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Noise 292: “Never Come Near”

January 1, 2011February 27, 2009 by admin

(Dave Fleminger recalls this performance from Noise 292’s April 25, 1984, appearance at UCSD’s Center for Music Experiment.)

I strongly remember this show, and especially this song. It was one of the last shows I saw before I left San Diego. Noise 292’s set was solid and focused, and unrelenting. This song, the last one in the set, struck me especially in its cold and alienating embrace.

The vocals and the high melody lock together into a single statement that shatters by the end into a mass of confusion and disjointed thought. Like so many great songs, it was easy to relate to it as a manifestation of my own mixed feelings — in this case about leaving home, my friends, this amazing music scene, everything familiar.

Read moreNoise 292: “Never Come Near”

Che Games for May: Extended play!

March 27, 2019February 23, 2009 by admin

Set the controls for the heart of the sun: The Che Underground’s quarter-century reunion looms ever larger — so large, in fact, that one night just couldn’t contain it.

Now scheduled for May 29 and 30 at Tim Mays’ legendary Casbah Club in San Diego, the event will comprise:

Memories of the Injections

January 1, 2011February 21, 2009 by admin

(Joey Miller, a k a P Gargoyle, f k a Joanne Norris, drummer extraordinaire for the Injections as well as Noise 292 and Everybody Violet, shares scans and recollections of the legendary punk band, which also featured Lou Skum on vocals, Bruce Perreault on guitar and Lisa Acid on bass and helped propel the San Diego scene at the turn of the ’80s.)

Like fine wine, we have all aged, and here we are almost 30 years later on Che Underground: The Blog. I had some old flyers and other things left over, and the ones that I did not discard I scanned. (I never thought they would get their just due, but I was wrong.)

Some of the things I had were easier to scan than others. Some of them I have seen in other places on the Web, like Lou’s Facebook page, but I haven’t seen them all together. Not yet.

Son of Che: Underground Express at Dass, Nairobi

January 1, 2011February 19, 2009 by admin

(Peripatetic Wallflower Dave Rinck extends the Che Underground to East Africa.)

Somebody called me on the phone … They said, “Hey! Is David home?” It was Gilbert Barthe, lead guitarist of my current band the Beathogs. “We’re all down at Dass. You wanna come down and play a show in about 45 minutes?” Well, sure, I thought. Why not? I was always under the impression that Dass was just this sort of funky Ethiopian restaurant located on the second floor of a grim concrete building on this crazy street of bars in Westlands (a part of Nairobi near where I live). But anyway, I was at this lame party, kinda bored, so I though well what the hell … it’d be more fun than staying here. So I grabbed my guitar and headed on down.

Next thing you know, I found myself climbing this narrow cement staircase up to the second floor of this dusty old building. I knew the place on the first floor was Havanas, a nightclub and restaurant that a friend of mine named Zelalem deejays at, attracting huge unruly mobs some nights that spill off the sidewalk out front and into the street until all hours. I myself had frequently held court over plates of fish almondine on linen tablecloths and huge carafes of wine in the backrooms of that place well after midnight. But I’d never made the haul up to the second floor. Well, that was all about to change …

Happy birthday, Che Underground!

January 1, 2011February 15, 2009 by admin

Exactly one year ago Monday, I posted the first awkward entry to Che Underground: The Blog. This tiny corner of cyberspace was originally intended as a little online gathering point for a few old friends who’d been chatting on e-mail to swap MP3s and photos and maybe tell each other stories about our salad days. My statistics software shows me we had a total of 28 people look at the blog in February 2008.

Fast-forward precisely one revolution around the sun: Our audience grew to more than 8,500 people in January ’09 — but a much, much more important statistic is the sheer wattage of joy and love generated by being all together, All Grown Up. (A little jolt of pain here and there, perhaps … But that’s just part of the refining process, right?)

Here’s a space for Che birthday wishes and reflection: What have you given and received here this past year?

Then and now: Ideas as my maps

June 30, 2009February 11, 2009 by admin

(Kristen Tobiason remembers when books came in stores, not chains.)

In my back pages, I spent a lot of time perusing used paperbacks and the dusty corridors of Wahrenbrock’s and Blue Door Bookstore. What I was reading was just as influential as the music I was listening to.

Literature was an influential element, a hot, voluptuous topic of conversation among our group, passionate, fueling argument or forging agreement. Who was reading what? Can I borrow that?

Fiction and poetry colored our expression, our ideas and our character. I remember loitering at the Florida Street apartment for hours listening to Pat and Jerry discuss pre-revolutionary Russian literature or the Illuminati chronicles. Or Eric Bacher smoking and reading a book by Bukowski or Celine. Jeff Lucas quoting Rimbaud. Borrowing Michael Moorcock from David Rinck. A thrift-store mission for H.P. Lovecraft titles with my boyfriend. The gloating happiness of having scored a stack of titles for a couple of dollars.

Photo paydirt from the garage

January 1, 2011February 7, 2009 by admin

“Hi Matthew,” writes Greg S. “Maybe you remember me. … Toby Thunderbird/ Lifehater/ Gibson told me about your site.

“I’m visiting the US and thought I’d dig up some old photos to contribute, which have been sitting in a box in my mom’s garage. … Wasn’t sure how/where to post them, so here they are.”

Lux Interior, RIP

December 11, 2017February 5, 2009 by admin

(Dylan Rogers commemorates another painful loss to the rock-‘n’-roll underground and recognizes the Cramps’ California connection.)

“Lux Interior, lead singer of The Cramps, passed away yesterday due to an existing heart condition at Glendale Memorial Hospital.”

Holy shit! Not again!

The Cramps are one of my fave bands. I have seen them more than any other band. They really got me through some lean musical times (late ’80s -mid ’90s); for a while, they were the only decent bands you could go see with ties to early punk.

Yes The Cramps are associated with New York, but the true beginnings of the band started in the early- to mid-1970s in Sacramento, Calif., in a small apartment on the corner of 21st and H, where Lux and Ivy first lived together. (Rumor has it Lux picked up Ivy hitchhiking, and they had been together ever since.)

A message from the Wallflowers

January 1, 2011February 2, 2009 by admin

As the Titans of the Che Underground suit up for their 25-year reunion at Che Games for May (May 29-31, 2009, in San Diego), vocalist Dave Rinck and bassist Paul Howland of San Diego’s original Wallflowers took time out to videotape their personal invitations to the event.

Be sure to catch the Wallflowers along with the Answers; the Gay Dennys (featuring members of the Tell-Tale Hearts and the Crawdaddys); Hair Theatre; Manual Scan; and Noise 292 at the Casbah May 30, 2009!

Got Che? Check out David Rinck, Dave Fleminger and Paul Kaufman’s musical promo!

Creative outlets

December 18, 2017January 31, 2009 by admin

“It’s interesting that most everyone seems to be as creative (and in most cases, maybe even more creative) than in our formative years,” Toby Gibson observed in a recent thread.

“Definitely we need a topic on how everyone is venting their creative bent these days. I’ll leave it at that and save the long-winded rant for the actual thread.”

Abridging my own long-winded rant, Toby nails another great topic. Nostalgia is a rich vein indeed, but this group is more than the sum of its memories. From Toby’s own writing to Patrick Works’ and Dave Doyle’s photography to Todd Lahman’s tonsorial stylings to the welter of punk-rock chefs in the house — to the folks who are still making music, of course — there’s a lot of creativity here (both money-making and otherwise).