Noise 292: “Never Come Near”

(Dave Fleminger recalls this performance from Noise 292’s April 25, 1984, appearance at UCSD’s Center for Music Experiment.)

Detail: Noise 292 flyer for April 1984 eventsI strongly remember this show, and especially this song. It was one of the last shows I saw before I left San Diego. Noise 292’s set was solid and focused, and unrelenting. This song, the last one in the set, struck me especially in its cold and alienating embrace.

The vocals and the high melody lock together into a single statement that shatters by the end into a mass of confusion and disjointed thought. Like so many great songs, it was easy to relate to it as a manifestation of my own mixed feelings — in this case about leaving home, my friends, this amazing music scene, everything familiar.

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Memories of the Injections

(Joey Miller, a k a P Gargoyle, f k a Joanne Norris, drummer extraordinaire for the Injections as well as Noise 292 and Everybody Violet, shares scans and recollections of the legendary punk band, which also featured Lou Skum on vocals, Bruce Perreault on guitar and Lisa Acid on bass and helped propel the San Diego scene at the turn of the ’80s.)

Detail: Injections flyer; Zebra club, August 30, 1980 (collection Joey Miller)Like fine wine, we have all aged, and here we are almost 30 years later on Che Underground: The Blog. I had some old flyers and other things left over, and the ones that I did not discard I scanned. (I never thought they would get their just due, but I was wrong.)

Some of the things I had were easier to scan than others. Some of them I have seen in other places on the Web, like Lou’s Facebook page, but I haven’t seen them all together. Not yet.

Detail: Annotated Injections flyer (collection Joey Miller)Detail: Injections review (collection Joey Miller)Detail: Injections group photos (collection Joey Miller)Detail: Injections onstage (collection Joey Miller)
Detail: Injections promo (collection Joey Miller)Detail: Promotional flyer (collection Joey Miller)Detail: Promotional flyer 2 (collection Joey Miller)

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Photo paydirt from the garage

Detail: Greg S.)“Hi Matthew,” writes Greg S. “Maybe you remember me. … Toby Thunderbird/ Lifehater/ Gibson told me about your site.

“I’m visiting the US and thought I’d dig up some old photos to contribute, which have been sitting in a box in my mom’s garage. … Wasn’t sure how/where to post them, so here they are.”

Detail: Patrick Works, Jeff Lucas, Eric Bacher, Jerry Cornelius ca. 1983 (collection Greg S.)Detail: Maria Dudley (collection Greg S.)Detail: Patrick Works (collection Greg S.)Detail: Jeff Lucas, Tamara Brown (collection Greg S.)Detail: Larry Nadler (collection Greg S.)
Detail: Wendell Kling (collection Greg S.)Detail: Jeff Lucas, Greg S., Marianne (collection Gregory S.)Detail: Grant Dickson, Mary, Jeff (collection Greg S.)Detail: Jerry Cornelius (collection Greg S.n)
Detail: Tamara Brown (collection Greg S.)Detail: Justin Andrezi (collection Greg S.)Detail: Elaine Winnard and unknown (collection Greg S.)Detail: Unidentified girl (collection Greg S.)

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Noise 292 gets into gear

Detail: Kavika Rives, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Preparations for the May 30 Che Underground reunion at San Diego’s Casbah are picking up steam and uniting musical collaborators separated by miles and decades.

Detail: Kristin Martin, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Last weekend marked the first studio reunion of the Northern California contingent of Noise 292, comprising four of the five musicians who played together at the Che Cafe in July 1983: vocalist/ bassist/ guitarist Kristin Martin; vocalist/ guitarist David “Kavika” Rives; percussionist Hobie Hodge; and the Answers’ Dave Fleminger, who reprised his historical role as substitute drummer. (The San Diego faction — drummer Joanne Norris and percussionist Wendell Kling — are on deck to join the festivities in time for the May performance.)

Detail: Kavika Rives, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Hobie Hodge, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Dave Fleminger, Hobie Hodge, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Dave Fleminger, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)
Detail: Hobie Hodge, Kristin Martin, Kavika Rives, Dave Fleminger, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Hobie Hodge, Kristin Martin, Kavika Rives, Dave Fleminger, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Hobie Hodge, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Kavika Rives, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Kristin Martin, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)Detail: Kavika Rives, Hobie Hodge, Noise 292 practice January 2009 (collection Kristin Martin)

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Tracing Structural Fracture

(Co-founder Stefan Helmreich discusses Structural Fracture’s San Diego roots and national branches.)

Detail: Structural Fracture logo (collection Stefan Helmreich)Structural Fracture was a psychedelically minded garage-punk trio from San Diego’s North County, active from 1984 to 1986. Stefan Helmreich, Chris Henry and David Derrick played house parties in Encinitas (once with Noise 292) and often offered themselves as guinea pigs to budding recording engineers at Mira Costa College in Oceanside.

In 1985, Structural Fracture won San Dieguito High School’s Battle of the Bands in a performance many remember for the band’s bent rendition of “Puff the Magic Dragon” and for the moment when Stefan used a blender to mangle a microphone.

“Delirium” was recorded in June 1985 at Mira Costa and features Stefan Helmreich on bass and vocals, Chris Henry on guitar and David Derrick on drums. Simon Cheffins, of future Crash Worship fame, engineered the recording.

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The Ho Hos: “Judas Twist”

Detail: Ho Hos, April 30, 1994Another Jeff Lucas composition for this mid-’90s San Francisco ensemble of San Diego expats.

Besides prompting me to write many songs I still like a great deal, the Ho Hos offered a great opportunity to sing new originals written by other songwriters. Both Jeff and Steve Lam came through with some amazing material.

I’ve always been crazy about “Judas Twist,” which I believe was recorded live at Hanno’s in the Alley with engineering help from the indefatigable Jason Brownell. It’s got more hooks than a bait shop, and the band blasts through it with trademark panache.

Matthew Rothenberg (vocals, guitar); Jeff Lucas (bass); Robert Labbe (drums); and Steve Lam (lead guitar).

Listen to it now!

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Ché Games for May: Musical Promo 2

(Once again, Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veterans Paul Kaufman and David Fleminger bang the gong to promote the Ché reunion. Except this time, they get some help from a very special guest.)

Che Guevara b&w portraitLast week, the planets aligned — I was in San Francisco, visiting Dave Fleminger at his house; this led to the first musical promo for the reunion in May 2009 that was posted recently. Little did we know that our musical universe was about to explode.

Someone was calling on the phone. A voice said, “Is Dave Fleminger at home?” It was Dave Rinck, the iconic lead singer of the Wallflowers, visiting from Nairobi. Soon we’re all in the studio, and here’s the result. Considering the last time I had seen Dave Rinck in person was when he was onstage in 1984, this was an especially big thrill for me.

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Ché Games for May: Musical Promo

(Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veterans Paul Kaufman and Dave Fleminger put the jangle in the world’s first Che Underground jingle!)

The Casbah — live since 1989Hey Ché fans, Dave Fleminger and myself have put together a little musical promo for our much-anticipated reunion at the end of May at the Casbah in San Diego.

Here are the lyrics, so you can sing along at home:

All you Rockin’ Dogs on the blog,
Meet us there.
The Wallflowers still have raw power!
You can see them there!

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Rockin’ Dogs around town

Detail: Rockin’ Dogs/Noise 292; Saigon Palace; Feb. 10, 1984 (collection Lori Stalnaker-Bevilacqua)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!

Detail: Rockin’ Dogs/Ripsaws/Jimmy & the Vandals; Headquarters; July 29. 1983 (collection Lori Stalnaker-Bevilacqua)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.

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The Ho Hos: “Gina Says/Infinite Prague”

Detail: Cover art for the Ho Hos’ 1994 video, “Gina Says/Infinite Prague”Here’s a first entry for the new Che Underground YouTube channel: a 1994 desktop-video experiment by the Ho Hos, the band of San Diego expats I co-founded in mid-’90s San Francisco.

This production portrays a shortened version of my song “Gina Says/Infinite Prague,” another recording from our 1993 Mr. Toad’s demo session. (The video was ostensibly prompted by a long-forgotten MTV contest that compelled audio producer Jason Brownell to trim one verse and the solo, bringing it below the requisite three-minute mark.)

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The Che Underground