Hello My Name is Peter
Coronavirus
( COVID-19 )
Update
For the safety of our community and its people , Impact Fuel Room will be closed and all shows rescheduled and postponed for the time being .
We are grateful for many of our customers who have purchased tickets to these shows , and we will be reaching out with updates as we learn more .
Check www . impactfuelroom . com for updates . Thank you for your patience , stay tuned and stay safe !
When Peter Zaremba was a little kid growing up in Flushing , New York , he managed to convince his skeptical parents to take him to a Saturday matinee of a classic old Hammer Films spectacular called Rasputin , The Mad Monk , with Christopher Lee chewing up the Russian scenery in the titular role . Everyone who bought a ticket would receive a “ Free bearded Rasputin mask to ward off Evil ,”
03 • 2021
promised the film ’ s newspaper ad , and what self-respecting young gorehound could resist such a lurid pitch ? “ But the mask turned out to be this real piece of shit — it was actually mimeographed ,” recalls The Fleshtones frontman and Underground Garage DJ .
" And the movie turned out to be Rasputin just seducing these buxom babes , left and right . And I was eleven years old , sitting between my parents , watching this movie I had talked them into seeing , and it was really embarrassing . But I never forgot the promo idea of that mask .” So naturally , when his trashy garage-rock combo was conceiving the artwork for its snarling , B-film-inspired new Face of the Screaming Werewolf set , its 22nd , it made perfect sense to include a bonus werewolf mask in the vinyl edition , so folks at home could howl along . “ And I told the record company ( YepRoc ), ‘ You have to emphasize that — ‘ Buy it for the free mask , the free ‘ Face of the Screaming Werewolf ’ mask to ward off evil !’ For a punk-birthed band that made its live debut at New York ’ s CBGB ’ s back in 1976 , The Fleshtones is still going strong on “ Werewolf ” growlers like “ Swinging Planet X ,” “ Child of the Moon ,” an ode to Australian candies “ Violet Crumble , Cherry Ripe ,” and even an homage to revered late Jeopardy host “ Alex Trebek .” With founding guitarist Keith Streng hitting all the right retro-chorded notes , the disc still has the same primal urgency and novelty-song spirit of the catalog classic , Hexbreaker !! on IRS Records from 1983 . Streng and Zaremba ’ s indefatigable spirit has been well-documented over the ensuing years , as well , first in Joe Bonomo ’ s authorized biography Sweat : The Story of The Fleshtones , America ’ s Garage Band in 2007 , a 23-band covers album that same year , Vindicated ! The Story of The Fleshtones and a 2009 documentary by Geoffray Barbier , Pardon Us For Living , But the Graveyard ’ s Full . What ’ s Zaremba ’ s secret of vampiric Eternal Youth ? The Psychedelic Count — as he ’ s known to Underground Garage listeners — rises from his crypt to elucidate . IE : You grew up appreciating a campy horror and sci-fi B-film aesthetic . PETER ZAREMBA : I grew up on it before it was even campy . It was just like , “ Wow !
Look at that !” And some of the films were terrifying . But usually , you had to wait until Continued on page 8
6 illinoisentertainer . com march 2021