Artifacts | The Che Underground

Bandmates/other friends 1982-1990 (+1)

January 1, 2011June 6, 2009 by admin

(Bart Mendoza of Manual Scan and the Shambles — San Diego music historian extraordinaire — shares some highlights from his stacks.)

Some call it being a pack rat; I prefer the tag “archivist”! The dream is to put together a DVD/book with the rooms full of stuff I’ve accumulated in 30 years of collecting San Diego music memorabilia.

But in the meantime, in honor of the recent Che Underground reunion shows, here are 20 relevant vintage photos from my archive. For this fifth picture post, I’ve included a little bit of everything: random photos from 1982-1990 (+1), including bandmates and other friends.

1) Dean Curtis at Club Zu. You know it’s a good show if Dean is in attendance.

So … Whaddya wanna do now?

March 30, 2019June 2, 2009 by admin

Wow. Just … wow. The Che Games weekend was an emotional, artistic and spiritual triumph — throw in a few adjectives of your own there! I’m grateful that so many other people feel so energized and fulfilled by the time we spent together.

I think most of us need at least a little while to digest (and for those of us heavily involved in prep, to reclaim our schedules). But hey: While the iron’s hot, I want at least to hear what new worlds you want this blog and this community to explore next.

Here are a few items on my personal menu … Please chime in with more!

Get your Che Games poster!

December 11, 2017May 27, 2009 by admin

What’s an iconic concert without an iconic poster? In honor of Che Games for May, the 25th anniversary tribal gathering slated for May 29-30 at San Diego’s Casbah, Ray Brandes and artist Kevin Diamond have created this handsome memento so participants near and far can own a piece of music history.

Enjoy this commemorative gift, and we hope to see you there!

From Scan to the Shambles

January 1, 2011May 16, 2009 by admin

(Bart Mendoza of Manual Scan and the Shambles talks about how he got from there to here.)

Of course the various members of the Shambles knew each other for years before the band’s formation, but I can put down the beginnings of the band to two events.

In the late ’80s, Kevin Donaker-Ring co-produced Manual Scan’s “Days & Maybes” EP with Ray Brandes (side note: humorous liners by Mike Stax), and we were all part of a group of musicians that frequented Megalopolis on Fairmount Ave., often playing round-robin style — David Moye and Jon Kanis amongst the round-robiners who didn’t end up in the band (though we did back up Kanis on a compilation-album track).

The Mirrors: “Blue”

May 9, 2015April 22, 2009 by admin

(Answers and Mirrors co-founder Dave Fleminger talks transitions.)

Blue: The Mirrors live at the Che Cafe, Spring 1984

“This one’s called ‘Blue,’ and we’re gonna make it up … ”

Sometime in late May 1984 the Mirrors played our last performance in San Diego at UCSD’s Che Cafe. The band had formed in late ’83 after the fall of the Answers and in March recorded an as-yet-unreleased album of songs entitled “Have No Mercy.” In June I moved to NYC, but we would continue to record sporadically over the next couple years.

Lemons Are Yellow: Afuegal Pitu

December 13, 2017April 14, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman describes the creative ferment behind a Lemons classic.)

This song was written in tribute to the delicious cheeses of Spain. I chose “Afuegal Pitu” as the title not because it’s my favorite (that would be the powerful blue Cabrales or the smoky sheep cheese Idiazabal, depending on the day) but because it has the best name. Afuegal Pitu has a lot of red pepper in it, and the name is a local-dialect version of “Fire in the Throat.” Indeed, all the lyrics (except for the spoken-word part in the middle) are simply the names of different Spanish cheeses.

I used to live near an excellent cheese shop (the Cheese Board in Berkeley, CA), and I was so enamoured of the Spanish Cheese Poster they had on display, I wrote to the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture to ask where I could get one. It now hangs in my kitchen.

Read moreLemons Are Yellow: Afuegal Pitu

Lemons Are Yellow: “Spotted Dick”

December 13, 2014March 20, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Lemons Are Yellow member Paul Kaufman describes the secret sauce behind the song.)

Back in the day, Tower Market atop Mount Davidson in San Francisco was the place for the band Lemons Are Yellow to stock up on snacks. This medium-sized grocery had an inexplicably large “British Foods” section, where you could stock up on Devonshire cream; HP sauce; and a mix for making your own dessert known as “Spotted Dick,” a baked pudding containing dried currants (hence the spots). Of course, the packaging called out to us, and soon we were at the Fleminger kitchen, baking up a batch.

‘I saw a film today, oh boy’: A Che Underground feature film

October 18, 2014March 14, 2009 by admin

(Ray Brandes brings the casting couch to your browser.)

director's chair The characters and events of our youth, it has often been suggested, would make excellent material for a big budget, Hollywood drama. Imagine having $100 million to re-create a show at the Che Cafe, a late-night Presidio Park gathering, a line of scooters outside the Ken Cinema for a showing of “Quadrophenia,” or a fight behind the North Park Lions Club, for example, using some of the top names in the business today.

Earlier threads, back in the days of the Che Underground blog’s infancy, floated names like Christopher Walken, Shia LaBeouf, Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliff (of Harry Potter fame) to play Steve Garris, Matthew Rothenberg, Jerry Cornelius and Bart Mendoza, respectively.

‘Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza, and Count the Head Lice on the Highway’

January 1, 2011March 5, 2009 by admin

(Ray Brandes offers a brief history of misheard lyrics in rock ‘n’ roll.)

Music fans have long been thwarted by misinterpretations of lyrics mumbled by rock ‘n’ rollers, with often hilarious results called “mondegreens.” Numerous such misinterpretations were to be found in the Kingsmen’s 1963 version of Richard Berry’s “Louie, Louie,” and led to an FBI obscenity investigation after a parent wrote of her disgust with the lyrics to then Attorney General Robert Kennedy. In his book about “Louie, Louie” Richard Marsh describes the phenomenon:

Back in 1963, everyone who knew anything about rock ‘n’ roll knew that the Kingsmen’s “Louie Louie” concealed dirty words that could be unveiled only by playing the 45 rpm single at 33-1/3. This preposterous fable bore no scrutiny even at the time, but kids used to pretend it did, in order to panic parents, teachers, and other authority figures.

More mod match-ups from Elker deMello

January 1, 2011February 28, 2009 by admin

Dancing Skeleton scooter club co-founder- turned- Che Underground benefactor Elker deMello’s generous bequest of mod-themed photography continues to enrich our understanding of early-’80s San Diego’s scootering classes.

While the pictures are there in abundance — many of them shot at Ski Beach or Seaport Village — details are sketchy on some of them. Can you help fill in the blanks?