We were all connected by music back in the day, but I hope our musical adventures aren’t all retrospective. Time to look beyond the Reagan Administration for inspiration!
What have you created since 1985 that we can share here on Che Underground: The Blog?
Putting my MP3s where my mouth is, I’ll go first. Here are two tracks that live on a nascent site dedicated to the Amazons, my aforementioned San Francisco-based acoustic trio. “Tales of Brave Procrustes” and “Roll Like Sisyphus,” recorded at the Amazons’ farewell gig March 2001 (with the fabulous Lemons Are Yellow), are two installments of an unfinished triptych (Greek mythology-themed, in keeping with the Amazonian imagery). The unwritten Icarus song has been percolating for nearly a decade, and maybe sharing these tracks will shake it loose at last.
The Amazons comprised Matthew Rothenberg (guitar, vocals); Jason Brownell (bass, vocals); Todd Barker (drums, vocals).
I’ve shown you mine; let’s hear yours!
But wait … there was a UCSD based band of women by that name too!
Really?? I have no recollection of such a band! If that’s the case, I offer the same faulty-memory defense that George Harrison presented RE “My Sweet Lord.” 🙂
We were originally going to be The Crocker-Amazons, named for my neighborhood at the south end of SF (where we practiced). Kind of like the Buffalo Springfield. But then we opted for the shorter, gender-bending moniker. (A fine old tradition of mine to come up with non sequiturs for band names … Viz. the four-member phase of 3 Guys Called Jesus.)
Crocker-Amazon!
That’s where my kids and nephews go with me & Christopher to launch rockets, nowadays.
Awwww … Those are some adorable kids!
Another subtle change from 1983: Nowadays, I’d actually trust you with my children around pyrotechnics, Jeremiah. LOL!
And here’s our old house — at an uncontrolled four-way intersection, it was hit by cars two times in 18 months. Note the skid marks; the speed-freak auto mechanics up the street would test-drive vehicles at top speed around 3am.
View Larger Map
During the Che years, I did a lot of MC on stage, and wrote lyrics, etc for a few of the groups. “Manager” was a title folks were kind enough to use, to include me in the club-comp entourage -- I could hardly manage myself! I imagined myself as a ‘front man’ without a band.
In SFO I did a lot of projects over about 5 years. Some with Che alums and acquaintances, some with the wildest bunch of expats and originals I ever have met.
There aren’t many recorded artifacts from these years -- No The Young Duke, no Latin Dogs… I do have a salvaged session of the Deep Six, with Under the Influence. Like Three Guys Called Jesus, there were seven of us.
Jerry: Fairies Wear Boots! Wasn’t that another project? I also remembering you doing a great set at that quasi-biker bar on Upper Haight, and I heard a couple of cool recordings you did with Dave Fleminger early in the SF odyssey.
“Front man sans band” is such a wonderful, apt description of your indispensable onstage persona. It’s wonderful that you can nail your own role as adroitly as you’ve described other people, places and sounds of that era.
Jeremiah: This is a very rockin’ track! You’re in marvelous voice, and who’s the rest of the band?
In 2002 I released a cd by my band, The Tori Cobras on my now bankrupt label, Pure Noise Forever. Copies are scarce and I have one copy left to myself.
Tori Cobras- When Guitars Attack Mp3
Tori Cobras- Revenge Mp3
Tori Cobras- If I Die Today Mp3
Tori Cobras- Love And War Mp3
Tori Cobras- Get In The Van Mp3
Tori Cobras- Stoned Mp3
Tori Cobras- Six Minutes Mp3
Tori Cobras- Rohyphynal Mp3
Since the break up of the Tori Cobras in 2003 I have spent most of my time travelling around residing in different parts of the United States and even Mexico. With the constant flux in residency, finding people to play in a band with has been difficult, to say the least. In lieu of having a solid band I continued writing songs with my home recording gear and played all the instruments, guitar, drums, bass, vocals, keyboards, percussion, etc. myself. The result is Billy Druid’s Atomic Gospel.Two of the Songs are covers, Rod Stewarts’s Maggie May and three songs by the late, great, Cranford Nix Jr.,Pray For The End Of Time, Pawnshop, and Spiders and Snakes. These songs are demos that were recorded in every corner of the country over the last five years.
Bad Man-Mp3
Live Free Or Die-Mp3
Kali-Mp3
Last Call-Mp3
Atomic Sunset-Mp3
Maggie Mayhem-Mp3
Davey Jones-Mp3
Terribly Empty-Mp3
Carpe Nocturne-Mp3
Pray For The End Of Time-Mp3
Carpe Nocturne-Acoustic-Mp3
Spiders and Snakes-Mp3
Pawnshop-Mp3
From 2003 to 2004 I was the lead guitar player in a revived lineup of Battalion Of Saints. That is a really strange and complex story that goes back to Fighting Boys being the first punk record I ever bought when I was 13 years old, to the amusing circumstances that led to me befriending George, and how I pretty much single handidly brought that band back to life and got them back on the map in a way that George could never accomplish on his own in the 90s, to the details of the bitter departure I had from them, as well as the circumstances that led up to George and I, two of the most stubborn individuals you could ever meet, making ammends in Texas recently, and me being invited back into the band.
But that is nothing short of a big chapter in a book. I’ll get back to that in the near future.
In the 90s I played in dozens of bands. Some were a flash in the pan and only played a couple shows or never recorded, others gained some notoriety. Among them were Tit Wrench, Labrador, Mach V Overdrive, and Custom Floor.
I’ve had several bands with my best friend for life, Bobby Lane. They were, in chronological order, Bizarro, Dog, Plastic Man, Brown 25, Kerosene, Cholla, and Chris Squire’s Bomb Threat. What’s up with a Bizarro reunion, Bobby?
I recently found Myspace pages for Tit Wrench and Custom Floor.
After I hacked into the first BOS profile and did a cruel number on it, they had to make this one: Battalion Of Saints
I’m pretty sure Bobby has cassette recordings of all the bands we had together, and if I can get my hands on them I can start going about documenting some presense on the web for sake of history. And I’m working on some mp3s right now to make some commemorative myspace profiles of Labrador and Mach V Overdrive (with Jay and Xavier from the Trebles, and Hector Penalosa from the Zeros)
Here’s a couple videos on youtube of the San Diego debut of the ressurrected BOS of 2003-2004 with me on guitar stage left:
This is a zip file of the entire full length Labrador cd from 1998:
The Invisible States Of America
Labrador was Tony Spain (drums), Rob Ivy (bass), Dominic Decesare (guitar), and myself (guitar, vocals).
Here are the two songs from the first of two seven inches by Mach V Overdrive:
A. Freedom
B. Pretty Girl
On these recordings the consisted of Jay Guevera (vocals, harmonica), Xavier (guitar), Andy Seidlinger (guitar), Tony Spain (drums) and myself (bass). The A side is the only song that I had written for the band, and the B side is a Bo Diddley cover.
Some recent radio shows and studio mixes by me. I’ll delve back in to band stuff too, as time permits.
Erm, just take the blank spaces out of the urls ok ?
the.p.man -- react.fm.jun.15.2008.react.fm.tribute.show
my way of saying thank you to all of the dj’s at react.fm , react.fm management, and all of the listeners .
http:// www. getdarker.com/gotdarker/?fileref=66cf22863a677fd600941fa26aeddea4
the.p.man -- react.fm.08.jun.08.the.brokenbeat.aftermath.show
these are all the tunes i packed in my record box for brokenbeat night jun 7.(this one suitable for long car drives, it’s about 5 1/2 hours)
http:// www. getdarker.com/gotdarker/?fileref=acbeea883e7735a24d2d095ac318d251
The P Man -- Deep End Mix
http:// www. getdarker.com/gotdarker/?fileref=e41394bda318ec30bb35268e90e72565
The P Man -- Spring Cleaning Mix
http:// www. getdarker.com/gotdarker/?fileref=1026ba2094c42bf1e9fdb83adf73f911