TERRELL'S TUNE-UP: FUZZ & FLESH

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 29, 2008

Yes, they’re “retro.” Yes, they’ve been plowing a lot of the same ground since they first took the stage at CBGB in New York’s Bowery more than 30 years ago. And no, I’m not the first in criticdom to compare “First Date (Are You Coming On to Me?)” with the music of the Dave Clark Five.

But The Fleshtones, on their new album, Take a Good Look, attack their music with such strength, confidence, energy, and rock ’n’ roll joy that such reservations seem uptight and prissy.

Besides, I love the Dave Clark Five, so if “First Date” evokes fond memories of the DC5 version of “I Like It Like That,” it’s nothing but a plus. It makes me glad all over.

If you can’t name any hits by The Fleshtones, that’s because they never had any. Though mainstream success has eluded the members of this New York band for decades, their history is impressive.

Starting out in Queens in the mid-1970s, singer, harmonica blower, and keyboard man Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng took Nuggets-era fuzz tone and the Farfisa organ — which by that point in history had been missing in action for years and presumed dead — played it with punk-snot intensity, and created a signature sound they called “Super Rock.”

The Fleshtones lineup has stayed fairly steady all these years. Drummer Bill Milhizer has been with the group since 1980, while bassist Ken Fox joined in 1990. Though they’ve never been on the Billboard charts, The Fleshtones are the subject of a recent book, Sweat: The Story of The Fleshtones, America’s Garage Band.

Take a Good Look is full of songs that will fit naturally into The Fleshtones’ Super Rock repertoire. “Shiney Hiney” is raw defiance. “Ruby’s Old Time” is hot fun in the summertime. “Never Grew Up” is a pounding ode to extended adolescence.

Perhaps taking a cue from The Hives, “Jet Set Fleshtones” is a self-referential jewel. Built on an easy soul groove with a rumbling, fuzzy bass line, the song is an anthem for a traveling band.

“Going Back to School,” a nice plug for continuing education, reminds me a little of James Brown’s “Don’t Be a Drop Out.” However, The Fleshtones have the weird ability to take a socially responsible stance and make it sound menacing:

“When I go back to school/All the students gonna look at me /They’re
gonna wonder what I’m doing there/I got a lot to learn, so I don’t
care.”

Somehow you get the feeling that if these guys really went back to school, they’d still be juvenile delinquents.

Likewise, “Love Yourself” might sound like pop-psych pablum in the hands of lesser mortals. But this band makes self-respect sound tough and bitchin’.

One track shows a slight detour from the basic Fleshtones sound. “This Time Josephine” features a prominent acoustic guitar with Zaremba’s Farfisa-supplied Texy-Mexy fills (think The Monkees’ “I’m a Believer”). The song has an early-’70s Kinks feel to it.

But the most impressive tune is the title song, which ends the album. It’s an organ-dominated “talking song” that sounds like a mutant grandson of The Standells' Sometimes Good Guys Don’t Wear White.” It’s a protest song against “a time when ugliness rules”; gentrification; “hipster overspill”; and some “tattoo-covered, goatee-, sock-hat-wearin’ ” jerk who’s trying to move in on the singer’s girlfriend. The song ends with Zaremba screaming as the band plays on.

This is a short album by modern standards — just over a half-hour. But it packs a super punch.

Also recommended:
* Two Headed Cow by Flat Duo Jets. A decade before the world heard of The White Stripes or The Black Keys, there was a loud, rowdy, blues-screamin’ duo from North Carolina called the Flat Duo Jets. With Dexter Romweber on guitar and vocals and Chris “Crow” Smith on drums, FDJ stripped rock ’n’ roll down to its basics.

The band broke up before the end of the last century, but just last year it was the subject of a documentary. This CD, released earlier this month, is a companion to that film. It’s a live show from 1986, but it sounds like it couln made in 1956 or last week.

“These are the damnedest people,” an unidentified announcer says in introducing the group. “You’ll have more sound coming off this stage than for any two people you’ll ever see in your life.”

Romweber and Smith immediately set out to prove him right. Kicking off the show with “Hoy Hoy,” a rockabilly workout originally done by The Collins Kids, the Jets set a dangerous energy level. (I have to say, however, I like the original much better. Take a look at the video below.)

Lots of songs here are familiar. The FDJ put a toughness into “Frog Went a Courtin’” that Burl Ives never imagined. And while Romweber is no match for Link Wray, this version of “Rawhide” is a spirited workout.

The group even pays tribute to the pride of Raton, The Fireballs, with a crazy, hopped-up rendition of the older group’s instrumental hit “Torquay.” The Jets prove they can do it slow and purdy too. “Burning Bridges” is a nice country ballad that finishes the set.

I didn’t pay much mind to this group when they were around. But this record makes me miss them.

Blog bonus:

Now dig those crazy Collins Kids!

A PRODUCTIVE MEETING

Gov. Bill Richardson, as a presidential candidate, had a joke I heard him tell at least a couple of times in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Talking about international summits, Richardson would quip, something to the effect of that world leaders would always come out of sessions and say, "we have just had a very productive meeting." To which candidate Richardson would add, "By the way, I’ve been in those meetings. When diplomats say they had a productive meeting it, means it didn't go very well."

The line always got lots of laughs.

A few minutes ago I received this e-mail from the Governor's Office following his session with state Senate leaders:

“We had a productive meeting and agreed to wait until this summer to hold a special session,” Governor Bill Richardson said. “We also agreed to form bipartisan, executive-legislative working groups that will develop consensus on all of the key areas of a universal health coverage plan.

“We all want a productive special session that results in affordable access to health care,” Governor Richardson said.

ROUNDHOUSE ROUND-UP: A RETIRED NATIONAL POLITICIAN

A version of this was published in The Santa Fe New Mexican
February 28, 2008

Gov. Bill Richardson remained coy Wednesday when asked at a news conference whether he’ll endorse a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination.

“Endorsements by politicians don’t make any difference, never have,” he told members of the Roundhouse press corps. “I may wake up and decide to endorse. I’m a retired national politician now. I’m the governor of New Mexico. I love my job.”

That “retired national politician” line refers to his dropping out of contention for the presidential nomination in January after humiliating showings in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.

He then added he’ll probably decide by the end of the week whether he’ll make an endorsement, and if so, whom.

Asked when he had last been called by Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, Richardson replied, “Today. We talked today.”

So apparently some people think endorsements by other politicians are important. Of course, Clinton and Obama also might be courting Richardson’s support as a superdelegate to the Democratic national convention.

I agree with Richardson’s statement about endorsements by politicians not making much difference among voters. But Richardson has dragged this endorsement deal out for a long time. And the longer Richardson waits to endorse, the more that becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Next Tuesday could be the day of reckoning for the candidates with the Texas and Ohio primaries. Many people, including former President Clinton, have said it will be a do-or-die day for Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign. If she loses those primaries to Obama, it would be hard for her to hobble on.

On one hand, Richardson probably wishes this endorsement talk would go away. Richardson owes a big chunk of his much-touted résumé to Bill Clinton.

As a longtime New Mexico Democratic politician told me recently, “If Richardson endorses Obama, that would make him one of the most ungrateful SOBs in the world.” But he might be reluctant to endorse Sen. Clinton as long as the momentum seems to be going in Obama’s direction.

Fascination: On the other hand, Richardson must be loving all the attention.

On Wednesday he told the local media, “I don’t know why you’re so fascinated with this,” referring to the endorsement question.

Tuesday night, the retired national politician talked to a fascinated Wolf Blitzer on CNN about a possible endorsement and why he hasn’t made one yet. “I’m just not trying to be cute,” he said. “I just have felt that an endorsement by me, I don’t think it is that significant. But I still might do it.”

On Wednesday, columnist Al Kamen of The Washington Post wrote, “New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, D-N.M., may have dropped out of the race, but old habits die hard. So when he was spotted this week having coffee at the Willard Intercontinental Hotel, he quickly accepted an invitation ... to wander over to a table of foreign affairs reporters who were interviewing a top European diplomat.

Kamen said an “impromptu mini-press conference” commenced when Richardson arrived at the table. Richardson “said he had not decided between Obama and Clinton, but ‘I might soon.’ ”

Richardson, Kamen said, “declined to say whether his endorsement would come before Tuesday, or later, when it would be meaningless. ‘I’m a Renaissance man now. I don’t have to answer this anymore.’ ”

Let me be your Teddy bear: Richardson also was featured this weekend in a rather gushing story in The New York Times by reporter Mark Liebovich, who called the governor a “generally beloved teddy bear among party insiders, if not by the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire. ”

The writer might have added “or by members of the New Mexico state Senate.”

Richardson laughed but refused to answer a question by a reporter (not me) wanting to know if he considered himself a beloved teddy bear.

The Richardson quote that fascinated me the most in the Times story was the obligatory vice president question. “Yes, he admits thinking about being someone’s running mate, or maybe secretary of state,” Liebovich wrote. “I can’t preclude it,” the 60-year-old governor said. “But I’m not pining for it, and if it doesn’t happen, I’ve had a great life. I’m at peace with myself.”

I’ve had a great life? That has a weird ring of finality.

Freudian slip: On Wednesday, when answering a question about what kind of health care bill he’d support in a special session of the state Legislature, Richardson said he wants the bill he outlined in his “State of the Union Address.”

The “State of the Union,” of course, is the president’s annual address to a joint session of Congress. Out here in New Mexico, the governor gives the Legislature a “State of the State Address.”

YIPPIE, I'M ON FACEBOOK

Yes, I finally joined. See my page HERE.

Not sure what I think -- basically so far it seems like a slightly more adult MySpace.

There's still a lot of goofy stuff. I added some music and a photo album of weird jpgs that happened to be on my computer. And I had a couple of Bevis-and-Butthead moments with the "Poke" feature. (As Julio and Willie would sing, "To all the girls I've poked before ...")

Just what I need -- another Internet time-waster. But if you're on Facebook, look me up. Be my friend.

NO COUNTRY FOR GEORGE

My pal George Adelo is the only pal I have who was in a movie that won the Academy Award for best picture.

No Country for Old Men was shot in New Mexico.

George was shot in the shower.

Check out this KOAT report.