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War Games

December 31, 2010September 24, 2009 by admin

(Wallflower/Blues Gangster/BeatHog Dave Rinck recounts a major skirmish in San Diego punk history.)

I wanna say it was the summer of ’80 or ’81 …

In those days, punk rock in San Diego was pretty much like a club that met at a mutually determined location every weekend. A secret underground planning system worked out the details of the meetings and spread them with military precision through a highly effective communications network.

The system functioned like this: A secret cabal of “Organizers,” consisting of the highest ranking punk rockers (like Marc Rude and any member of F.O.N.O.), would determine the event from a menu of options that included:

Local heroes

December 12, 2017September 21, 2009 by admin

Ray Brandes is not only a San Diego musical treasure in his own right; he’s also established himself as a remarkable curator of our musical history.

Ray’s recent biographies of the Penetrators, the Unknowns, the Crawdaddys and the Zeros, among others, are unprecedented for their depth, narrative clarity, and comprehensive work with the original musicians and other key sources.

Other contributors to Che Underground: The Blog have added more pieces to the puzzle, with posts on formative bands such as 5051, Claude Coma and the IVs, and the Injections.

Ron Silva & the Monarchs, reunited

December 31, 2010September 19, 2009 by admin

(Dean Curtis hails the return of a favorite Bay area band with deep San Diego roots.)

When I moved to the Bay area in ’92, I was pretty out of touch with the local music scene. One night, I was browsing through the Bay Guardian’s music listings, and I saw “Ron Silva & The Monarchs” listed.

“Naw, it can’t be the same Ron Silva from The Crawdaddys!” I thought. I went and checked it out anyway. Sure enough, it was the same Ron, fronting a new band of hip R&B cats from San Francisco, put together in ’93 by ex-Loved One Nick Rossi. Ron’s voice sounded better than ever, and the band was top notch!

The Che Underground Cookbook:
Dave Wallflower’s Peri Peri Chicken

December 11, 2017September 16, 2009 by admin

(Wallflower/Blues Gangster/BeatHog Dave Rinck introduces a new Che Underground feature with culinary flair.)

Aside from music, eating is in my opinion “the other” great joyful sensory activity in life. And for the past 20 years, ever since I left San Diego, I’ve had the good fortune to travel the world trying some of the best foods the human race ever invented. (The accompanying photo was taken in one of my favorite restaurants in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon circa summer 2003. OK, it’s a Hezbullah stronghold — but man, I’d never let a little thing like Islamic fundamentalism stand between me and a good tabouli!)

Now, there’s really nothing out there that can hold a candle to three rolled tacos with guacamole or a carne asada burrito from Roberto’s, but I have discovered some fantastic grub over the years. So now, just like we’ve shared music we’ve discovered since we parted company, I wanna share with you here one of my all-time fav foods.

Then and now: The Che Cafe

August 20, 2011September 14, 2009 by admin

(High time! Che Underground documentarian Kristen Tobiason revisits the spot that gave the blog its name.)

The first time I landed on the surface of the Che Café was at an early-evening soundcheck for the Wallflowers (not the Jakob Dylan pansy MTV sensation, but the raw & funky, OG Wallflowers), who were opening that night for Noise 292.

Arriving and styling in Paul Howland’s parents’ green station wagon, we unloaded a couple pieces of equipment, and then proceeded to hang out in the woodsy picnic areas surrounding the venue, creating a smoky haze amidst talk of music and the humor of Tom and Paul’s use of ordinary soap as an alternative to dime-store hair gel.

Christopher Duane Mathes

September 11, 2009September 11, 2009 by admin

(An appreciation by Patrick Works.)

Christopher Duane Mathes is my brother.

Most of you know him as Chris Negro, and as much as he’s been conflicted about that name, and the legacy of his race and how that placed him amongst us, he’d be the first to proudly tell you …

“I was born in Monroe, Louisiana, and I HAVE picked cotton!”

Rumor has it that he’s died. I don’t know. I’ve heard so many damned rumors and stories about Chris over the years that I’ve long ago given up taking any to heart. I never stopped telling those stories that I’ve either created from whole cloth or witnessed myself and embellished to positive effect (I believe) on his legend. He’s too good a character.

The Penetrators: Walking the Beat

September 9, 2009September 5, 2009 by admin

(Excerpts from Ray Brandes’ definitive history of a band that shaped San Diego music. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section.)

On October 8, 1977, Santana and Journey played to a sold-out crowd at the San Diego Sports Arena. That same night, across town at the Adams Avenue Theater, a decrepit former cinema, the Zeros, Dils and Hitmakers were making history by playing what has since come to be considered a milestone San Diego concert: the first big punk show.

The audience was full of artists, musicians and poets, future movers and shakers who would go on to form bands, create fanzines, open independent record stores, and promote shows and galleries for decades to come. Among those in attendance were several young misfits who were drawn together by their love for early rock and roll and beat music and who would eventually change the local musical landscape as the Penetrators.

Surfacing the Gravedigger V

March 30, 2019September 2, 2009 by admin

A recent comment by Kristen Tobiason has me puzzling over how best to focus conversation on the Gravedigger V, a youthful San Diego band whose brief existence in 1983-1984 has inspired a quarter-century of notoriety.

There are plenty of online references to the band and its album “All Black and Hairy,” but many pieces are of questionable accuracy. What can we do to set the record straight?

‘You just keep me hanging on … ‘

December 11, 2017September 1, 2009 by admin

Group consciousness in action? In the weeks after so many of us got back together for May’s Che Games at the Casbah (and the lovely Graveyard Park picnic that followed), I was struck by the number of references to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” dropped by attendees.

Never mind its post-“Trainspotting” ubiquity: “Perfect Day” remains a haunting paean to love and loss, as the narrator muses about a perfect day with a companion who made him feel like “someone else … Someone good.”

It’s also makes me think about the “perfect days” of our youth … And days that approach perfection now.

The Front flyers (Waxon Collection)

March 27, 2019August 29, 2009 by admin

In another selection from her collection of vintage San Diego flyers, Dawn Hill Waxon focuses on the Front, the mid-’80s post-punk outfit that featured Morgan Smith, Mark Baez, Kevin Chanel and Dan Mehlos.

These flyers date from 1984 and include the earliest show we’ve encountered so far at the short-lived but influential Rock Palace (a gig with the Tell-Tale Hearts to usher in 1985).