Artifacts | The Che Underground

New flyers! New fun!

January 1, 2011April 13, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

As the Che Underground history tour gains speed, I keep getting the greatest stuff from all you wonderful people! Thank you for every beautiful audiovisual scrap of it — my biggest challenge is finding the time to move it all online and the technique to present it to its best advantage, but it’s all appreciated and will ultimately have a happy home here.

Our flyer gallery is picking up steam, as is our performance history page. (To create a nice frame of historical reference while keeping things manageable, I’m concentrating on the years 1981 through 1985 … But I want to hear about what years and what assets are important to you.) The related bands section is also slowly gaining traction; authors and bands welcome. Please visit — and please help fill in the many gaps that still exist!

Who went out tripping across California in myriad stolen night-cars?

January 1, 2011April 11, 2008 by patrick works

-A 10+ year roadtrip thread thanks almost entirely to Dave Rinck, the secret hero of this prose.-

Back in ’82 we went to see the Stones at the LA coliseum with Werner Cook. That’s Dave Rinck, Werner (none of you will remember him I’m sure…punk rock tournament tennis star…really) and me, in Dave’s Mom’s white proto SUV. On the way up we stopped for cash in San Juan Capistrano. We had an enourmous bag (like a huge trash bag size) full of popcorn in the back of the truck. We found a pink ’65 rambler in the parking lot with the doors unlocked. So we did what anyone would do…we filled the car with popcorn, released the parking brake, put it in neutral and pushed it out into traffic without a driver.

We drove off without watching to see what might happen.

BoboStock!

January 1, 2011April 9, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

The recent invocation of legendary San Diego scenester Bobo reminded me that Bruce Haemmerle donated an extremely valuable curio to the Che Underground collection: recto and verso scans of an actual invitation to BoboStock, Dec. 22, 1982, which featured what eyewitnesses say was a definitive performance by the Answers.

While my own association with the band didn’t begin until March 1983 at the Che Cafe, this event lingered in Bobo hagiography for many years. Here’s an opportunity to amass recollections about the man and the music that shaped a generation.

Hair Theatre in living color

January 1, 2011April 8, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

At long last, Che Underground is proud to present photographic evidence of the immortal Hair Theatre! Thanks to Paul Allen for coming up with these great photos (and to Kristin Martin for a technical assist getting them into my hands).

I’d peg this appearance by Sergio, Little Serg, Cesar and Paul around 1985, although I’d appreciate a memory boost from the band itself in specifying the date and location. (Plus, who was drumming at this stage?) It’s so cool to see the band together after all these years!

Speaking of Hair Theatre reunions: I know that both Sergios and Paul at least will be together in San Diego this weekend to celebrate Big Serg’s wedding! Please join me in sending warm Che Underground wishes to Sergio, his fiancée Season and their daughter Lily. (Is a musical reunion at the reception too much to hope for?)

And Sergio/Paul: Please e-mail wedding photos so the happy couple’s extended circle of well-wishers can join in the celebration!

Great San Diego hangouts

January 1, 2011April 7, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Essential ingredients in our recipe for adolescent hijinx were the houses, apartments, nooks and crannies where we gathered to play and hang around and talk and commit a variety of small indiscretions at odd hours. We’ve talked about Patrick Works’ house, about Gay Denny’s and its ilk, about Presidio Park and Balboa Park … What were some other notable hangouts?

The Morlocks’ basement in Golden Hill;
The Hair Theatre shack in Carlsbad;
Greenwich Village West.

That’s three to start, but there were many more. Where else did we hang our hats?

Noise 292: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

January 1, 2011April 5, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Here’s another helping of sonic steak Tartar, to borrow Dave Rinck’s evocative phrase: Noise 292 serving up a very raw version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” at the Headquarters in Pacific Beach, August 26, 1983 (opening for the Pandoras and the Answers). This was the first Noise 292 lineup, and this number features Kristin Martin on bass; David Rives, guitar; Hobie Hodge, trash percussion; Joanne Norris, drums; Matthew Rothenberg, vocals and S&M tambourine (with which I raised a big hematoma on the heel of my hand every time we played this song). Leighton Koizumi (later of the Gravedigger V and the Morlocks) made his live rock-‘n’-roll debut playing electric violin on “Heroin” that evening, although Wendell Kling also took over violin duties when he replaced Hobie on percussion.

I always enjoyed how this cover threw a bunch of our noise-rock, art-rock, punk and garage influences into the Cuisinart and basically hit “purée”! (Can anyone identify the voice of the girl talking about her calculator at the beginning of the track? I keep wondering if she ever got it back.)

Listen to it now!

The Wallflowers: “Raw Power”

January 1, 2011April 1, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

I’m pretty sure I met the Wallflowers at an apartment party — maybe in Kensington? — in early summer 1983. I believe Dave Ellison brokered my introduction to the most joyfully subversive band in the whole Che Underground circuit.

The Wallflowers weathered a few personnel changes during their run and came back each time renewed and ready with new surprises: an electric cord of pure rock-‘n’-roll snaking through an eclectic combination of horns, harmonicas and other musical breaths of fresh air in our guitar-dominated scene. (Not to discount potency of the Wallflowers’ core lineup; bassist Paul Howland was the spine of the band, and every guitarist and drummer to join the Wallflowers was like a new birthday present for the audience.)

Here’s what Wallflowers vocalist Dave Rinck recently called “the raw stuff, the real steak Tartar of the band”: Wallflowers Phase One demolishing the Stooges’ “Raw Power”! Man, I’ve missed these guys.

Listen to it now!

Wild in the Streets of Slow Death

December 11, 2017March 31, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Detail: 5051 single cover David Klowden — 5051 and Tell-Tale Hearts veteran turned author and professor — kindly sent me the manuscript of “Wild in the Streets of Slow Death,” his novel about coming of age in the San Diego punk scene ca. 1980. I read it in one sitting and enjoyed it immensely on several levels.

It’s a great portrayal of teenage alienation and redemption; an authentic memoir of our own youth culture, full of characters and events based on that time and place; and a crime thriller informed by the police excesses, white-supremacist fringe elements, bad drugs and internecine battles that made the San Diego underground such treacherous terrain. I’m glad David and the rest of us negotiated it!

Rockin’ Dogs: “Candy Rock”

January 1, 2011March 29, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Here’s a signature number from a superb band. Dave Rinck of the Wallflowers has called the Rockin’ Dogs’ “Candy Rock” his favorite San Diego rock-‘n’-roll tune, and it’s easy to see why.

We’re still trying to remember the spring 1983 Answers gig where we met, but the Rockin’ Dogs were an electrifying addition to the Che Underground scene. They looked tight, and they sounded explosive: Cole Smithey (drums) and Jane Bunting (bass) made a killer rhythm section, and vocalists/guitarists Dave Ellison and Sam Wilson (musical collaborators since age 14) were an endlessly fascinating study in stylistic contrasts; just check out the interplay of guitar styles on “Candy Rock.” The Rockin’ Dogs put Poway on the map for me!

Listen to it now!

Hair Theatre: “Meet Me Outside”

January 1, 2011March 26, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

The first time I heard Hair Theatre was a party at Margarat Nee’s house in Leucadia in the summer of 1983. They came out of nowhere (a k a Carlsbad, a few miles north of my sphere of activity), and I knew from Note 1 that we needed to invite them to join the scene coalescing around the Che Cafe. What an incredible band! What fantastic stage presence!

Making its digital debut on Che Underground: The Blog, here’s Hair Theatre doing “Meet Me Outside.” Listening to this, who else can clearly picture Sergio in action?

Listen to it now!