The Fleshtones will be at the Brighton Bar
in Long Branch NJ this Saturday, December
13, with the Brimstones.
By Phil Rainone
The Fleshtones started playing their brand
of fuzzed-out, reveberatin,’refrigarator
shakin,’ earthquakin’ garage rock
back in1976. In a conversation with one of
the founding members, lead singer Pete Zaremba,
we talked about the band's longevity, the
band's most recent projects, Little Stephen’s
Underground Garage, and where rock ’n’
roll may have come from.
Q: Let me about you about the amazing longevity
of The Fleshtones. The band started out in
the 70’s?
Pete: Most definitely we started out in the
70’s! Our first date, as far as I can
remember was May 16 or 17, 1976 at CBGB’s.
We played parties before that. The longevity
I attribute to a healthy diet, and having
lots of fun on stage!
Q: I can see what you mean about having fun,
I was just playing your “Beach Head”
album and I could tell that you guys must
have had a lot of fun recording it.
Pete: After “Beach Head” (2005)
we released “Take a Good Look”
[in 2008] which we’re really pleased
with. Actually, most people have said it’s
our best record ever!
Q:
So the band started out around the time of
the Cramps and the Ramones?
Pete: The Ramones were a huge influence and
inspiration for us. Yes, we definitely started
out with the Cramps. We had been playing around
,and were trying to put together a group since
the early 70’s, basically from The Stooges
time. We really didn’t have a clear
idea of how to do it, and very little encouragement,
but once we saw the Ramones we realized that
we really just had to get the band together.
Q: Do you think garage rock goes in and out
of style, or is it a permanent part of rock
’n’ roll?
Pete: It goes in and out of style. About
four or five times in our history, but it
is a permanent part of rock ’n’
roll. Whenever some people get together and
start to play - whether they haven’t
got great equipment, or very much talent,
or chops, but with a lot of spirit, there’ll
always be garage rock!
Q: How does the recording process back when
you started differ from today?
Pete: The recording process in the 70’s
was a little more difficult, in the sense
that they had gotten all this new equipment,
as opposed to the 60’s, and most engineers
and producers at that point had absolutely
no idea of what they were doing. The difference
between now and the 80’s is, they had
a lot of equipment that they were misusing,
ands spending lots more money on. We would
spend ten times easily - ten times more money
on putting out a record in the 80’s
than we spend now. We’re really happy
now, with the way we put out records. We don’t
waste too much time, we work with people like
Jim Diamond, or Rick Miller, or our friend,
Ivan Julian of The Voidoids. Recording is
a blast!
Q: Speaking of having a blast, Dave Alvin
(The Blasters) is one of your current label
mates (Yep Roc Records.)
Pete: Yeah, Dave, Nick Lowe, Southern Culture
on the Skids, Los Straightjackets, we’re
really proud to be on the label with all this
talent!
Q: Yeah, very diverse, but you could put
the whole lineup together and you’d
have a great show! Besides your upcoming gig
at The Brighton Bar, where else have you played
in New Jersey?
Pete: We used to play Jersey a lot more.
We used to play down in City Gardens, near
Trenton, and every once and awhile at The
Green Parrot in Neptune. If you want go back
to the 70’s we might have been the first
band to play at Maxwell’s in Hoboken,
or one of the first bands. I remember playing
in the front, before they had the back open.
We played in the front window! They moved
the chairs and tables away, and we’d
play.
Q: I think I saw The Fleshtones a few years
ago at Asbury Lanes, with The Forty-Fives
opening?
Pete: Sure as heck did! Again, great labelmates
of ours, but the band broke up, and is possibly
getting back together.
Q:
Your new album “Stocking Stuffer,”
is a Christmas album. Why did you choose to
put one now, after all these years?
Pete: This is our very first Christmas album,
and it’s surprising that we hadn’t
done one before, but quite honestly nobody
had asked us. Glen from Yep Roc Records first
asked us if we would that a whack at playing
“Hooray for Santa Claus, “ from
“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.”
He was so pleased with our response that he
said, Well, why don’t you guys just
do a whole Christmas album?”
Q: After all these years have The Fleshtones
thought about giving up and getting “real”
jobs? Or has it been a lifelong, fun experience?
Pete: It seems like a life sentence (laughing)!
At times it would get a little sketchy, but
that was like 25 years ago (laughing). But
these days it’s more fun. We never go
out at months at a time, so it never gets
boring. We’ve seen other bands do that,
and that’s usually the formula for breaking
up.
Q: So you learn to pace yourselves?
Pete: We paced ourselves the hard way (half-
kidding). If you read “Sweat: The Story
of The Fleshtones,” by Joe Bonomo, you’ll
see what I mean by that!
Q: The Fleshtones are played a lot on Little
Steven’s Underground Garage. Are you
guys friends with him?
Pete: We’ve worked quite a bit with
him, doing shows. We’ve always enjoyed
it! And we particularly like it when he puts
together his big, extravaganza shows! On the
road with them, we gone down to Florida, and
other states. He’s doing a lot for good
rock ’n’ roll!
Q: He also put out a Christmas album also,
“Christmas A Go Go,” with lots
of different artists.
Pete: Again, Little Steven is one of New
Jersey’s finest!
Q: That reminds me, Steve had been doing
one of his first outside shows, and Bruce
Springsteen was introducing one of the bands
and he said something like, “Rock ’n’
roll ain’t from the United States- it
ain’t from England, or Europe…
ROCK ’N’ ROLL IS FROM MARS!!”
Pete: Well, I hate to disagree with him in
a Jersey publication (laughing), but I respectively
say that rock ’n’ roll is from
The United States.
Q: Well, he meant that it’s wild, out
there, with no boundaries.
Pete: I agree with that (both of us laughing)!
When you’re channeling good rock ’n’
roll, and I do mean you have to channel it,
it’s hard to say where it’s coming
from! Maybe outer space, maybe God, some people
say the Devil… but you’re definitely
channeling for sure!
