A Che Underground exclusive: San Diego legends The Nephews revisit four decades of music ahead of their Feb. 18 appearance at The Casbah San Diego for A Che Underground Midwinter Masque. Book your tickets early and often!
The Nephews began as a comedy act in middle school around 1980. The original name was Ceilings and Floors, but we changed it to The Nephews (which has the same amount of meaning as “Ceilings and Floors”) around 7th grade.
We were very heavily into music, started playing as a rock band in high school, and were able to start playing club shows fairly quickly. Actually, our very first show outside of inland North County where we grew up was at the Che Cafe in 1984. We supported Manual Scan at Club Zu pretty early on.
Eric Cullen (Nephews keyboardist, 1989): “The first memory I have of The Nephews is of them playing during lunchtime at Poway High School. The
thing that immediately hit me about their music was how sophisticated their sound was, considering this was high school and all. Their harmonic language was dense, their chord progressions rather abstract, the lyrics obtuse. The Nephews’ music seemed advanced and not really belonging to the time, which was 1984 or ‘85. They were mining their own sound, and to this 17-year-old it sounded great. They had an air of ’60s psychedelia but were in touch with current underground bands like R.E.M., Minutemen and Pere Ubu. They also had a slight Zappa/Beefheart side about them, as well.”
Charlie Brownell (originally joined as drummer in late 1985): “Constantly evolving, rooted psych … Somehow, we fit in with the mod New Sounds of the ‘ 60s scene, but my influence was more Minutemen, Rain Parade, Camper Van Beethoven, R.E.M., Pink Floyd, and Stooges. Local bands that inspired me were The Standards, Hair Theatre, The Dils, Penetrators, Zeros, and later Rice The flyer at Greg Shaw’s place was my first show … opening for The Unclaimed in ’85.”
Tim Ellison: “For me, the early years were really special in getting out and around, meeting all kinds of interesting people, and just getting to really work at the music. We were very lucky! Lots of great memories of wonderful shows — the Halloween gig at Greenwich Village West with Noise 292, Cindy Lee [Berryhill], and The Morlocks; all of Bart [Mendoza]’s festival-type shows; actually getting to play in other cities. It was incredible.”
There are some studio recordings of the 1980s Nephews up on our Bandcamp page.
Swami John Reis: “The band seemed to be in a constant state of evolution … ”
After some lineup and stylistic changes, the years 1992-1996 were also an active period. The band at this time was a trio of Tim; Charlie; and Robb Abramson (aka Fez Wrecker) on bass, growing to a four- and five-piece group toward the end. This band was also fortunate to be a part of a great local scene, getting to tour with Rocket from the Crypt, doing an album in 1994 for Sympathy for the Record Industry, and just gigging hard and recording. We got played on John Peel’s show once! The 1994 album This World is up on our Bandcamp page as well. 
Colin Watson: “I met Tim, Charlie and Robb in ‘93 when aMiniature (former band) started playing shows with The Nephews. Robb and I hit it off because we both had Thunderbird basses. Tim and my bandmate John Lee became roommates at one point.
“The Nephews were the most unique band in San Diego. No question. Tim made a Silvertone 1449 guitar cool before Beck did. The songs were just cool. The band was always evolving. They could fit in on any bill, no matter the lineup. It was just cool.
“Fast-forward to 2015. After years of being out of touch, I was following Tim on social media, and he was posting really cool demos of songs he was writing. Stuff only Tim could write. I reached out, told him they were great, and said if he ever planned to move forward with the songs and needed a bass player to keep me in mind. He said thanks and then nothing for a month or so. He reached out telling me he and Charlie were getting together to talk playing again and asked if I wanted to tag along. Over tacos, I joined the band.”
The new group, dubbed The Nephews and a Niece, came out of an opportunity to do a show in 2015 with Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver. We had done a reunion show in 2009, but decided to do new music for this one, and with Colin and April Drury on keyboards, it has evolved from that point. We have two recent singles (“The Only Black Mouseketeer” and “Victorian House”) up on our Bandcamp page and are currently working on an EP titled John’s Fishing Village, hopefully for 2022. We are playing a trio gig as the Nephews for the Midwinter Masque!
I’d caught The Nephews a couple of times in ’84 and ’85, of course. The Halloween show with The Morlocks and Noise 292, very obviously!
They requested to be on the bill for Dave Fest III. Patrick Works, Dave Rinck and I were just answering phones saying “yes” to all comers, figuring we’d put up two stages and have either a legend or a catastrophe — which was just another kind of legend. Dave Fest I and II were notorious catastrophes, retroactively named as precedent.
The Nephews were on early, while it was still light outside, and I was floored. This was a different band than what I’d seen before. I had that same flood of enthusiasm hearing them, as I had when first hearing Dave Fleminger’s reformed The Answers, at Adams Avenue Theater in ’82. I’m sure I gushed at Tim, Mark, and Scott. I was planning my San Diego exit, and I don’t think I got the chance to see them again. This was in July of ’85, and by mid-September, Ted Friedman and I engineered the San Francisco exodus, to keep The Morlocks from disbanding — and fulfilling my personal aims.
https://www.sceneroller.com/events/che-cafe-saturday-july-20-1985-unclaimed-fourgiven-through-looking-glass
The Halloween show was the last time Noise 292 would play out for 25 years … We’d played with The Morlocks before, but IIRC not Cindy Lee Berryhill or The Nephews — and it was our only gig at Greenwich Village West.
(Halloween 1984 was off the chain: While we were playing GVW, The Tell-Tale Hearts and Rockin’ Dogs were throwing a costume party a few blocks away at Studio 517!)
https://www.sceneroller.com/events/studio-517-wednesday-october-31-1984-tell-tale-hearts-rockin-dogs
I have about 5 stories from that Halloween night, Matthew. I was living in Greenwich Village West at the time, as were Todd Lehman, and Leighton was crashing there that week.
Wild.