The Fleshtones: a video chronology
January 31, 2008, 12:00 am

The Beginning...

1977 - First music video, "Soul City" (appears in the Museum of Modern Art)
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Peter Zaremba: That was shot in 1977 at the School of Visual Arts by an artist, M. Henry Jones. It's all animated cutouts. He shot it in 35 mm film and then took the negatives and printed 8x10s. Stacks upon stacks upon stacks of 8x10s. Cut them out with an Exacto Knife and then a team of six or seven girls working like 24 hours... whoever he could convince... they would think they were going on a date with Henry and then they'd end up hand tinting these faces. I spent a bunch of nights doing these too. It was actually a film, called "Soul City." That is one of our original drummers, Lenny Calderon the third, whose father was famous for being one of the percussionists on the '45 "They're Coming To Take Me Away Ha Ha" by Napoleon XIV.


The 80s...

1980 - "Shadowline," from film Urgh! A Music War
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Peter: This is from Urgh! Shot in 1980 at CBGB's, which was odd for us because at that point we were making a really big point of not being a CBGB's band anymore. We were pioneering places like Club 57, Irving Plaza. We were playing Hurrah's uptown a lot. We felt a little restricted because this was when CBGB's first started putting seats in the front and we weren't a seat in the front type of band. But, this was our passport to fame because Urgh! came out and we signed to IRS. That happened all at once


1983 - "Hexbreaker" and "Super Vindicator" live in France
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Peter: Multi camera set up man. We're doing "Hexbreaker" and "Super Vindicator." Probably about 1983. Great ending. That was the kind of thing we'd do: rhythm dances. People would be dancing, going nuts, dancing on the stage usually
Keith Streng: It's probably a soundcheck or performance in France.


1984 - "American Beat 84" from Bachelor Party
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Keith: This was a video that got a lot of airplay on MTV. It was filmed in a few locations in Paris
Peter: It's a promo for Bachelor Party so there's a lot of stuff cut in from the movie. That was our one real foray into the Hollywood movie thing. We did two songs for the movie. Right after this, Tom Hanks did Splash and that made him a star.
Keith: We met Tom Hanks. We went to the screening of Bachelor Party and we were introduced to him. At that point no one knew who he was and we were in this movie we didn't care for.
Peter: Right then, he was probably shooting Splash and that turned him into somewhat of a huge star.


mid 80s - Happy Hour from "The Cutting Edge"
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Peter: We redesigned the show and wanted to do a, for the most part, live show in a party atmosphere. The producer wanted to basically have a playboy swinging apartment thing. The thing is, you couldn't find a cool bunch of swingers like you could have in the mid 60s so it wasn't as easy. But it was fun. It was a good idea. That was the intro to the first, or maybe the second, Happy Hour.


1987 - "I Was a Teenage Zombie" music video
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Peter: One movie everyone should see at least one is I Was a Teenage Zombie.
Keith: The sound track was, of course, brilliant.
Peter: A super low budget, horror spoof shot in Fort Lee, NJ. A lot of the guys involved in that went on to do some really great stuff.
Keith: Not the director though. Didn't he become homeless and a drug addict?
Peter: But for a lot of the other guys, it was a very good thing. We were asked to write the theme song for that, and we shot a pretty fun video.


The 90s...

Around 1993 - "Take a Walk with the Fleshtones" on French TV
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Peter: I would say that was 93, from the Forever Fleshtones record. It was the night before or the night after Prince was on the show. We really shocked them because we stepped out of our space and invaded their space to where they do the news.
Keith: They followed us with their cameras. They're good!
Peter: They wanted to see what was gonna happen. They do the evening news from those tables. It's like walking up to Katie Couric's desk.


Around 1993 - "Jump, Jive and Harmonize" (Thee Midnighters cover) from French TV
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Keith: As I recall, it is just a crew. No audience.
Peter: We dedicated it to the Plimsouls in the beginning because they would always do that song.


around 1995 - "Let's Go" on Red Ronnie
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Keith: Red Ronnie... Italian TV show placed in I think Milan? This was during our Laboratory of Sound period. We performed "Let's Go" live.
Peter: It's actually a really good show. He would have really interesting bands on.
Keith: Good rock n roll show.
Peter: Real supporter of underground rock n roll.


Around 1995 - "Accelerated Emotion" live in Paris
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Keith: Laboratory of Sound period. We are in Paris.
Peter: It's a French MTV kind of thing. Keith is playing through a little plastic amp.
Keith: Semi acoustic thing when Bill [Milhizer] just played a high-hat... and maybe a book.
Peter: Again, not lip singing... we're not afraid to play.


The 00s...

2007 - "Hard Lovin' Man" live in Chicago
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Peter: That was "Hard Lovin' Man" from the Do You Swing album, written by Keith Streng. We're playing Subterranean in Chicago.
Keith: That was the last time we were in Chicago.
Peter: It was fun. Chicago is always a good time. It's like a big Brooklyn.


The Present...

2008 - Take a Good Look at the Fleshtones
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