While on tour in Gijon, Spain during February of 2010, The Fleshtones dropped by the studio of Dr. Explosion mainman Jorge Muñoz-Cobo Gonzalez and recorded four rockin' tunes in Spanish just released by Yep Roc as the Quatro x Quatro EP. According to the Fleshtones' frontman Peter Zaremba, the concept of recording en Español has actually been in the works for 35 years and, like many twisted Fleshtones tales, it has a strange Ramones connection.
“The story of this record goes way back to our original bass player, Marek Pakulski, finding a bunch of albums including Los Johnny Jets A Go Go in the trash in front of Joey Ramone’s Lower Eastside tenement one night in 1977, ” explains Zaremba. “Johnny Jets were a typical Mexican ’60s rock and roll group – covering top-ten hits of the time like Wooly Bully in Spanish with varying degrees of competence – just the thing to appeal to The Fleshtones. Rather than the Spanish language versions of overly-familiar tunes like Hang On Sloopy, what really caught our ears were two more-or-less original tracks No Tengo Dinero and Todos Queremos A Lupe (which seemed to at least be inspired by Johnny Thunder’s 1962 hit Loop De Loop). We decided we would record these two songs ourselves as soon as possible. If nothing else, The Fleshtones are good for their word!”
True enough, Los Fleshtones' limited-edition Quatro x Quatro EP is now available on 180 gram vinyl or as a digital download from the Yep Roc Store
Thanks Tim,
ReplyDeleteNow we're covered North and South of the border. And it's true, we're jumped on the Los Johnny Jets covers bandwagon. Our version it's too bad, but the LJJ original is one of my all-time favorite recordings. It's Mexed to the max!
Peter Zaremba