Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Here are two parts of an uncompleted song trilogy I wrote for the Amazons, the acoustic band I was in until I left San Francisco in April 2001.
I always liked the weird anti-heroes and losers in Greek mythology, two of whom figure in “Tales of Brave Procrustes” and “Roll Like Sisyphus.” (I always intended to write that third one about Icarus, mainly so I could be the first songwriter I know to get the word “heliocentric” into a lyric.)
Here’s a cut from the only extant video I know of 3 Guys Called Jesus, the band I formed in 1985 with Steve Duke (bass, vocals) and Robert Labbe (drums, vocals) and played in until I left San Diego in February 1987.
This performance of my song “Small Vegetables” dates from May 16, 1986, when 3 Guys opened for Specimen and the Tell-Tale Hearts at the North Park Lions Club. (Ray Brandes and I have swapped anecdotes about Specimen’s antics that night; the conditions were just awful at the time but made for a funny story in retrospect.)
(High time! Che Underground documentarian Kristen Tobiason revisits the spot that gave the blog its name.)
The first time I landed on the surface of the Che Café was at an early-evening soundcheck for the Wallflowers (not the Jakob Dylan pansy MTV sensation, but the raw & funky, OG Wallflowers), who were opening that night for Noise 292.
Arriving and styling in Paul Howland’s parents’ green station wagon, we unloaded a couple pieces of equipment, and then proceeded to hang out in the woodsy picnic areas surrounding the venue, creating a smoky haze amidst talk of music and the humor of Tom and Paul’s use of ordinary soap as an alternative to dime-store hair gel.
Carol Coleman (née Anderson), Encinitas Pannikin manager extraordinaire and all-around rockin’ scenester, recently digitized some photographs that include shots tracking paths we took from Hair Theatre and Noise 292.
These pictures include Hair Theatre vocalist Sergio, Noise 292 guitarist David Rives (and Answers guitarist Dave Fleminger) at one of the occasions when the former drummed for us at the Che Cafe; several shows by 3 Guys Called Jesus, the band I formed with bassist Steve Duke and drummer Robert Labbe in 1985; and 1995 photos of Joy Bomb, San Diego’s successor to Hair Theatre.
(Injections, Noise 292 and Everybody Violet drummer Joey Miller makes a public-service announcement — with guitar!)
DISCLAIMER: This is not a project of either Matthew or me, and there will understandably be different perspectives on it. Great. Please feel free to make /post your thoughts here, but KNOW and UNDERSTAND we are only the messengers.
“Our Blow Out” was a compilation that was originally put together and released in 1983 by Cliff from Social Spit. It was an energetic and amazing accomplishment for its time, and (as many of us can attest) it was an amazing compilation.
Read more about “Our Blow Out”!
Curtis, the owner of TAANG Records, has expressed interest in re-releasing this compilation; he would like to make contact with as many band members as possible to set up a meeting. He is extremely interested in seeing this move forward, and it is our hope to put the word out to see how many originals that this information would reach.
Che Underground archivists are frankly embarrassed by the riches rendered from the Che Games for May festival May 29-30 at San Diego’s Casbah. Twenty-five years or more later, the shows offered a great opportunity to showcase beloved material — and capture it with 21st-century technology.
While few early-’80s performances have survived, this event was immortalized from every angle with digital audio, video and photography; our biggest challenge now is to collate and edit this wealth of material.
In other words: I hardly know where to start!
I’m proud to get the photographic ball rolling with the camera work of Unknowns bassist/ photographic powerhouse Dave Doyle, who took some beautiful shots of the Mirrors, the original San Diego Wallflowers, Noise 292 and Hair Theatre on the second evening of the show. (Stay tuned for a gallery of Friday night’s superstars: Everybody Violet, Manual Scan, the Gay Dennys and the Answers!)
A quick one, while he’s away: I’m tying up some loose ends before my flight back from San Diego to New Jersey after Day Two of the Che Underground’s Che Games for May reunion event at the Casbah Club.
Thanks to a crack team of documentarians, we’ve got audio, video and photos to share and enjoy — and those will be making their way onto the site in the coming weeks.
But for now, a simple “Thank you!” and an open invitation to talk about what our quarter-century reunion did to or for you.
You’re all very, very important to me, and easily my biggest regret is that I couldn’t be everywhere at once to talk to you and share time. But please: Let’s come together here and swap a few stories for each other and for our friends who couldn’t be with us this time out.
(Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes lays the table for May’s audio feast.)
The Che Underground Weekend Showcase:
Celebrating more than 25 years of San Diego’s underground music history
An incredible opportunity to reconnect, reminisce and rediscover will unfold as 25 years and thousands of miles of distance disappear in a single weekend — May 29 and 30 at the Casbah in San Diego.
The lineups have been set, the bands are rehearsing, and the drinks are on ice. Here’s what to expect:
(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.
(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.