Yes, Virginia, Rock and Roll Is Dead, and Flesht<>
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Yes, Virginia, Rock and Roll is dead, and Flesht<>nes is its potent spirit. The brain-child of Playhouse of the Ridic:ulous alumni ./ Sterling Blak, (Mario Montez, Taylor Mead, and Charles Ludlahm were his classmates), and fellow avant-gardist Larry Lean, (son of famed L.A. session-man Mel Moore), Fleshtones is Rock and Roll in the boldest of colors; the rightful l:eirs to Professor Longhair and The Velvet Underground ••• the fulfillment of rock's promise of long ago, and a triumph for hard rockers everywhere. Egged on by their bone-crunching bant L, vocalists Blak and Lean bend and twist the musical express:'.on of ecstacy and despair to their most tormented limits. Those to be held personally responsible are fat-1.:at drummer Walt 'twhammy" Douglas (who parlayed a ho-hum bat·:;ing average into one of the most impressive slugging records in ·rock history), power-bassist Marko Roxx (his name tells the tale), ' guitarists Chance Fleeting (who's searing leads ,Uld .relentless rhythms on such instant classics as "Rock and Ro:Ll Hell" and "Bitch Boy" assure his niche in rock's Hall of F:Lame), and Mario David (his solo at the end of the catharti·! masterpiece, "No More", makes it clear once and for all that Jimi and Robin are nice names for girls). But mostly credit is due composer-vocalist Lean ( a high-yellow baby Jean Genet with the voice of Carmen McRae gone mad), and lyricist-vocalist Blak (a tantalizing flash of pure terror guaranteed to drive psycho-drama out of the clos~t with a single blood-freezing scream). Blak is perhaps his own best analyst. He states in a recent interview, "I am the transfiguration of the pleasure-principle made fiesh". Be that as it may, he is certainly the first true innovator of the rock vocal since Little Richard. After performing as opening act for the legendar:r Tubes last winter at Bill Graham's Winterland, the 'Tones lt~ft the hard core-hip audience in a state of question marks ~1d exclamation points. Though praise was lavish and prophecies extravagant, paying gigs, alas have been few {due largely to the band's reputation among club-owners as petit pederasts and destructo litterbugs); anathema to laid-back "country" roc::ters and disco- zombies •••• Somehow the Fleshtones have managed , to survive ( .md even nburish) among the Bay Areas most depraved and discriminating, long enough to record a single {produced at S.F. 1 s Wally Heiders) of their crowd pleasing fruit-rock epic "Bananna Mash" b/w "Rock and Roll Hell", on their own TanTrix label. Glor.r be to all concerned. /signed/ Lester Thuds F LESH 'i'Ol\JES : R0cK a nG Roll. Ets a un1on of op po sites. ~e cil Taylor by way of Little Richard . The r itua 1 m.:1. ·~i c of t h~ traditional. The shock of the nevJ . ti. ock and Ho ll a s Pri mal Myth. FL ~ S H T CNE S : T ht~! so n .~ s of c OJ'lP:l ser-voc ali st Larry Lea n ana pr1~t -v ocalist 3terlinp; Ula.re as f!er.forr..ed 11 1 1 by t:h(O! lJO'oleJ' house quart e t of \'Jalt Whammy Doug l a s - u rums , l'la r k o lwxx - .) a .:; s , Chance r' lee ·~Jin g a nd Marin Uqvid - guitars. The New York avant- garde meets the Ca l if ~ rnia Sun Set . FLESH'l'O NES: Have anused and '> Utr a 1..:.~e a an e v e r g r ~' w in ~ numbe: of fr·iends a t such places as Fauley 3aJ lrnorn , fhe Lions 3har ~ , ~he House of Good , G0lo en G,q t e l~a rk -5a nd Shell a no ~'l int erla na . 11 biz ;:, r ·r-·e •• . provoc R. tive 11'> Joe l c;elvin , san Francisc o Chronicle 11 ruci e ana p ow~ r ful 1 1 ~ Ir;gy l'"' op THE INSIDE STORY ON A OUTSIDE BAND In 1970, Sterling Houston left a promising career as an actor in New York's then vital underground film and theater world to come to San Francisco and start a rock and roll band. Little did he suspect that his efforts were to lay the gound work for today's cro of "new Wave" artists . "I put an ad in the Rolling Stone c a6sified and the only m sv,rer I got c am e from these four high school seniors from Hayward" , and for some reason, it clicked right from the first, "even though we were playi ng out of two little amps and singing through tape-recorder mikes" . By then, Ho uston had been joined by co-writer and cohort Larry Neal (Larry Lean) Yho was equally enthusiastic and equally talented . Together they moved , to Hayward renting a small ranch about two hundred yards from the fault line between Hayward and Union City. "Yeah, so we went all the way", he continues. " We converted the garage into a 'studio', invested in some equipment , and got down to the serious business of writing and performing." Taking the name "Whammy Douglas-J' , after an obscure baseball player of the sixties, the band began to play around the East Bay for the next year and a half earning a reputation for being loud, fast, and difficult to catagorize. "We were playing hard and fast and out of tune long before it was fashion able !· ~ Hou ston is quick to remind us. And then too , there wa s the ~terial . Usually penned by Neal (music) and Houston (words) , such songs as : "Kindergarten Baby", a pean to pederasty; "Graveyard of Love-" and "0 Iiss Death", nodding to necrophilia by I'TaY of Marvin and Johnny , were a revelation in t hose pioneering days· when "peace and love" was still considered a viable alter nat ive . Those of us who saw - 2 - t hem in those days are not likely to forget the spectical of Larr y and Sterling looking for all the world like some kind of post-psychedelic mulatto Sam and Dave, backed up by what seemed to be four members of the Sunset High student council. When asked about the band's reception among the suburban teens and other fans of the far East Bay, Neal replied candidl y: "A few people liked us . Mostly weirdoes and misfits. No, we were never accepted in any conventional sense, since it was our approach to re- define the limits of what was and was not acceptable . " Conversely, as usual in the case of artists who choose to take their dreams before the public, there is that nagging impulse for acceptance with its incumbent traditional symbols of power . This sort of "yes- no " dichotomy runs rampant throughout the Fleshtone phenomenon . Such as the way that the cry and wail of Dave Dark ' s guitar work contrasts with the atomic, adolescent runs of Chance Fleeting; the no- nonsense rhythm section of ~1 ark o Roxx (bass) and \Val t Whipply (drums) which provides a base for the often bizarre singing- style of Sterling Houston; which may be heard to go from the clearest of falsettos to the dirtiest of baritone street growls, some times within the same phrase . The Hayward phase of the band's hist ory came to an abrupt end when their equipment was stolen in late 1973 . "I moved back to San Francisco with a sigh of relief, figuring rightly that the rest of us would follow in due time," Houston recal ls . rl!eanwhile, he worked within S.F. ' s blues-funk-boogie club band scene playing everywhere from parties in the Mission District to the "discotheque" at the Bank of America World - 3 - He adquarters. One of the musicians he worked with then was drummer Chris Knabb, now of New Wave JVIagazine and Auarius Records fame . " What struck me most about Sterling Houston, aside from his songwriting talents, was this incredible command of singing styles, including everyt hing from the essenti al gospel-blues found~tion to the upper reaches of Br itish rock and avant-garde jazz explorations . " Well, h e should know. By the ru mmer of ' 7 4 the band had re-formed using the name Fleshtones. A video tape of an early performance (at the Eureka Theatre) has the look and s ound of a dream-like Wednesday night at the Apollo crossed with Artaud's Theatre of Cruelty. "That was the beginning of our ' theatrical period', the use of props, costume s , and sometimes a plot which was advanced by the songs. " Thereafter followed a very prol i fic year in which were produced three full- scale works of twelve or more songs each, starting wi th "Folsom Street Bitter Suite " ( an exploration in heavy metal of S. F. ' s nocturnal leather and amyl sex world}. A performance of this piece once so outraged d . j . Sean Donahue that he allegedly smashed the Fleshtones ' demo on-the-air . Th en came " Wh o Killed Rock and Ro ll?", which was nothing less than the ritual killing/rebirth of R&R at the hands of "a critic", ·"a fan", and "a star" . These two pieces are what is largely responsible for the Fleshtones ' reputa tion as a "punk band" , especially i n the context of their performances at the STUD and their own Fo lsom Street studio . There is an undeniable preoccupation with violence , the physical and verbal trashi ng of popular myths and values , as well as a - 4 - fondness for symbols, such as: studded bla'Ck leather, " foul l anguage", suicide, and the transcendence of pain.