Personal History | The Che Underground

Eric Rife previews ‘Garageland’ footage

December 11, 2017April 15, 2011 by admin

Good news for fans of San Diego music in particular and local music scenes in general: Eric Rife’s epic film project “Garageland” is approaching release in 2012, and Eric has posted a short preview of the film on YouTube.

Readers of Che Underground: The Blog as well as veterans of San Diego music are familiar with Eric’s work as a photographer and videographer. Indeed, his years of work pulling together archival and current footage for “Garageland” was an inspiration for me to start this blog in the first place.

Penetrators and friends at the Casbah

September 4, 2011April 12, 2011 by admin

(San Diego’s legendary Penetrators got together for a rare performance April 3, when lead singer Gary Heffern flew in from Finland for a short visit. Ace photographer Sean McMullen was in the audience and offers a wealth of images for us out-of-towners.)

It was a really good turnout with a true rogue’s gallery of old friends.

I made a joke about there not being much of a pit, and someone said it was more of a “hug pit.” Haha. I definitely participated in that. All three sets (including openers the Loons and Social Spit) were high energy and rocked the joint well. The level of passion and musicianship was an adrenaline rush all the way through.

Personally, The Penetrators were one of the first bands I saw live as a 13- or 14-year-old kid at Golden Hall. I became friends with Gary in the last decade through Casbah shows and Facebook, so it was a joy to have him back here and interacting with all of the people I grew up with from that early age.

Gary Heffern: “Hand of the Devil”

December 11, 2017March 19, 2011 by admin

In time for his visit to San Diego’s Casbah April 3 and 6 to reunite with the Penetrators and celebrate the pending release of his “Gary Heffern & Beautiful People” CD, Gary Heffern shares this new video for his song “Hand of the Devil” and describes the process of its creation.

“The video was shot at the school Rovala, which I am attending to learn the Finnish language,” Gary writes. “While there it struck me that I was one of the only English-speaking people there, and how many refugees were in my class … And there were many moments when I felt so insecure about what I was doing and why I was here.

“When I began to learn more about these people it seemed that my circumstances were smaller, and I also saw very plainly that they really have no future here in Finland, simply because of not speaking the language, or the color of their skin.

Crawdaddys/Scan/GDV at the Syndicate

September 4, 2011March 6, 2011 by admin

This hitherto unpublished 1984 flyer from the Bruce Haemmerle Collection portrays the Crawdaddys, Manual Scan and the Gravedigger V at Point Loma’s Syndicate all-ages club.

I’m giving it pride of place for a few reasons:

Unknowns in France!

December 14, 2017March 1, 2011 by admin

(Unknowns bassist Dave Doyle recounts the band’s 1990 reunion and transatlantic travels, complete with video!)

The video embedded in this post came as a complete surprise to me; I knew that some must exist out there, but having never seen any footage back in the day I didn’t know what had become of the record of our time in France.

So in short form this is how this video came to be: Mark Neill, Craig Packham and I had recently moved to Georgia and were struggling to get a foothold. We decided to make a record with Bruce Joyner as The Unknowns and tour France. So out of this “Southern Decay” was produced, and a tour was set up to support the record. Making the record was a blur, as was getting to France!

The Answers at Lestat’s: ‘Color Notes’ b/w ‘History’

January 22, 2018February 24, 2011 by admin

(Answers guitarist David Fleminger tells the story behind two Answers classics from the early ’80s, which the reformed band — including bassist Tony Suarez and drummer Dave Anderson — performed Jan. 29 at Lestat’s.)

“Color Notes”
I’m not exactly sure what originally inspired the idea for “Color Notes.”

the song was written in 1982 and perhaps I had seen something somewhere about synesthesia, perhaps not. Often music creates clear images in my mind, but not the kind of visions seen by the synesthete, somebody who literally sees colors that correlate with specific notes.

Years later I did discover that once I might have been trained to equate notes with colors … a folded sheet that came with a favorite childhood toy, a Fisher-Price Pull-A-Tune, one of those rolling xylophones with differently-colored metal bars. Fisher-Price included some examples of melodies complete with ‘Color-Notes’ that correspond to the colors on the toy. Perhaps there was something in the simple melody of this song that reminded me of playing with the xylophone.

Darren Grealish in Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

December 14, 2017February 20, 2011 by admin

(On the heels of Mark Neill’s Grammy win, more news of national recognition for an old friend. Poster artist extraordinaire Darren Grealish describes his inclusion in the forthcoming Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives.)

I have been selected to join the permanent display with other rock artists, album artists and rock literature/book authors who made an important impact on rock-‘n’-roll history. I will have my own permanent exhibit that includes tons of my art framed in all its glory, along with a detailed biography, interviews, personal photos, and an in-depth look at my career with influential artists and performers.

Che Underground’s third birthday

September 4, 2011February 16, 2011 by admin

How much is that in blog years? Today marks three solar orbits since we launched Che Underground: The Blog and another opportunity to take stock of the ground we’ve covered in the interim.

We’ve grown a lot in the past year. Just in time for our second birthday, we broke a traffic record with 9,000 unique visitors in January 2010. This year, we came close to doubling that number; January 2011 was another record-breaker, with more than 16,000 visitors.

Mark Neill wins a Grammy

April 11, 2018February 15, 2011 by admin

A well-earned honor for one of our own: Mark Neill, founder of San Diego’s Soil of the South Music Production, took Grammy honors this week for his production role on the Black Keys’ “Brothers,” which took a golden gramophone for best alternative album of 2010.

Dave Doyle, fellow member of San Diego’s Unknowns, shares some thoughts about Mark’s win and a few photos from the sessions at Muscle Shoals Sound Studios in Alabama.