The long-running garage rockers from Queens, NY, The Fleshtones, release their first new music in four years with It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves)’. The band uses tongue-in-cheek humor, retro rock, and a sense of the macabre throughout the record.
Since the early 1990s, the group has had a stable lineup of frontman Peter Zaremba (who contributes on harmonica and keys), guitarist Keith Streng, drummer Bill Milhizer, and bassist Ken Fox. The band continues to use its off-kilter CBGB-honed punk roots to craft direct rock and roll.
The Fleshtones work best on It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves) when they channel the original rock spirit, such as on “Love Me While You Can.” The track delivers hip-swinging, organ-drenched sounds with revved-up guitar, as does the urgent up-tempo bumping of “That’s Why I’m Turning To You”. The band hits their high points via the stomping, percussion laced, organ, and smirking lead single “Way of the World” and “Empty Sky,” which expands the instrumentation with acoustic strums, percussion, and a psychedelic guitar solo.
The slight art rock vibe also flows through “Come on Everybody Getting High with You Baby Tonight,” which plays like demented 50s rock with echoing drums and hand claps. “Wah Wah Power takes its title to overkill levels of pedal effects. “The Consequences” uses buzzsaw guitars and deep drum and bass but goes on a bit too long, as do the sophomoric one-note jokes of “Pussywillow” and “Big As My Balls. “
Better is when the band amps up the creature feature vibes, such as on “You Say You Don’t Mind It,” which brings the title werewolf transformation into play, and the cooking instrumental “The Hearse,” which would be excellent on the soundtrack of a low-grade B-movie from the 50s. The group shifts gears to close the record, and the title tune plays surprisingly soothingly, like The Byrds folk rock.
Veteran garage rockers The Fleshtones continue delivering their no-frills version of what they dub “SUPER ROCK” throughout It’s Getting Late (…and More Songs About Werewolves), via confident riffs, banging drums and vocals filled with jokes, immediacy and just a touch of yearning honesty.
