Fleshies: Brown Flag

Bromance is in the air, thanks to Bay punk legends Fleshies and new album Brown Flag

The sound of Brown

SONIC REDUCER Who's afraid to emphasize the fraught, messy love between musicians, timid about foregrounding the mate in bandmate? Not Fleshies vocalist John Geek, a.k.a. Johnny No Moniker, a man eager to describe his combo's new full-length, Brown Flag (Recess), as the product of the muddy, murky waters of manly affection.

"It's a man-love record," Geek freely confesses while waiting on fiancée Megan (she just happens to be another ever-lovin' bandmate, this time in Street Eaters). "We kind of realized we all sort of despised each other — and all love each other so deeply we'd jump in front of a train for each other. That's the bromance of Brown Flag."

Sentimental mood miniatures like "You Could Be a Star" as well as tunes about "friends who lost themselves and are more on the edge than they should be," found their way beneath Brown Flag's banner, which Fleshies let fly Jan. 9 at Bottom of the Hill. But so did perfectly raging and fun rock-out numbers like "Grounded" and "Fire It Up" and what Geek describes as "ridiculous" songs à la "Now She Is a Cop" and "Over the Rain-Dro." The latter emerged from one absurd misadventure, when Geek accidentally lapped up a PCP lollipop he found lying around backstage at a hip-hop show a friend was working. "It's the worst drug on the planet," Geek complains good-naturedly. "You feel overwhelmed, and your teeth are clenched. You're just disassociated and annoyed that you're irritatingly high." …Read More