Joe Bonomo

About me:

Joe Bonomo's biography of The Fleshtones, the legendary garage rock band out of New York. Published by Continuum Books in 2007.

Joe Bonomo, author of Installations (Penguin) and Jerry Lee Lewis: Lost and Found (Continuum), teaches in the English Department at Northern Illinois University.

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Praise for Sweat:

One of the "Top 5 Reasons To Live". Entertainment Weekly

"...one of the great music biographies." MOJO (UK).

"...a true labor of love....a highly detailed account of the band that refused to go away until, through determination and stamina, they got the book they deserved." The New York Post.

"...honest and dramatic...Publishers Weekly.

“[An] elegantly written biography....” Popmatters.

"...Bonomo tells their cursed story with religious fervor and a near-lyrical quality to his prose." Library Journal

"...magnificent tribute...." Record Collector.

"Bonomo writes with verve, objectivity, humor, and always just the right note of seriousness. The result is an enjoyable, satisfying, and very necessary study of a band on the edge." Popular Music and Society.

"...one of the most fascinating books I've read." Stomp and Stammer.

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Joe Bonomo has written a fine book; a book not only about a band or times passed, but also about the rare virtue of endurance.
—Nick Tosches

Rock and roll is a pretty egalitarian affair. On any given night any band can be the best band in the world, if for only ten minutes. The amazing thing about the Fleshtones is that every night for the last thirty years they have consistently been the best live band on earth. Year in, year out -- high, low and in between -- the Fleshtones have embodied the very essence of rock and roll. This great book by Joe Bonomo really gets to the heart of who the Fleshtones are, and the price they paid. Now it's up to you to check out the Fleshtones when they hit your town. And in my own defense, that fire that Keith and I started in France was really a very small fire. Not worth mentioning at all. Please.
—Peter Buck, R.E.M.

More than an account of a particular band, sound, or specific era in rock history, Joe Bonomo's compelling, well-researched, and thoroughly riveting account of the Fleshtones is an homage to a way of living your life -- one that revolves around raucous music, what Jack Kerouac once called the "quest for kicks," and most of all a whole lot of sweat and passion.
—Jim DeRogatis, pop music critic, Chicago Sun-Times, and author, Let It Blurt: The Life and Times of Lester Bangs, America's Greatest Rock Critic.

In Sweat, Joe Bonomo confronts the realities of life in one of America's great unsung bands of heroes: the Fleshtones. Rocking the house down night after night, holding on to their unique vision forever, whether laughing in the face of failure, caught in the rip tides of American culture, battling on the New York streets, or crowded in the back of a van on its way to the furthest reaches of the solar system…It's a "Blue Whale" of a story: hilarious, harrowing, and ultimately inspiring.
—Peter Case, singer-songwriter

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