Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Answers founder/vocalist/guitarist Dave Fleminger has opened up his archives to share a wealth of photographs spanning the band’s illustrious career.
Here is an assortment of portrait and performance shots of the Answers featuring bassist/vocalist Jeff Lowe and drummer Dave Anderson. Just hold on tight, and you are there!
Packing so much musical talent into the confines of the San Diego scene pushed the Che Underground Mixmaster into overdrive. A couple of short years produced a dizzying melange of amputations, collaborations and creative explosions as assorted musicians formed new combinations.
Sergio of Hair Theatre sang for the Answers; guitarist David Rives from Noise 292 joined them for one performance as Painted Sun; Sam Wilson moved from the Rockin’ Dogs to the Wallflowers to Hair Theatre; Joanne Norris drummed for the Injections, Noise 292 and Everybody Violet; Crawdaddys and Gravediggers became Nashville Ramblers; half of our bands converged into the Morlocks; and Dave Anderson kept the beat for everybody else.
Just as Canada offered political asylum to Wallflowers artifacts over the past quarter-century, Croatia emerges as the sanctuary for sounds of the original Morlocks.
Drummer Mark Mullen last week received this track fresh from the former Yugoslavia — the first in a completely preserved 13-song show at San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall that was originally broadcast live on KALX. (Could it be this show from Sept. 28, 1985?)
Freshly arrived in town, Jerry Cornelius outdoes himself as MC. “That’s me,” Jerry writes. “Doing the intro in imitation of the Dutch band, Q65 — which the Morlocks worshipped.”
A Morlocks motherlode: Founding bassist Jeff Lucas has opened up his archives to Che Underground: The Blog! His collection of photos, flyers, lyric sheets and other curiosities spans the band’s earliest days in San Diego (summer 1984) to the dissolution of the original lineup three years later.
Here’s a showcase of Jeff’s collection followed by his notes:
The Answers come alive! Here’s a very hot number from the 1982 lineup of this protean band. Dave Fleminger sets the scene for this song, which perfectly captures the SD teen spirit we’re celebrating on Che Underground: The Blog.
“The Answers, opening the day’s festivities at ‘Mod Mania,’ hosted by Lumpy at the Adams Ave. Theater, Sept. 18, 1982. Dave Fleminger (guitar/voice); Tony Suarez (bass/voice); David Anderson (drums).
The legendary Cyndie Jaynes Collection of historical photos of the San Diego underground doesn’t stop at Camp Pendleton. Here’s a set of performance photos of the Morlocks playing San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall sometime after the band’s move north as well as earlier shots of them playing an undisclosed location in San Diego.
The Morlocks were an incredible live band, and Cyndie’s lens captures them at the acme of their power. San Diego’s loss … San Francisco’s gain!
What can we say about Cyndie Jaynes? Not only is she a published author and successful graduate of the San Diego underground, she’s also a marvelous documentarian with an unrivaled cache of photos and flyers from early-’80s SD.
Here’s a sampling of the great things she’s shared with me … I’m very grateful for the chance to bring these treasures to light. Stay tuned for more!
A true Che Underground supergroup — comprising David Fleminger (guitar, vocals); Kristin Martin (bass guitar, vocals); Paul Kaufman (guitar, vocals); and Ed Meares (drums) — Lemons Are Yellow first formed in high school, then regrouped in the San Francisco Bay area in the early oughts to create an amazing CD titled “Destroy All Music.”
“Thousand Island” off that 2006 album is a rip-snortin’ salute to El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s of early-’80s San Diego legend and to the waiter there who was rumored to provide patrons who requested “coffee with” a little something extra on the side. How’d you like your coffee with?
(N.b.: Che Underground: The Blog does not condone the use of illicit substances, except to propel a good lyric. The views expressed in “Thousand Island” are humorous and reflect neither Che Underground’s zero-tolerance house policy nor any verified menu practices employed by the Denny’s restaurant chain past or present. Please keep your comments theoretical.)
The Answers’ sizzling cover of the mini-masterpiece “Lucifer Sam” by Syd Barrett’s Pink Floyd was a catalyst for myriad musical adventures.
Tell-Tale Heart Eric Bacher recently recounted how bandmate Dave Klowden’s urging to come watch the Answers play “Lucifer Sam” changed his musical life; it’s a tale eerily similar to my own memory of Noise 292’s David Rives insisting I run to watch a San Diego band that was actually covering Barrett! (I’ve long regretted that the Answers’ absence from the UCSD gig with the Three O’Clock prevented us from instigating a mass “Lucifer Sam-off.”) Gravedigger V and Nashville Ramblers vet Tom Ward also vividly recalls the Answers’ “Lucifer Sam” a quarter-century after the fact. It’s astounding the effects two-and-a-half minutes of music can wreak!
This viral gem was recorded in February 1983 and features Dave Fleminger (guitar, vocals); Jeff Lowe (bass); and Dave Anderson (drums). It’s spiky and wonderful, and it still holds the creative fizz of that moment of musical discovery.
A shimmering testament to an amazing band at the height of its powers. “Nowhere” always took my breath away when the Answers performed it live — and 25 years down the road, Dave Fleminger’s evocation of “what time erases” gives me chills.
This track also bears witness to the Answers’ genius for making home recordings sound like landscapes you’d want to live in! Here’s Mr. Fleminger on the genesis of this tape: “Written by little ol’ me …. instrumental track recorded in [drummer] Dave Anderson’s bedroom (the usual practice spot) with one mic on one channel of a Tandberg reel to reel, vocals recorded in the downstairs bathroom at Pat’s house in sound-on-sound mode. June 1983. Fleminger, [bassist Jeff] Lowe, Anderson is the lineup.”
