Fleshies interview published in RW #18, 2003
I am too lazy (usually) and way too out of my head (right now) to write the intro that Oakland CA’s Fleshies deserve so I’m gonna skip it and instead direct you directly to their records on Adeline and Alternative Tentacles. May you find the answers you need there ’cause you probably ain’t gonna find ’em here—not with the questions I ask. Nevertheless, I remain, humbly yours, Joey T. Germ.
FLESHIES are:
MK: Mr. Kavetski, bass/vocals
M: Mattowar, guitar/vocals
JAP: Johnny Acid Punk, vocals
H: Hamiltron, drums/vocals
RW: Vonny Bon Bons, what’s your name today?
MK: Mr. Kavetski.
RW: You’re from Oakland? How come bands are from Oakland now when they used to be from San Francisco?
MK: The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps to squirt blood thirty feet from the body.
M: Oakland is entirely fictional, just like we are. No one is really from San Francisco, no one can afford it. Only wealthy aliens inhabit S.F. anymore.
JAP: We’re all originally from various trashy, low rent industrial suburbs around the bay. We just live in Oakland because we like the murder rate. One hundred and two this year so far, take that San Pablo with your wack-azz ninety-eight!
H: Son, didn’t anyone ever tell you that, including Vallejo, CA, there exists three cities known for “Bands.” qzazaikk;p,qwid 01`0;wwaa, sdm1201-@!#,@$!, zzzzzzzzzzzzzz (Hamiltron falls asleep on the keyboard.)
RW: Describe a night out on the town in Oakland in one word or less?
JAP: Bicycle.
M: Asmara.
MK: Closed.
RW: What if we did arm the homeless?
JAP: Who “we”, white man? And who’s to say they aren’t already armed? Do you want to find out?
RW: Who is Meatball?
JAP: It’s more of a “what,” really, and it’s all about bringing back the Roll. Too much emphasis is placed on the Rock these days.
M: Songs about speedballs are passe´ and if it takes more than ten seconds to write lyrics, they’re probably too heartfelt to rock. Rock is not about thinking.
RW: Whose got the big green teeth?
M: That would be The Creature.
RW: Are you starting shit?
M: Always.
JAP: Really, if you think about it, one does not really start shit. This must be clarified. Shit comes at the end of the production, so to speak. Nesting in it, playing with it, or throwing it are different matters entirely. Perhaps we should have called the song “Yes, I’m Hurling Shit.
RW: Who’s harder to work for, Jello or Billie Joe?
M: They work for us.
JAP: …and we owe them a lot of back pay.
RW: What’s a Fleshie?
M: I’m still trying to figure that one out.
JAP: Would that be a Fleshy, sort of like a Furby? What’s the possessive? The grammar here is terrible. We don’t even have a “The” in our name, though it clearly infers one. I’ll drink a can of Sparks and do some research.
RW: Living as you do in the Bay Area, are you afraid of the big one?
JAP: The Big One = Big Fun!
JAP: I bit the big one right on its you-know-what.
JAP: I’m afraid of the big bun.
RW: What’s a day in the life of a Fleshie like?
JAP: Eat-work-eat-practice-sleep.
JAP: Cocaine-orgies-cocaine-practice-oxycotin.
JAP: Zzzzzzzzzzzz…..
JAP: A roach can live nine days without its head before it starves to death.
RW: Are you guys as desperate as you sound?
MK: If you fart consistently for six years and nine months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
M: Desperate for good falafel close to my work.
JAP: I’m pretty much always desperate to escape to the warm, stinky confines of the van and go on tour again, far away from this day-to-day stagnancy called life. Tour is much more like a long, weird, dirty cartoon. Loco hobo style.
RW: What time did you all get up this morning?
JAP: 8 am. M: 6:20am.
MK: 9 am you dirty fucker!
H: Zzzzzzzz……
RW: What time did you all go to bed last night?
JAP: 2 am. I got off work at midnight.
M: Midnight.
MK: Right after your sister left. Ouch!
H: Zzzzzzzzzz……
RW: Who killed the Dreamer’s Dream?
M: I didn’t know anyone killed it, we just ordered the people to do it on our last album cover. In context, I guess it be the man.
MK: We’re still trying.
RW: Why did Bobby Joe Ebola and the Children McNuggets break up?
M: To make me cry.
JAP: We tried to become a full band (as opposed to the two-and-a-half person operation it was, me being the half) and the combined weight of opposing wills of five overachieving neurotics was too much for BJE+TCM to bear. I quit, Corbett stopped writing songs, Dan got tired of it, and the two new guys, Robert and Steve (on bass and drums, respectively) hated each other….err, I mean, it was all over “Creative Differences”.
RW: Could you describe the writing process on “I Just Took the Most Punk Rock Shit of My Life”? What was your inspiration?
MK: I wrote the music and Johnny wrote the lyrics. it’s about Hamiltron, he should answer this one.
H: Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz….
RW: Since he’s asleep, I just wanna say it’s all about the Gestalt. “Since I don’t have a horse’s head/I guess I’ll have to shit in your bed”. You know, what one is DOING at the moment as opposed to what SHOULD BE done. One man’s soiled mattress is another man’s liberation. On a related note, I really like how the word “therapist” breaks down into “the rapist”.
RW: Whose your favorite Oakland band besides Fleshies?
M: Phantom Limbs, Sexy, Brainoil, Nigel Peppercock, Erase Errata, Panty Raid, and about a billion others I’m forgetting.
MK: Dory Tourette and the Skirtheads!
JAP: RocknRollAdventureKids, Gravy Train!!!!, The Enemies, Neurosis, Pitch Black, International Postman, Cope, Clan Of The Bleeding Eye, Eddie Haskells, Finky Binks, The Blast Rocks!, Pinhead Gunpowder, Nebulous, Drunk Horse, Lesser Of Two, Exit Wound, Scurvy Dogs, High On Fire, What Happens Next?, and this is only the tip of the Oaktown iceberg o’ power. Any solo favorite would be impossible to name.
RW: Are you going to eat that sandwich?
M: I was planning on it.
RW: Can I have it?
M: I can make you one of your own if you like.
JAP: I’m taking back my sandwich.
RW: Fine, keep it. Thanks Fleshies. Ladies and Gentlemen, Oakland’s Fleshies.
(Applause)
LINKS
www.fleshies.net
www.alternativetentacles.com
Thank you for reading this Fleshies interview. Read more interviews from the Reglar Wiglar print zine here.