That Devil Music Dot Com: Take A Good Look At The Fleshtones!

For over three decades, the Fleshtones have cranked out their own unique blend of what they call "super rock," a high-energy, octane-rich brew of '60s-styled garage rock, rockabilly, early R&B and retro-roots music with raucous riffs and screaming Farfisa organ. Fronted by vocalist/keyboardist Peter Zaremba and guitarist Keith Streng since 1976, the New York City rockers have stayed true to their original musical vision, from the band's 1980 debut album Roman Gods, all the way up to the band's latest opus, Take A Good Look! (Yep Roc Records).

Along the way, the Fleshtones have had a fair amount of their history documented through the medium of music video, perhaps the next best thing to actually attending one of the band's legendary out-of-control live performances. We have a fine collection of suitably rockin' Fleshtones vids to offer, beginning with the their very first, a psychedelic-colored reading of the band's classic "Soul City." The performance of "Shadowline," from 1980, is taken from the "new wave" concert film Urgh! A Music War and was shot at the legendary CBGB club in NYC's notorious Bowery district. The 1984 video for "American Beat 84" received a modicum of airplay on MTV; the song was recorded for the film Bachelor Party and the video includes scenes from the movie interlaced with the band's performance.

Jumping to the '90s, we found an incredible video for "Take A Walk With The Fleshtones," taken from a French TV show sometime around 1993. Also from the grunge decade, here's a video for an exciting studio performance of "Accelerated Emotion," also from French television. There's almost a minute-and-a-half of of intro/discussion before the band kicks in, but it's well worth the wait! Finally, a performance of "Hard Lovin' Man" captured live in Chicago in 2007.

For more Fleshtones' videos and commentary on each from Streng and Zaremba, check out the band's fascinating Yep Roc video chronology. If you're already a Fleshtones fanatic, you should pick up a copy of Joe Bonomo's most excellent tome, Sweat: The Story of the Fleshtones, America's Garage Band, available from Amazon.com through the book cover link to your right. Enjoy!

The Fleshtones - "Soul City"