Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
The legendary Cyndie Jaynes Collection of historical photos of the San Diego underground doesn’t stop at Camp Pendleton. Here’s a set of performance photos of the Morlocks playing San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall sometime after the band’s move north as well as earlier shots of them playing an undisclosed location in San Diego.
The Morlocks were an incredible live band, and Cyndie’s lens captures them at the acme of their power. San Diego’s loss … San Francisco’s gain!
While we’re all in a Wallflowers frame of mind, here’s another Phase One Wallflowers gem freshly excavated after a quarter-century beneath the Canadian permafrost. “Rubber Room” is essential Wallflowers material,” writes bassist Paul Howland. “This one and ‘Funland’ (along with any of the many Stooges cover tunes) encapsulate the Wallflowers sound nicely.
Cyndie Jaynes’ amazing gift to Che Underground: The Blog continues giving with this wonderful series of photographs from a late-era Wallflowers concert featuring Todd Lahman on guitar and Matt Johnson on drums. As always, Paul Howland (pictured in these photos) and Dave Rinck loomed large in the lineup.
MC/guest vocalist Jerry Cornelius, Tony Sanchez, Kristi Maddocks, and Audrey Moorehead also make the scene. What was the venue? The little picket fence and trellis evokes a freaky ice-cream parlor vibe. Who can ID this magic moment?
What can we say about Cyndie Jaynes? Not only is she a published author and successful graduate of the San Diego underground, she’s also a marvelous documentarian with an unrivaled cache of photos and flyers from early-’80s SD.
Here’s a sampling of the great things she’s shared with me … I’m very grateful for the chance to bring these treasures to light. Stay tuned for more!
(Where are we now? Wallflowers bassist Paul Howland describes his current musical adventures in the very cool cyberworld of Dubstep. Check out the links and the P Man’s own online radio show!)
I first encountered Dubstep when I downloaded a recording of a radio show on London Pirate station Rinse FM from barefiles.com. The show was the “DJ Youngsta” show with his longtime MC, Task. As I remember the first tune was one by an artist known as D1 entitled “Degrees.” I was immediately intrigued by the sound.
I started downloading more sets from Rinse, including “Stella Sessions” by Skream. One of the tunes Skream was playing a lot at the time was Conquest “Hard Food.” I looked around on barefiles and saw that Quest had a show, so I downloaded a bunch of his archived shows. I ended up purchasing “The Hard Food E.P.” from dubplate.net, along with D1 “Degrees” and a bunch of others.
As if to provide some karmic yin to “Survive the Jungle”‘s yang, Dave Fleminger just scored a pristine white-vinyl copy of the Mystic Super-Seven Sampler #2, a 1984 release featuring “Paradise on 4th Avenue,” the Phase Two Wallflowers’ homage to San Diego’s Studio 517 and its avatar, Steve Epeneter.
This exquisite single has been crisply digitized into easily digestible MP3 format for Che Underground’s delectation — bon apetit!
“I considered ‘Paradise on 4th Ave’ to be the anthem of the second Wallflowers (like ‘Funland’ was to the first line-up),” writes Dave Rinck, the immortal front man for both deathless incarnations.
“This was recorded by James at The Lab in San Diego in 1985 for the Mystic EP. The line-up is: David Rinck (vocals), Paul Howland (bass), Todd Lahman (guitar), Armando (alto sax), Arturo Reyes (drums).”
“Ridin’ in an airplane … We’re goin’ back to Vietnam!” Airlifted to us after a quarter-century of exile in Canada, this vicious Wallflowers jam shrieks over Che Underground like a flaming F-15. The instrumental interplay among Paul Howland (bass), Tommy Clarke (guitar) and Aaron Daniels (drums) is simultaneously funky and menacing, and Dave Rinck’s vocals are positively shamanic.
The Che Cafe patio meets the Mekong Delta — with wah pedal!
[Editor’s note: After a false, MPEG-4 start, this file is now an MP3 that everyone can enjoy.]
-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.
Read moreWho went out tripping across California in myriad stolen night-cars?
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.
Another missing piece of the Che Underground puzzle fell into place last night in Los Angeles when Rockin’ Dog-turned-ace-designer Dave Ellison joined forces with Wallflower-cum-mad-barber Todd Lahman. The fruits of the meeting: a handoff of long-awaited and freshly digitized Wallflowers audio tracks.
The three live cuts represent the first incarnation of this great band and comprise the Stooges’ “Raw Power” and “TV Eye” as well as the Wallflowers’ own signature “Wall Drugs.” (I’ve heard the latter so far, and it rocks!) I’m hoping Messrs. Rinck and Howland can provide details on the date and location of this performance.
We’re all doing Wall Drugs!