Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
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A well-earned honor for one of our own: Mark Neill, founder of San Diego’s Soil of the South Music Production, took Grammy honors this week for his production role on the Black Keys’ “Brothers,” which took a golden gramophone for best alternative album of 2010.
Dave Doyle, fellow member of San Diego’s Unknowns, shares some thoughts about Mark’s win and a few photos from the sessions at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama.
This just in: Gary Heffern will be returning from Finland and getting the band back together April 3. That’s the date local legends the Penetrators headline San Diego’s Casbah with a little help from the Loons and Social Spit.
Heff says the event came together quickly after promoter Tim Mays approached him. “I got the e-mail from Tim on Friday, and by Monday airline reservations had been made … It’s kind of how I live my life … I believe in seizing the moment and running with it, instead of questioning all the details.”
Important new additions to the visual record of San Diego’s mod movement, turn of the ’80s!
“Dean Curtis e-mailed me to inform me that you would like to use some of my mod pics that I have posted on Flickr,” writes San Diego mod pioneer Kirk Murray. “I am not sure how to upload them onto the Che Underground site, which, by the way, is very cool.
Veteran San Diego musician and photographer Dave Doyle was on the scene Jan. 21 when the legendary Nashville Ramblers visited the Til-Two Club on El Cajon Blvd. to celebrate the pending release of their classic “The Trains.” Here’s his report:
“The Nashville Ramblers hit the stage Friday night, last exuding their honest, youthful charm as if I were standing in Bodie’s or Winston’s back in ’86.
“Despite the fact they are all older and live in different parts of the country, they are all consummate musicians and still perform regularly; their consistency should come as no surprise to the observant listener.
(Calling all readers: Take a simple, painless test to save a life.)
Roger Pinnell started his first band in San Diego when he was 19. Throughout 1981 and ’82, he sang in Violation 5 and later The Brood, with bass player Chuck Cole and other friends. The Brood’s most memorable show was at the North Park Lions Club, where they opened for The Misfits.
When he moved to San Francisco in 1985, Roger formed Piglatin with bass player Donnie Diaz, another veteran of the early San Diego underground. The band released two records, and Roger briefly led a lineup of Piglatin in New York City. For the last several years he has concentrated on writing fiction and lives in San Francisco.
Since the summer of 2008, Roger has been battling a rare blood cancer, mantle cell lymphoma. He recently had a relapse and needs a bone-marrow transplant in order to beat this. His doctors at UCSF Medical Center are still searching for a donor. Roger is asking anyone who is willing and able to explore this link for the National Marrow Donor Registry and follow the steps to “Join The Registry.”
All that’s required to join is a simple cheek swab, which the Registry will send to your home in a kit.
(Bart Mendoza invites the gang to watch Reelin’ in the Years’ new documentary and talk to panelists Mike Stax and David Peck.)
On Jan. 22, 2011, at 2 p.m., The Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, Calif., will host a special exclusive advance look at Pretty Things: Midnight To Six 1965-1970, an upcoming film documentary from San Diego’s Reelin’ in the Years Productions, part of its British Invasion series. Admission to the museum includes the screening ($7; $5 for students, seniors and museum members).
Lou Skum reminds us that we’ve yet to include a post on an early San Diego punk band that holds more questions for me than answers.
Considering I can’t even figure out what the band was named — the 7″ release says “Xterminators,” but most of the flyers I’ve seen for gigs at the Skeleton Club and elsewhere refer to “the Exterminators,” with a definite article and a capital “e” — I’d like to set the record straight on this early contributor to the San Diego punk scene.
We’re overdue to devote a post to the recent work of one of the Che Underground’s most protean talents: Jeffrey Luck Lucas, veteran of San Diego’s Morlocks, Mirrors and Answers and a prolific Bay area solo artist.
I was privileged to play with Jeff for a few years in San Francisco — a longtime aspiration of mine — and I can testify to the intensity of his artistic vision through many incarnations.
(Ray Brandes puts out a call for swinging singles.)
Later this month, Mike Stax’s Ugly Things Records will release a celebrated local recording, the Nashville Ramblers’ “The Trains.” If one were to rank the best recordings ever to be made by San Diegans, this one would no doubt place in the Top 10.
On any list it would face some tough competition, though, from Rosie and the Originals’ 1961 classic, “Angel Baby,” to my personal favorite, the Crawdaddys’ “5 X 4” EP, released in 1980.
What is your favorite San Diego recording and what is your personal connection to it? (Feel free to consider artists from San Diego who moved or recorded elsewhere.)
— Ray Brandes
Che Underground New Year’s resolution #1: Get better about tackling our backlog of treasures.
Here’s an assortment of photographs I’m long overdue to post from the collection of Laura S. These 10 photos include mid-’80s shots of Hair Theatre and other nears and dears, followed by Laura’s recollections of the circumstances behind each. Help fill in the blanks!
