If one gauges the success of a rock and roll band sheerly on chart positioning, round-the-clock radio and television rotation and riding on the coattails of each passing fade, you probably might consider the Fleshtones a failure.
The Fleshtones
If, however, you espouse to the belief that originality, longevity, global exposure, perfection of a tried-and-true formula is the hallmarks of bona fide rock icon, than the Fleshtones are rock royalty.
For the past 34 years, the boys from the boroughs of NYC have scratched their heads on the ceiling of critical acclaim only to blow the roof off of the alternative rock world with unadulterated, raw, gritty and danceable and at times hypnotic original American rock music.
The band at its peak, produced cult followings with such albums as: Roman Gods (1982), Hexbreaker, 1983) and a pair of live recordings, Speed Connection I and II in 1985, during the heyday of the seminal alternative rock/new wave movement.
Frontman Peter Zaremba, guitarist Keith Strang, drummer Bill Milhizer (since 1980) and bass player Ken Fox (since 1987) have traveled many night club, rock hall, bowling alley and restaurant miles since The Fleshtones humble beginnings back in 1976. Other members preceding Milhizer and Fox included: other founding member bassist Jan Marek-Pakulski; drummer Lenny Calderon (the late) alto sax player Gordon Spaeth, tenor sax player, Brian Spaeth.
The Fleshtones
Zaremba, now 55, brings his well-traveled group through Ohio, to play at the Beachland Tavern this Friday as a part of one of many strategic weekend mini tours, and he is pumped.
“We don’t really tour so much as we do strategic strikes; we are more like commandos.” explains the always congenial Zaremba. “We don’t load up the van across the country for eight weeks. In fact that is the key. You want to break up a band that will do it. You do that once or twice when you are starting off.
“The key is be strategic, don’t play those Monday and Tuesday nights, you don’t need that toughening up. We go out on weekends. It’ll be fresh for us; we won’t be those bedraggled guys. It’ll be great for us.”
Part of that tour fresh paradigm on touring will include cross ocean jaunts has already recently included junkets to France, The Netherlands, Hamburg, Belgium and Spain.
Zaremba, who also is a contributing writer for the New York Daily News and recently had Busy Blog on his recent foreign travels, says the dichotomy of musical taste here and abroad is really quite simple to understand.
“It’s always kind of been this way,” he prefaces. “In Europe, they love rock n roll, but it is a foreign imported cultural item and as such they dig below the surface a bit more, and they tend to get loyal with it, and they tend to stick with it: jazz musicians, cinema, everything.
“America is great cuz we churn this stuff out we creator the engine of all this. I don’t resent that, I love being part of it”
Another thing he and The ‘Tones enjoyed being a part of was alternative music explosion that was the late 70s and early 80s, and Zaremba.
“We are proud to have been part of a movement, that I think helped save rock n roll,” notes Zaremba. “Even the junk you hear on the radio has been affected by what (alternative music) did. It helped give form to what is alternative music with the TV show, The Cutting Edge. That really helped give all that thing form. It is really has diverse threads of music.”
Their music has been self-categorized, half-kidding and half-serious as super rock. This as a means of really not classifying the band’s sound which is a big ball of energy that harnesses 60’s psychedelic, rock inspired guitar, drums and harmonica.
And throughout the course of that hard scrabble existence the Fleshtones inspired many other more successful bands who are driving fancy cars and making it big but don’t be fooled, the garage from which those newer bands have emerged from is the domain of the Fleshtones.
“The Fleshtones constructed the highway that other bands traveled comfortable now, and we don’t mind that,” he says unabashedly.
As for his own influences, nothing more local or immediate created the door opening for bands like The Fleshtones than one other great NYC band according to Zaremba.
“The Ramones changed my life,” he says without hesitation. “They changed my life from the sense that I already knew the music I wanted to hear, but I wasn’t hearing it. I wanted to be in a band, I tried to for years, sniffed around the edge. The made everything come in crystal quality.
“It was like getting the instructions for a difficult model you try to build, and then you find the instructions and the instructions say, ‘snap A and B together and you are finished, all the other parts don’t matter.”
But like The Ramones, long-term fame eluded The Fleshtones.
The band cut its performing teeth at CBGBS, Max’s Kansas City and Irving Plaza, The Danceteria and the 9:30 Club in D.C. It shared practice space with the famed pyschobilly band the Cramps. The Tones got their first break from rock producer Marty Thau on his Red Star label which produced the band’s first single “American Beat” in 1979.By 1980, the band really found its niche as it was signed to Miles Copeland’s IRS Records, and performed in the cult classic alt music concert documentary Urgh! A Music War” which showcased many alternative acts.
The lineup was a virtual who’s who of rising star offbeat performers, including: Magazine, The Go-Go’s, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, XTC, Devo, The Cramps, Oingo Boingo, Dead Kennedys, Gary Numan, Klaus Nomi, Wall of Voodoo, Pere Ubu, Steel Pulse, Surf Punks, 999, UB40, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Police, and of course, the Fleshtones.
Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones by Joe Bonomo 2007 tells of the hustling existence the band went through in order to find a new label once IRS dumped them. The band became the step-child to the more pop success of REM, The Go-Gos, The Alarm and many other IRS bands.
It was not for trying though, that Zaremba’s band found itself knocking on doors for new indie label deals. Besides producing four IRs albums, Zaremba hosted the ground-breaking I.R.S. Records Presents The Cutting Edge on MTV from 1984 to 1987. The late night show featured up and coming underground acts for the three years. What grew out of that program was a revived version of the show as 120 Minutes.
The Fleshtones did whatever it took to maintain a part of the collective consciousness of American music scene. Zaremba hosted with his MC talents the NYC “Cave Stomp” Rock Festivals.
In the late 80s, The Fleshtones were without major-label support, though they continued to tour America and Europe steadily, including shows opening for Chuck Berry and James Brown. In 1987, The Fleshtones made an appearance on the final episode of Andy Warhol’s Andy Warhol’s Fifteen Minutes, an MTV program, during which they backed up famed English stage actor Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings’ Gandalf) as he recited William Shakespeare’s Twentieth Sonnet. The band recorded the title track to the 1987 camp-horror film I Was a Teenage Zombie that same year. They released Fleshtones vs. Reality (studio) in 1987 and Soul Madrid (live) in 1989. I.R.S. Records released a best-of compilation, Living Legends, in 1989.
The Fleshtones signed with Ichiban Records in 1992, and recorded Powerstance (1992), Beautiful Light (1994), Laboratory of Sound (1995), and More Than Skin Deep (1998). Over the next 10 years, The Fleshtones would also work with producers Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Steve Albini, Rick Miller (Southern Culture on the Skids) and Ivan Julian (The Voidoids) among others.
Take A Good Look Album
In 2003, The Fleshtones signed with Yep Roc Records, which has released Do You Swing? (2003), Beachhead (2005), Take A Good Look (2008), and Stocking Stuffer (2008). In 2010 the Australian label Raven released a CD compilation of the Fleshtones’ I.R.S. Records material entitled It’s “Super-Rock” Time!: The IRS Years 1980-85 which is a compilation of the band’s best early recordings.
Zaremba is not delusional, admitting to wishing he could make more money, but for him the trappings of stardom pale in comparison to the adulation factor.
“That is one reason we are still around, we didn’t look for that. That didn’t deter us.
“I’d love to make more money, but being in The Fleshtones is the greatest thing in the world, and the second best thing is going to see The Fleshtones. Enough people come up to me and tell me that. Not just fans, but people in other bands. So those are reason to be in a band, and it’s totally rewarding. It is rewarding to give people that kind of experience.”
The seven-year relationship with Yep Records has stirred the creative juices for more recordings in the near future, as Peter is talking with Glen Dicker (Yep Rock Records and Red Eye Distribution) to formulate a new album by the end of the summer.
As far as summers past and memories, Zaremba, a Beatles, Kinks, Yardbirds fan from way back, recalls fondly one France tour stop and a more recent one last month.
“Our first show in Paris where we felt like The Beatles, people were waiting outside of the theater, a mob follows us onto the street, the police trying to stop us, people were singing on top of cars, and we were playing acoustically in the streets of Paris.
“At a recent show at the 9:30 club in (DC) Don Dixon was there, guys from Fugazi, guys, Henry Rollins was there. I think without that support a lot of bands would be in a lot of trouble.”
Zaremba says that support and the exposure and of satellite radio for the underground scene he helped put on the map is more than valuable.
“The network that’s built up with a live venues (that makes it possible for a lot of bands to travel and play across the country) along with like Little Stephen (Garage Rock Satellite Radio) make it more crucial otherwise it would wither away. That’s super crucial.
But being on stage is where Zaremba is truly in his element.
“Being on stage is a blast, it’s never a chore; seeing people react so wonderfully and having them come up to me and say it changed their lives or they felt horrible and now they feel better – those things make it fun.
“The purpose of rock n roll has always been to liberate people. We set you free, we make you feel refreshed.”
Yes, refreshing liberation from a garage band that rode the punk pony through stormy weather and has come out on the other side still saying, let’s see the sun.
Excellent article! So glad I didnt miss the show! One of the most incredible bands ever seen live! Giselle