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Roots of San Diego rock ‘n’ roll, Part 2

December 16, 2017January 11, 2010 by admin

(Thanks to Jay Allen Sanford’s archives and Mikel Toombs‘ text conversion, here’s the second part of Steve Thorn’s epic history of SD rock ‘n’ roll. This installment first ran in Kicks #4 in December 1979. Read Part One here!)

April Fools Day, 1964, was the day KGB began its strategy to become the number one rock station. KCBQ and KDEO were the unsuspecting victims of the April Fools surprise — “Boss Radio” had come to town.

The brainchild behind the Boss Radio sound was programming wizard Bill Drake, who, prior to bringing the format to KGB, had a successful track record with radio stations in Northern California and a station in Atlanta.

The Unknowns join the show!
Jan. 30 at San Diego’s Casbah

December 18, 2017January 6, 2010 by admin

Cooler and cooler: As if the Town Criers, Manual Scan and the Blues Gangsters weren’t enough to fill out the next Che Underground showcase at the Casbah, San Diego’s legendary Unknowns have joined the bill as special guests!

Guitarist Mark Neill, bassist Dave Doyle and drummer Craig Packham will round out the evening with a short set, their first gig in more than five years. If I had any question about getting my plane ticket’s worth, this answers it definitively. Don’t miss it!

San Diego punk, meet mainstream press

January 4, 2010January 4, 2010 by admin

(Courtesy of Mikel Toombs, a story by Paul Krueger that appeared in the San Diego Union on July 25, 1978, and features some familiar names and faces.)

Promoter Bets His Shirt on Punk Rockers

“Our luck has been good so far,” Tom Griswold said between bites of corn chips and canned bean dip. “We haven’t lost much money. But even if we did, I’d keep at it ’til I lost my shirt.”

Griswold, a thin, fair-skinned 20-year-old who taps his knee nervously as he talks, is a concert promoter. But while money means a lot to most promoters, Griswold is happy if he sells enough tickets to pay the $250 rental fee for the nightclub and has $100 left to split between the two bands.

Come with me to the Casbah!

December 16, 2017January 3, 2010 by admin

Give me a ticket for an aeroplane … Ain’t got time to take a fast train! Jan. 30’s Che Underground event at the Casbah proved too tempting to pass up. I just bought my fare from snowy New Jersey, and I hope to see you while I’m in sunny San Diego.

Our Che Games for May event was a blast — this time out, I’m looking forward to having more of a chance to relax and enjoy the evening and the company of some good friends. Please join me!

To recap highlights of this historic musical showcase:

Radio days

January 6, 2011January 1, 2010 by admin

(In which Ray Brandes channels frequencies of our youth.)

The recent announcement of bankruptcy and sale of San Diego radio station 91X has had many of us here at the Che Underground reminiscing about rock-‘n’-roll radio in San Diego.

The events of my own formative years were accompanied by a soundtrack that emanated from a small transistor radio. Powered by those little rectangular nine-volt batteries that are nowadays are only used to power smoke detectors and guitar tuners, mine had a tiny two-inch speaker and a wrist strap for easy portability. Late at night, under the covers, I listened to pop and soul hits like Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” and The Three Degrees’ “When Will I See You Again,” interspersed with “oldies” like the Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard” and the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.”

Men of Clay: Artifacts

December 31, 2010December 25, 2009 by admin

Courtesy of Clay himself, here’s a set of artwork that evokes his work as editor of Bamboohead and eponymous frontman for Men of Clay.

As these flyers demonstrate, MoC performed frequently in San Diego at the turn of the ’80s and was featured in 1983’s “Our Blow Out” compilation. So far, however, we’ve only discussed the band in passing. Please chime in with your memories of Men of Clay!

Hallelujah! The story of Glory

December 20, 2009December 20, 2009 by admin

(An excerpt from Ray Brandes’ saga of San Diego guitar hero Jerry Raney and his band that shaped the ’70s. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section.)

In a 1978 Village Voice editorial, music journalist Lester Bangs proclaimed: “The music business today still must be recognized as by definition an enemy, if not the most crucial enemy, of music and the people who try to perform it honestly.”

By the mid-‘70s, multinational corporations had taken control of most of the industry, leaving independent record labels and local music scenes to fend for themselves. Longtime music fan and San Diego expatriate Harold Gee remembers the dismal state of affairs which would ultimately lead to the punk movement: “Everything, from the top down, from radio and all other media was total crap. The problem for me was the disconnect between the music that moved me, which mostly seemed to be either in the past or on jazz records, that only got played in a few people’s houses.”

Throughout the ‘70s, however, a few local underground acts had held firmly, David-like in their resistance to the corporate Goliaths. One such band was San Diego’s beloved hard-rock bad-asses Glory, who according to one critic, left “a big greasy mark (and a few stains) on Southern California’s rock & roll scene.”

“Puberty Principle”: First sonic crushes

December 31, 2010December 17, 2009 by admin

(Ray Brandes asks how your first musical love looks in the stark light of adulthood.)

In an essay in Esquire, celebrated rock and roll historian Ben Fong-Torres once formulated “the Puberty Principle,” which holds that the music we listen to in young adolescence is the music that informs our tastes throughout our lifetime. Why not test this idea using ourselves as subjects?

What was the first record (cassette, eight-track tape or CD) you ever purchased? What was the first concert you ever attended? How good of a predictor of your tastes was that “first” experience?

Jim Ryan Archive: Artifacts and memories

December 13, 2009December 13, 2009 by admin

(Jim Ryan of the Cardiac Kidz adds important pieces to the mosaic of the late-’70s San Diego underground.)

The Lions club photo is from the June 1979 show with DFX2 and the Dinettes.

Like the flyer notes, this was the debut of the Dinettes. Doriot was putting a new version of the Cockpits together but decided to go with a whole new name scenario, which expanded the styles of music they would play at their gigs.

The Backdoor flyer is from the Cardiac Kidz’s first show. (Cardiac Kidz bassist Steve Lightfoot was instrumental in setting this gig up.) So yes, the Cockpits were on the scene before the Cardiac Kidz. (I had dated Jolien from the Cockpits for a short time but we broke up before the Cockpits did.)

Unknowns interview by Dan McLain

December 16, 2017December 10, 2009 by admin

Courtesy of Mikel Toombs, here’s a joint artifact of two hugely influential forces in San Diego music: an interview of the Unknowns that Dan McLain conducted for Issue III of his Hobogue ‘zine, dated February 1982.

“I interviewed the Unknowns 2 years ago for Snare magazine,” McLain writes. “In retrospect, I found our previous outing so incomplete that I simply had to do it over again.