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Secret Society Scooter Club reunion

June 30, 2009September 23, 2008 by admin

(Club President and reunion organizer Tony Suarez gathers the tribes and lives to tell the tale.)

The 25th anniversary of the Secret Society Scooter Club was held over the Labor Day weekend in San Diego. One hundred twenty or so current/alumni members and their wives descended on San Diego from as far away as Boise, Idaho, and Warrington, Va. The newly formed Chicago chapter (of two) and the San Francisco chapter made it as well.

Cat-herding folks that I hadn’t seen for a good 20 years was not as difficult as I had predicted. Getting folks to pay for a dinner at a hotel on time for our due date was another story! Threats of e-mail spam and other modern online tactics got everyone together.

The Answers: “It’s OK”

January 21, 2018September 22, 2008 by admin

(Answers guitarist Dave Fleminger shares a rockin’ track and the axe behind it.)

“Ode to a Jazzmaster”
Back in ’83, you could walk into Guitar Trader on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. and pick up a vintage Fender Jazzmaster for $249. That was the tag price. Although the guitar had a neck of questionable authenticity as it had no headstock logo, it played great, albeit a bit buzzy with worn frets, and sounded BOSS (no, not in reference to Boss pedals … it was an authoritative-sounding axe).

That summer the Answers went into Soundtrax studio to record four songs. When it came time to track “It’s OK,” a fun, throwaway rocker that was my sideways ode to talking to myself and Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?,” my Jazzmaster was deemed too grotty-sounding, and I was offered a spanky Telecaster that happened to be on hand at the session. I caved in even though I couldn’t play the Tele for crap, and the results sound way too clean on the recording … resulting in a version of the song that evokes the B-52’s, right down to the agitated, Fred Schneider-esque vocals, rather than the original garage-rock intent.

Let the Good Times Roll: The untold story of the Crawdaddys

March 27, 2019September 20, 2008 by admin

(Excerpts from Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes’ groundbreaking history of San Diego’s original retro-visionaries. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section.)

The Crawdaddys have been called one of the most influential bands ever to come out of San Diego. When one looks at the groups its members have spawned, as well as the recurring popularity of ‘60s-style punk and rhythm and blues over the past 30 years, it’s hard to dispute that assertion. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of music history, an uncompromising commitment to artistic integrity, and a roster of musicians with unparalleled talents and distinct individual styles, the Crawdaddys single-handedly gave birth to the revival of garage music in the late 1970s in the United States. The reverberations of the first few chords they played are still being felt today.

The Crawdaddys’ story begins and ends with lifelong Beatles fanatic Ron Silva, who grew up on Del Monte Avenue in Point Loma. He and his neighbor Steve Potterf started listening to records together in the ninth grade, and while Silva would barely tolerate Potterf’s love for Kiss, Aerosmith, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin, he gradually convinced his friend to appreciate his own tastes. “After a while Steve started getting into the music I liked — Beatles, early Stones. I remember sitting in his room playing guitars along to my dad’s Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley 45s,” says Silva.

This We Dug: X-ray Spex

December 16, 2017September 19, 2008 by admin

(In the first installment of a new series, Dave Rinck takes the mic in praise of germ-free adolescence.)

Hi guys, this is Dave Wallflower. Here on the Che Underground Web site, we’ve mentioned in passing a lot of the very cool bands outside the SD music scene that inspired us, excited us or are simply cool bands to listen to.

Well, not everyone may be familiar with all of these bands, so in this new series I plan to talk about bands we’ve dug through the years, why we dug them and what they’re doing now. Here we go!

The other day I put X-ray Spex on over the iPod at a party, and people around me reacted like I’d lost my mind. “This band is loud and noisy,” someone complained, “and the singer is screaming.” Hmmm … Yes, that’s all true, but exactly what is it that you don’t like about them?

Then and now: Off the Record

January 1, 2011September 17, 2008 by admin

(Roving correspondent/photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits the scenes of our youth. Today, Off the Record’s original location is roadkill.)

It takes my breath away that the candy store of my youth has been diminished to something as unsavory as a used-tire store. Off the Record has had a history, migrating from its origin on 6130 El Cajon Blvd. to the heart of the Hillcrest shopping district, where a much larger store thrived in the ’90s and early 21st century with San Diego’s indie rock scene and the DJ phemenon. The in-store concerts were memorable and yielded huge turnouts for bands such as The Misfits, Husker Du, Mudhoney and Nirvana. (Check out Nirvana at OTR in October 1991.)

After the original owner Phil Galloway sold the store, it downsized its stock considerably and in 2005 moved to a small storefront on University Avenue in North Park. The end of an era: Music stores can’t compete nowadays with the instant accessibility of MP3s and shareware. Record stores are reserved for the discriminating vinyl collectors who will never sell out completely to technology, no matter how clever those gizmos are!

Records will always be cooler.

The Amazons: “Brother P-Touch”

March 29, 2019September 16, 2008 by admin

“Brother P-Touch” is a song I originally wrote for the Ho Hos that became a flagship number for my last San Francisco band, the Amazons. I share it here with a San Diego twist and a fun anecdote about the power of Web distribution.

When I penned this number around 1993, I was writing about printers for MacWEEK magazine. The Brother P-Touch was and remains a very popular line of label printers. When I first heard the name, I pictured this lecherous messianic figure, kind of a cross between Rasputin and David Koresh, and built the song from there. The chorus leads with the exhortation, “Brother P-Touch — raise your arms!” I don’t think any of my San Diego expat bandmates ever realized I was evoking not only a charismatic preacher but the Penetrators’ song “Nervous Fingers,” during which those of us in the pit would raise our arms and wiggle our fingers.

Read moreThe Amazons: “Brother P-Touch”

Sonic Love Affair: “The Dirty Kids”

January 1, 2011September 14, 2008 by admin

(Che Underground prodigy-turned-full-grown rocker Dylan Rogers tells the San Diego story behind the music.)

Unlike most people on this blog, I will be starting from the end, not the beginning.

Sonic Love Affair recorded “The Dirty Kids” summer of 2006 at Wally Sound in Oakland, California. This is one of the 12 songs recorded for a second album, which was not released. Soon after the band split.

Rob Alper (guitar); Curtis Franklin (guitar); Jerry Fiore (drums); Rudge (bass); Dylan Rogers (vocals). Produced by Wally.

I had written these lyrics about eight years earlier in my apartment in Brooklyn, New York, only to toss them aside for years.

I had been thinking a lot about my childhood in the neighborhood of Ocean Beach. I was not just thinking about myself but all the kids who grew up in O.B. Kids who led a fast-paced life at very young ages, dealing with adult situations and too young to cope.

Three Dog day afternoons

January 1, 2011September 13, 2008 by admin

Courtesy of Rockin’ Dogs drummer and band archivist Cole Smithey, here’s a collection of photographs from the band’s last phase, when it became a trio with the departure of founding guitarist/vocalist Dave Ellison.

In addition to Cole, these pictures from late 1984 and early 1985 feature Sam Wilson (guitar, vocals) and Jane Bunting (bass, vocals).

“I’m with the band.”

April 23, 2012September 12, 2008 by admin

Time for belated public acknowledgment of people who aided and abetted those of us on stage.

I’d suggest that performing with a band required a mix of artistic impulse, personal ambition, exhibitionism, a desire for recognition and a need for affirmation. (Your mileage may vary on which traits were dominant.) Most of us had a major assist from folks who didn’t seem to need the limelight so desperately but were there for us: other kids who were known as roadies; managers; girlfriends (and boyfriends); or never had an “official” label but still exerted tremendous influence.

Who carried your amp and fixed your strings? Who drew your flyers? Who second-guessed the sound man and argued with the promoter? Who stood down front on an empty dance floor when everyone else huddled 40 feet back?

Let’s give credit where credit is overdue!

Noise 292: “Mr. Pumpkin”

January 1, 2011September 11, 2008 by admin

Here’s a late but significant contribution to the Noise 292 set list. “Mr. Pumpkin” by guitarist David Rives appeared on a four-song demo we recorded at Mira Costa College, I believe in April 1984.

The driving metalwork percussion is classic Wendell Kling, and I’m under the distinct impression that the drums on this session were generously contributed by the multitalented Sergio of Hair Theatre. Dave sings lead, and I’m on bass.

Listen to it now!