THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 15, 1994 TAG: 9406150061
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SUE SMALLWOOD, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940615 LENGTH: Medium
``He'd been wanting to (produce) us since 1986,'' explained vocalist Peter Zaremba recently from his home in New York. ``He's known the band a long time, since before R.E.M. He was at our first show ever in Athens (Ga., R.E.M.'s home turf). He'd always said he'd like to take a shot at producing us; he figured he couldn't do any worse than some of the other people, and probably do a lot better.''
{REST} Indeed, ``Beautiful Light,'' the band's ninth album, is beautifully produced. Buck captures the Fleshtones' artful pop leanings in moody tracks like ``Big Heart'' and the contagious title cut, without sacrificing the party rock in such freewheeling groovers as ``Take a Walk With the Fleshtones'' and ``Pickin' Pickin.' '' The group visits the Nsect Club Wednesday.
While recording in Athens, Zaremba and his fellow 'Tones - guitarist Keith Streng, bassist Ken Fox, drummer Bill Milhizer and horn players Joseph Loposky, Markus Arike and Gordon Spaeth - managed to get almost all of R.E.M. involved.
Bassist Mike Mills ``was always dropping by to see what we were doing,'' Zaremba said, ``so at that point, Peter would get him to play the Hammond, put him to work. He said he could use the 40 bucks.''
Even R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe got in on the action, co-writing the wistful ``Whistling Past the Grave.''
The Fleshtones made a big noise in the late '70s, emerging from the same downtown breeding ground that spawned their peers and professed inspirations the New York Dolls, the Dictators and the Ramones. Other influences, from the Yardbirds and Kinks to Jonathan Richman, are more far-flung, Zaremba says.
``We're not very specific about what we draw on,'' he said. ``It's kind of a hodgepodge of whatever we like. Some people get a little disturbed by that because we're not pure enough as far as being a garage or psychedelic band.''
In the mid-'80s, Zaremba was able to apply those broad musical tastes to television, hosting one of MTV's first alternative rock programs, ``The Cutting Edge.'' Streng, Milhizer and Spaeth, meanwhile, moonlighted as the Full Time Men, and were joined by Buck for the first of two releases.
For the past few years, all members have been concentrating on the Fleshtones full time, and a rediscovery of the 'Tones timeless trash-pop seems to be under way.
``It's very gratifying,'' Zaremba said. ``At least we manage to shake people up enough that we can't be totally ignored. The record's that good, I think, that they have to give us another listen.''
by CNB