CD Reviews

The Fleshtones

Have a Good Look | Yep Roc

By BRETT MILANO | March 5, 2008

3.0 Stars

It’s not enough for a great live band to create a strong, sweaty groove in the studio: they’ve gotta write the songs, too. That’s an obvious point, but one that finally hit the Fleshtones on 1998’s More Than Skin Deep — their best album to that point, made when almost nobody was paying attention. They cut their average song length in half, jumped the number of hooks, and came up with a medium-fi approach that sounded more live than their several live albums. They’ve been on a roll since then, and Take a Good Look may be their personal best. There’s swagger, bluster, and just enough late-career desperation to give it some poignance. Most of all there are big, fat hooks — better than the hooks the band wrote 20 years ago, and as good as those the neo-garage kids are writing now. The advice on “Love Yourself” gets resonance from its tough Yardbirds sound, and anybody who ever gave the band a bad time is dispatched in “Shiny Hiney,” one of their nastiest “Louie Louie” homages. Detroit producer Jim Diamond keeps them on the verge of mania throughout, and it bursts through on the closing title track. The only song here over three minutes, it finds singer Peter Zaremba testifying that the Fleshtones had to be crazy to stick around this long and that they still ain’t going away.

The Fleshtones + Lyres + The Prime Movers | Harpers Ferry, 158 Brighton Avenue, Allston | March 7 | 617.254.9743

Related: Here and now, Life is a cabaret, Iggy & The Stooges | Raw Power (Legacy Edition), More

Topics: CD Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Music Reviews, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY BRETT MILANO

REVIEW: DON'T STOP BELIEVIN': EVERYMAN'S JOURNEY | March 04, 2013
There's no sex or drugs, just a lot of professionalism.

WALTER SICKERT LEADS A BAND OF MUSICAL MISFITS | February 05, 2011
When Walter Sickert and his Army of Broken Toys played an official First Night show at the Hynes Auditorium on New Year's Eve, they ran overtime and the soundman pulled the plug — which isn't quite the smartest way of shutting down an acoustic band.

GUIDED BY VOICES RETURN WITH SELF-INFLICTED NOSTALGIA | November 07, 2010
When Guided by Voices announced their reunion tour this year, it marked a milestone of sorts for the Dayton band. This is arguably the first conventional career move they've ever made.

DANDO AND HATFIELD REKINDLE A MUSICAL COURTSHIP | November 01, 2010
Evan Dando and Juliana Hatfield were never a serious couple, and they never played music together for very long.

REVIEW: ROCK OF AGES | October 12, 2010
At the start of the hair-metal musical Rock of Ages (at the Colonial Theatre through October 17), narrator Lonny (Patrick Lewallen) promises a night of sexy decadence and general kick-assery.