'm super excited for him to be there and I could tell you tons of stories about how the music I heard coming from his bedroom, influenced my life in a bajillion ways... Please come by and meet him, he's that important :)

See you at the Lakeside Lounge on Saturday, June 13th at 10PM.

HOW'S THAT FOR A DAMN BLOG!!

xo C

Whoops...

I should have included the link to Bill's book...

Go out and buy it!

http://www.billgerman.com/

So this is my very first post! Over the last few years people at our shows are always asking about the mailing list, facebook, my space and BLOGS... I was always really unsure if I wanted to do a blog, I mean I bore myself with my own life on a very regular basis so why in the world would I want to subject anyone else to that? :) Plus I think alot of blogs are used as platforms to publicly complain and while I LOVE to complain I will try to keep this blog free of that. But recently we found ourselves in that lovely downtime when you are on the road playing a gig, you know the hotel room time between like 1pm and your call time for your gig that night? We all do different things during that time. Mo can usually be found running somewhere outside on a trail on a highway, whatever.. Eric is usually doing some computer related thingy.. Alison will be sleeping and I will be berating myself for being an insomniac & watching some terrible movie on whatever cable station the hotel has. So in Raleigh, North Carolina Eric had an idea and set up this blog... so here we are! In any case, I think it will be a great way to remember everything we have done so in 10 yrs we can recall it.

Last night after our rehearsal,  we headed over to the Lakeside Lounge to hear our dear friend Bill German give a reading from his book "Under their Thumb" the place was filled with really hardcore Rolling Stones Fans and I would dare to say the demographic was slightly older than what I am used to seeing at our favorite bar. But it was fun, we had a great time and Bill was funny and as charming as usual. We have known Bill for about 20 years, Mo longer than anyone and its a truly wonderful thing to watch someone fulfill their dream. Bill had been working on this book for a very long time, barely leaving his apt, starving, the whole thing... when we found him in the New York Times book review we ALL cried. We are so proud of him and watching him do his thing is inspiring and gives hope to anyone who thinks they will never get what they really, really want. You just have to keep on truckin I guess and it will happen. So anyway, thats Bill in the photo along with Mo, me with the obligatory glass of red wine and Eric who finally broke down and had a beer after abstaining for quite awhile after an ugly incident with a bottle of tequilla.

xo C

pix

As great as it was for Spanking Charlene to tear the roof off Slim's on Friday night or melt the parking lot at Sadlacks on Saturday afternoon, and possibly even better than the Yayhoos dishing out 2 hours of pure unadulterated asskicking at Slims on Saturday night, Eric's personal trip highlight was to finally get a pulled pork bbq sandwich at Smithfields on the way out of town on Sunday morning.
de-freakin-licious.

If this pig is wearing overalls, we must be in North Carolina

...and damn was he tasty