"Welcome to Hitsburg." Just how did we get here?

The four New Yorkers use all eight of their hands to wheel the "Fleshtone-O-Tron" out, then blow the dust off of the top and position it in the middle of Compactor Studios in Brooklyn, USA. The machine has been assembled lovingly from cogs and sprockets found all over the rock & roll globe, and as the switches are flipped, the dials are twisted, and the tubes glow, the machine hums powerfully, as well-oiled as ever. The dust settles and The Fleshtones stand in front, each gripping a stack of well-worn 45's and LP's, and prepare to feed the machine....

The result is "Hitsburg Revisited" (Epitaph Europe, 1999) the new Fleshtones album of cover songs, and their fifteenth long-player in nearly twenty years. The Fleshtones prove—as they prove every single time they hit a stage, wherever they are—that rock & roll is not a style, a genre, or anything definable, but an invisible place where all guys and girls pool together. The band makes it a habit—after all, it's in Fleshtone DNA—to search in other artists' songs for that illusive proton of Super Rock that's smashing and crashing around. The result is truly a "Fleshtones-worthy experiment."

For their last covers album ("Hitsburg USA") the guys fed songs through the "Fleshtone-O-Tron" from artists as disparate as The dB's and Grand Funk Railroad, Arthur Alexander and Champion Jack Dupree, and came up with winner after winner. This time around the band stamps their special mark on songs from The Young Rascals to Sammy Davis, Jr., from Teenage Head to Mel Torme, and once again celebrates all that is great and magic about rock & roll, reminding the rest of us just why it is we get up in the mornings. Usually the guys write most of their own material, but this time they feel compelled to raid their own record collections and renew for the rest of us the spark of their decades-long testifying to the spirit of rock & roll.

And what does it sound like? Well, as swingin' Cubist painter Georges Braque once said, "to define something is to substitute the definition for the thing." Just give Hitsburg Revisited a listen, and if you're lucky enough to have The Fleshtones swing through your town, just go see them—and prepare yourself.

THE FLESHTONES are Ken Fox on bass and vocals, Bill Milhizer on drums and vocals, Keith Streng on guitar and vocals, and Peter Zaremba on vocals, harmonica, and organ. Foolishly pegged as a mere "party band" upon first arriving on their stage in the late 1970's, The Fleshtones have proven—and will continue to prove—that despite the trends and styles and haircuts that once passed for "marketable," their patented brand of Super Rock will last forever, because that's what it is all about: forever, timelessness, clock-out-the-window moments captured in the studio, or often on a stage somewhere at one a.m., that prove that rock & roll is about finding and celebrating a good attitude wherever one can, and giving the world back to the rest of us recharged and new.

The Fleshtones enjoyed their "I.R.S. years" (1980 to 1985), releasing now-classic albums like "Roman Gods" and "Hexbreaker" which proved to be merely blueprints for The Defiant Plan that followed (hint: it involved dedication, and never giving in). The late 1980's found the band writing songs and touring internationally as ever, with a couple of record labels and bass players thrown in. 1990 found Ken Fox joining the band, and the rest of the decade has proven happily steady for the boys, as they've released albums regularly since 1992's "Powerstance," working along the way with producers like Dave Faulkner (Hoodoo Gurus), Peter Buck (R.E.M.), and Steve Albini (Nirvana). Last year's self-produced "More Than Skin Deep" was their most critically-acclaimed album in years, and now "Hitsburg Revisited" offers another glimpse into the rarefied guts of the "Fleshtone-O-Tron."

"I didn't sell my soul, at least I've nothing for it to show, but I gave my life away for a few good memories and a pocketful of change," sang The Fleshtones recently. But not to worry: stopping playing and making rock & roll for such puny reasons as "bitterness" and "consternation" is not biologically possible for these guys—or are they heroes?

THE MEN

Ken Fox (bass & vocals): Born in 1961 in Toronto, Canada, Ken learned his chops (legend has it) by playing along to Fleshtones records in his bedroom. A later stint in Nashville, Tennessee with Jason and The Scorchers burned the trail to The Fleshtones. No longer "Fleshtone, Jr.," Ken earned his five-year pin at the blink of an eye and now is here to stay. Once spotted on stage letting go of his bass and mouthing, "I have no idea what I'm doing."

Bill Milhizer (drums & vocals): Born in 1958 in Troy, New York, Lucky Bill joined The Fleshtones in 1980 at the cusp of the I.R.S. era, and has embraced his role as rock-steady stalwart ever since. Famed for often leading the band out of clubs onto the streets at the close of shows, "conga-style," he still can't seem to leave behind his bass drum in the sweaty process. It is rumored that he prefers a certain hotel in Australia where he can cook his own steak, and that he has a college diploma on his wall.

Keith Streng (guitar & vocals): Born in 1955 in New York City, Keith began his rock & roll life as a drummer but soon met his first true love: the guitar. After a stint in The Dregs, he founded The Fleshtones with longtime mate Peter Zaremba in 1976, and along with his partner has produced the bulk of the band's material. A soft-spoken man whose voice can wail when it needs to (which is often), Keith's ambition is to keep playing the guitar everywhere. (Sadly, his favorite guitar, a '65 Fender Mustang, was stolen some years ago—he promises to throw a big party and invite everyone he knows if she would only come home...).

Peter Zaremba (vocals, harmonica, & organ): Born in 1954 in Maspeth, New York, Peter is a visible lead testifier to the invisible magic of rock & roll. Many remember his stint in the mid-1980s as the host of MTV's "Cutting Edge," and he continues his support of the music he loves by emceeing many festivals and shows. He made his first amateur appearance at the Maspeth Democratic Club at the age of 2, and his energy hasn't slowed since. In addition to fronting The Fleshtones, Peter now writes a monthly column for Time Out magazine in New York City. He once warned, "Don't force me to get a real job, or you'll be sorry!"

The Current Record