A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican August 10, 2018
It’s no secret that I’m a major fan of The Fleshtones, that dandy, beyond bitchen little band from New York that’s been grinding out no-frills, back-to-basics rock ’n’ roll — they’ve dubbed it “Super Rock” — for more than 40 years. (Their first gig was at CBGB in 1976.) However, truth is, I have not been super-impressed by the Super Rock on the last few Fleshtones albums. Though all of their works in recent years have some great tunes, I thought the group didn’t quite earn their beer on The Band Drinks for Free (2016) and that they were spinning their wheels on Wheel of Talent (2014). Brooklyn Sound Solution (2011), which featured Patti Smith’s guitarist Lenny Kaye, was good, but it had too many instrumentals.
But I had a feeling about their new one, Budget Buster, which was released earlier this year. And, by Jiminy Cricket, I was right — it’s a winner. It’s not a “regular” studio album — it’s a compilation of outtakes, B-sides, and other oddities culled from the past 10 years or so — but to these jaded old ears, this is the best album since 2008’s Take a Good Look, my favorite Fleshtones record of all time.
For the sake of the uninitiated, The Fleshtones is the brainchild of Peter Zaremba (vocals, keyboards, harmonica) and Keith Streng (vocals, guitar), a couple of Queens boys who created a hopped-up hybrid of garage rock, punk, New Wave, and soul. They’re the only original members, though drummer Bill Milhizer has been with them since the early ’80s and bassist Ken Fox has been a Fleshtone since the early ’90s. But despite Zaremba’s stint hosting The Cutting Edge, an alt-rock show on MTV, for more than four years in the ’80s, The Fleshtones’ Super Rock never achieved super success. Oh well. That just means that the music they make is done out of joy and love, not because of some marketing plan.
Budget Buster is full of memorable songs. The opening track, a cover of Little Richard’s “Dancing All Around the World,” which was recorded in Spain, is pure good rocking fun. “Ama Como un Hombre” is a Spanish-language version of “Love Like a Man” from The Band Drinks for Free, with the same addictive little organ hook as on the English version of the song, which was written by Alvin Lee and first recorded nearly 50 years ago by Ten Years After.
There’s plenty of tasty wah-wah guitar (Mr. Streng, I presume) on “Touch and Go,” while “Everywhere Is Nowhere” features vocals by the big-haired — and even bigger-voiced — Mary Huff of Southern Culture on the Skids.
Viva Fleshtones!
The closest The Fleshtones come to political commentary is on “End of My Neighborhood,” which strikes the same anti-gentrification stance as the title song from Take a Good Look. It’s a hard-driving rocker with a hook straight out of The Yardbirds’ “Heart Full of Soul.” (At their best, The Fleshtones do sound like an American Yardbirds.)
“Dominique Laboubée” is an urgent-sounding ode to the late singer of the French punk band called Dogs. And another strong tune is “The Band Drinks For Free,” which I assume was originally meant as the title track of their 2016 album. I’m not sure why it would have become an outtake. It’s better than many songs on that album.
In Sweat, his 2007 biography of the band, author Joe Bonomo called The Fleshtones “America’s Garage Band.” I just wish that more Americans — and people from other countries, for that matter — appreciated them as such. Also recommended:
* Till You Lie in Your Grave by Miss Ludella Black. For nearly all of the 1990s, Miss Black was a member of Thee Headcoatees, an all-female British garage-punk band created by the mad genius Billy Childish as a women’s auxiliary for his band Thee Headcoats. Thee Headcoatees sang shoulda-been hits like “My Boyfriend’s Learning Karate,” “Davey Crockett (Gabba Hey),” and “Melvin.” One of Black’s bandmates was Holly Golightly, whose latest album, Clippety Clop, was reviewed in this column just a few weeks ago.
Backed by a powerful little combo called The Masonics — whose 2017 album, Obermann Rides Again, is worth seeking out — Black’s music is retro without being cloying, emulating the girl group sound of the early ’60s, but with a harder-edged punk-rock sensibility.
While I love the rockers here like “Am I Going Insane” (which features a sly vocal nod to The Shangri-Las’ “Leader of the Pack”), “A Creature Called Doubt,” and the slightly country-flavored “Cruel Anniversary,” my favorite song on the album at the moment is a slow, strange one called “The Brother I Never Had.” Here Black longs for a relative who never existed. “When I was a little girl, I yearned for a brother/The brother who’d be there to watch over me.”
Black also covers a Beatles song, “Wait,” a relatively obscure tune from Rubber Soul. I like this one more than the other recent Beatles cover I’ve heard, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which is on The Melvins’ latest album, Pinkus Abortion Technician. Have some videos:
First, The Fleshtones, with a live version of "Dancing All Over the World" Here's an "official" Fleshtones video And here's Miss Ludella with the title track of her new album.
On Aug. 9, 1930, America's cartoon sweetheart made her debut in a cartoon feature called Dizzy Dishes.
Although she would become one of the sexiest cartoon characters of that era -- or any era -- Betty actually started out as a dog.
"...she was designed to be an object of lust for Bimbo, a dog character who was currently the lead in many of Max Fleischer's Talkartoons. Because she was created for Bimbo, she was originally an anthropomorphic poodle character, but she still had her Betty charms.
"The character was based on the looks of singer Helen Kane, best known for her song "I Wanna Be Loved By You," and actress Clara Bow, who was the inspiration for Betty's Brooklyn accent. As Betty proved to be more and more popular, she evolved into a full human by 1932, her floppy ears turned into hoop earrings and her poodle nose was morphed into a cute button nose."
“Gertrude Stein and Jean-Paul Sartre were said to be big fans of the scantily clad gamine, whose sex appeal and sassy attitude got her into racy situations with legions of lecherous suitors. That is, until 1934, when the Government imposed controls on American movie content, altering Ms. Boop’s wardrobe and toning down her adventures.”
The Betty Boop Youtube channel has collected some of the many songs Betty sang in these videos below. Happy birthday, Betty!
For more Betty on this blog, check out this Halloween post from a few years ago.
Sunday, August , 2018 KSFR, Santa Fe, NM Webcasting! 10 p.m. to midnight Sundays Mountain Time Host: Steve Terrell 101.1 FM
Email me during the show! terrel(at)ksfr.org
Here's my playlist :
OPENING THEME: Let It Out (Let it All Hang Out) by The Hombres
Miniskirt Blues by The Flower Children
Dead Moon Walking by Nekromantix
54/40 or Fight by Dead Moon
Underground Railroad by The Weeds
Don't Be Afraid to Pogo by The Gears
Over! Over! by The Fall
Mood Ring by Root Boy Slim
All Girl Band by Jean Caffeine
Every Little Bit of You by Miss Ludella Black
Stewball by Holly Golightly& The Brokeoffs
MELVIN by Thee Headcoatees
Ama Como Un Hombre by The Fleshtones
Teenage Head by The Flamin' Groovies
It's a Lie by King Khan
Spiders by Harlan T. Bobo Artificial Flowers by Bobby Darin
Gentle Annie by Knickerbocker Four
Work With Me Annie by Hank Ballard & The Midnighters
Little Annie Fanny by The Kingsmen
The Working Man's Friend by Hickoids
Stuck in Thee Garage by The Dirtbombs
Love Me Two Times by Reverend Beat-Man & Izobel Garcia
You Are On Top by Reverend Beat-Man
Waste of Time by The Cynics
Blues Blues Blues by Hayden Thompson
Booze Party by Three Aces and a Joker
Sharkskin Suit by Wayne Kramer
The Wolf is at Your Door by Howlin' Wolf
Cheree by Suicide
We Three by Patti Smith
Round Midnight by Amy Winehouse
You're a Dog and Don't Talk to Me by Michael Hurley
Did We Fail by the Dead Brothers CLOSING THEME: Over the Rainbow by Jerry Lee Lewis
Elvis Presley was more than a great performer. With his earliest recordings he showed that he was a gifted currator of American songs.
On this Throwback Thursday let's look at original -- or in some cases, just earlier -- versions of some of the songs -- country songs, R&B songs, pop tunes -- that make up various versions of Elvis' Sun Sessions.
First of all, hats off to Adam Aguirre of the Route 66 show on KUNM, who inspired this post by recently playing these first two songs on a recent Saturday night.
First let's start with Ernest Tubb
Elvis apparently loved bluegrass. He rocked this Bill Monroe classic.
Speaking of a blue moon, this tune, written by Richard Rogers & Lorenz Hart was first recorded by Connee Boswell in 1935. I've always liked this early '50s version by Billie Holiday.
Probably my favorite Sun Sessions song is "Tryin' to Get to You." I didn't realize until recently that this song originally was receorded by The Eagles. (No, no those Eagles!)
"My Happiness" goes back to the late '40s, recorded by The Marlin Sisters
We all know Elvis loved the blues. Here's one, by Kokomo Arnold, that Elvis used to get real gone for a change.
