Famed musician and Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page once said, “I always believed in the music we did and that’s why it was uncompromising.” Though Page expressed this sentiment in the middle of the 20th century, a suburban teenage band from Morristown, NJ has really adapted to its message.

Founded three years ago, Charlie and the Vanilla Faces (CVF) is the baby of lead guitarist and vocalist Chris Billak and drummer Ryan Nally. The unusually-named band, which derives its name from a former Vietnamese guitarist and band member, combined with one of Sacha Baron Cohen’s obscure quotes about Caucasians in the film Borat, provides the band with a unique title, but more importantly: a distinctive style.

The band, which also features high school students P.J. Brutzman on guitar, Ben Rhodes on bass and vocals, and Meghann Carr on lead vocals, is a kind of renaissance throw-back to the 1960s, 70s, and other classical rock eras. Said Brutzman, “we really dig classic rock. [Led] Zeppelin, the Allman Brothers Band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, we all really listen to anything that is real rock and roll.”

But what really sets this band apart from other aspiring teenage bands is their foundation. Classic rock bands like Fleetwood Mac, Jefferson Airplane, and the Mamas and Papas featured female vocalists and performed more upbeat and rhythmically steady beats, but CVF really tries to stick to a Led Zeppelin-like frame and incorporate Carr’s angelic voice into their mean guitar riffs and true rock and roll mold.

To say Carr’s voice is anything less than spectacular is an understatement; her sweet, meandering tone is the perfect complement to the weight of the band’s music. In such a busy sound atmosphere, her voice really guides the band’s path to respectability.

But what the band really lacks is its own, true identity. Yes, their sound is strangely reminiscent of Zeppelin; however, different songs clearly reflect their different influences. For example, “Soul on the Fritz” strongly resembles the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ style, as each of the band members separately takes a different verse and recites it to the beat of the song, rather than sings or harmonizes it. The lyrics are perfectly written as to allow for short lines to complete the stop-and-go style that the band offers: “Stop, drop, rock and roll / He’s got a gun in his right do I lose control / Do I save the girl, do I save the day / Do I play it safe, do I runaway.”

While the band may still need to find its identity, many of the lyrics included in the songs are very well written and clearly catalogue events in their lives. Historically, classic rock bands write about personal history and feelings and incorporate those events into their music, and CVF seems to be keeping in line with this pattern.

(Pictured at left: Billak and Carr)

For example, the song “In my Head” allows for Billak and Carr to sing about potential relationships and failed crushes, an epidemic that frequents teenagers hearts: “Every time when it happens now and then / I stick my neck out and wind up hanging my head / Just a waste of time cause I’ve seen it all before / I close my eyes too tight and wind up on the floor / I close my eyes too tight and wind up wanting more.”

The song “Calypso” also reflects their desires for music and love as teenagers: “You left me here all alone / I could make this place my home / Give me a guitar and some time / Ease your lips relax your mind.” Aside from the music, though, the members of CVF are real, genuine people with actual lives. Amazingly, we as listeners forget about their daily regimen of high school lives when listening to their music, but college applications, lacrosse, track, cross-country, baseball, soccer, and musical theatre are just a handful of the other activities in which the members are involved.

Needless to say, though, music is undoubtedly the unifier in their otherwise busy lives. The group practices at least three times a week in Billak’s basement, and though they attend different schools in Morristown, their lives are seemingly intertwined. Billak and Carr, for example, met through a church music audition, and Brutzman and Rhodes were introduced to the band through a mutual friend of Billak.

(Pictured at right: Nally, on drums)

Even as their success has begun to spread, as they first appeared in a talent show called “Morristown’s Got Talent!” and have been booked for various shows across NJ, the band clearly has perspective on their music and their lives. According to Nally, “Each of us wants to grow up and become a musician, a rock star. But we’re also not stupid. We want to go to college, earn our degrees, and see where life takes us.”

As a thoughtful listener, though, I feel that their musical careers are just taking off. To listen to Charlie and the Vanilla Faces, please visit their MySpace page.