Artifacts | The Che Underground

Old Dogs, new tricks

December 31, 2010December 10, 2008 by admin

Lori Stalnaker-Bevilacqua continues to enrich our historical understanding of the Rockin’ Dogs with priceless artifacts. Here’s a pre-Jane Bunting photograph of the Dogs — ca. 1982 — when Scott Harber was the bassist.

“I loved this shot from the series,” Lori writes. “I love the fact that you got two lookin’ at the camera and two turned to the side. I don’t think I directed them to that, just spontaneous. Nevertheless, it works!

“That is one good-lookin’ band! ;)”

“I remember the photo, but I don’t remember much about it other than the fact that the red plaid scarf belonged to a girl I was dating,” writes Dave Ellison. “Scott didn’t play with the band for very long. I remember he was planning a long trip somewhere … to another country, I think … so he was more or less filling in for a while.”

Pictures through the past, darkly

December 31, 2010December 6, 2008 by admin

(A plaintive cry for ephemera from Darren Grealish.)

Hey, I don’t have any pictures from my youth at all. A crazy girlfriend I had in the late ’80s threw all my photo albums away, and sadly, all my pics are gone forever.

If you have pictures from the good old days with all of us please post ’em up! Maybe if we get enough of them after time we can get a groovy slide-show movie that people can watch on the site. Maybe we can have Jerry Cornelius be the narrator!

Come on and sock it to me! I would like some visual memories to look back on. As it is now I have only memories and this site!!!!! If you got em’ put em’ up! Let’s see the gold!

— Darren Grealish

[Editor’s note: All vintage Grealish beefcake welcome at Che Underground HQ: cheunderground@gmail.com. We will ensure Darren receives your contributions posthaste.]

The Wallflowers: “TV Eye”

December 31, 2010December 4, 2008 by admin

The night I met the Wallflowers, the Stooges’ “TV Eye” was playing on the stereo. I know it was the summer of 1983, when I met so many of you, and I believe my introduction was brokered via Rockin’ Dog Dave Ellison.

That moment forged a lasting connection in my mind between the Wallflowers and the Stooges, an impression that was reified by the Wallflowers’ blistering interpretations of the older band’s oeuvre — including “TV Eye,” presented here in all its synapse-rattling glory.

Per vocalist Dave Rinck, “‘Walldrugs’ and ‘TV Eye’ were recorded in a ‘studio’ at Music Power; ‘Raw Power’ was, too, but not until a little later than the other two.”

The Morlocks: “My Friend the Bird”

January 1, 2011November 20, 2008 by admin

(Morlocks drummer Mark Mullen comes through with the video goods.)

This was a show we did at The Stone on Broadway in San Francisco in 1986 with Jordan Tarlow from the Fuzztones on rhythm guitar. It’s a 23-year-old VHS tape, so no complaining. I believe we did a real wild show somewhere the night before, so this was a little lackluster for The Morlocks.

The Morlocks are really a myth, cult, fantasy and intrigue to a lot of people across the US and around the world. I wish they all could have experienced the many great shows we put on, but that’s not the case. I wish I had excellent video footage of these times for everyone to see. This was a wild, wild time, and not much survived from the era. (I challenge anyone out there to cough up any footage if you have it.)

Rockin’ Dogs around town

January 1, 2011November 18, 2008 by admin

A long-sought contribution from recent blog arrival Lori Stalnaker-Bevilacqua: a flyer that puts a date (Feb. 10, 1984) to the legendary Saigon Palace gig featuring the Rockin’ Dogs and Noise 292.

This show (which found Sam Wilson covering all Rockin’ Dogs vocals while Dave Ellison recuperated from laryngitis and 17-year-old Wendell Kling evading ID inspection in the men’s room until Noise 292’s appearance) was also photographed by Ms. Stalnaker-Bevilacqua. But this is the first time we’ve been able to put it on the calendar. Mystery solved — thanks, Lori!

Bonus artifact: an ad featuring a July 29, 1983, appearance by the Rockin’ Dogs at the Headquarters (with the Ripsaws and Jimmy & the Vandals). I’m afraid I didn’t catch this show; the Answers, Noise 292 and Hair Theatre were playing the Che Cafe that night.

Mods at Mount Soledad, Ski Beach

January 1, 2011November 10, 2008 by admin

Veteran scooterist Elker deMello has answered Mike McCarthy’s recent contribution of scooter-rally cheesecake with his own trove of photographs from outdoor gatherings of the San Diego mod tribes, including his own Dancing Skeletons.

This batch from the Elker deMello Archives comprises photography from the very same Mount Soledad rally Mike documented along with some great shots of our mod friends congregating alongside the volleyball players at Ski Beach.

Hair Theatre: “What Should I Say”

January 1, 2011November 9, 2008 by admin

More Hair Theatre on YouTube, this time ca. 1984 with Paul Allen on lead guitar.

This video portrays the second major phase of what would prove to be the Che Underground’s longest-running group, enduring into the ’90s. (This is also the lineup that recorded the classic MP3s we’ve shared so far on the blog.)

When I first encountered Hair Theatre in July 1983, it was a four-piece with Howard Palmer on drums. By the end of the year, Howard had ceded the drum stool to Steve Broach, and Paul had added his guitar to Cesar Castillo’s.

Hearing “What Should I Say” after 25 years is another Proustian revelation to me; the tight songwriting and machine-gun delivery cuts through the murk of the video and taps wellsprings of love and admiration for this band.

Can anyone identify the venue? And who’s the young lady with the pink hair gyrating in the front row?

The kid stays in the picture

January 1, 2011November 6, 2008 by admin

(Hair Theatre guitarist Paul Allen describes one photograph’s journey.)

This is one of 4 photos, as I recall, that [Hair Theatre vocalist] Sergio had given me before I moved to San Francisco in February 1989. I think Laura Swapp took them. I couldn’t tell you where we were playing. Like most of the clubs back then, the predominant color is black.

In the spring of 1992 I moved on a whim (the morning after the night I decided to go, after staying up all night) to New Orleans. Having prepared little, I ended up in an apartment with no furniture, stove or fridge. I’d turn on the light at night to find a virtual colony of roaches, beetles and crickets all scurrying for this giant hole in the closet floor. At this point I was so broke I was living on peanut butter & jelly and Thunderbird (a fifth chilled for $2.59!).

I entrusted a friend back in S.F. to sell my amp, stereo, books and records. The deal was he would keep 40 percent and send me 60 percent.

Rockin’ Halloween 1984

January 1, 2011October 31, 2008 by admin

(Not satisfied to supply the holiday tunes, the Brandes siblings come through with a swingin’ Halloween photo gallery for recovering SD scenesters! Claudia Brandes provides the back story.)

These photos were taken at the Halloween party that Zoe and I threw at her loft downtown in 1984. Zoe and I were great friends at the time, and we talked all year about wanting to have a huge Halloween party. She was the only person I had ever met, besides Kristen Schwartz, who loved Halloween as much as I did.

Kristen, in one image, is a “jigsaw puzzle,” and Zoe is George Washington. It was a great costume, and she was quite convincing! I was Peter Pan, which allowed me to wear my Beatle boots and a short skirt and still look cool. One photo has a very handsome young Peter Miesner dancing with Zoe.

The Tell-Tale Hearts (and more) in flyers

January 1, 2011October 14, 2008 by admin

The latest showpieces from the Tom Goddard Collection of classic San Diego flyers.

Today’s batch includes additional Tell-Tale Hearts ephemera (Exhibit A, from a July 27, 1984, show at Studio 517, bears autographs dedicated to Tom’s sister Suzie); a very early appearance (probably August 18, 1984) by “the Morlochs” (sic) with the Hearts at the same venue; a Nashville Ramblers gig; Tell-Tale Hearts and Chesterfield Kings at SDSU’s Backdoor; and a Distillery East show with Manual Scan, the Untouchables and UXB, a band I’m afraid I’d forgotten completely before taking delivery of this cache.