Performance History | The Che Underground

David Anderson: Drummer at large

April 21, 2012October 24, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow vet Paul Kaufman recognizes a man who set the pulse of the scene.)
Many contributors to Che Underground: The Blog have already mentioned David Anderson, a legendary figure in our musical history. To recap, he made major contributions to The Gravedigger V, The Answers, Manual Scan, The Crawdaddys, The Trebels and I Spy. This vast resumé reflects the fact that Dave was already a formidable drum talent by his early teens. At one point his kick drum read, “Your Band Name Here.”

But Dave was much more than just a guy behind the drum kit. Answers bandmate David Fleminger says, “I first met Dave (I think he was 13) when he was playing with I Spy. He’s an amazingly energetic and innovative talent who can lay down a foundation beat like no one else. A fantastic bandmate with a great sense of humor.”

“David Anderson? A legend!” Manual Scan co-founder Bart Mendoza recalls. “Some of my fondest tour stories involve him. We once snuck all our friends into the General Public shows we were opening in San Francisco and had one of the best parties ever. I remember playing bumper chairs as beer was spilled all over the floor of our dressing room at The Kabuki Theatre and the night getting pretty rowdy. David nearly caused a riot in Las Vegas because he went commando onstage. He played a squeaky-toy solo at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.

The Tell-Tale Hearts (and more) in flyers

January 1, 2011October 14, 2008 by admin

The latest showpieces from the Tom Goddard Collection of classic San Diego flyers.

Today’s batch includes additional Tell-Tale Hearts ephemera (Exhibit A, from a July 27, 1984, show at Studio 517, bears autographs dedicated to Tom’s sister Suzie); a very early appearance (probably August 18, 1984) by “the Morlochs” (sic) with the Hearts at the same venue; a Nashville Ramblers gig; Tell-Tale Hearts and Chesterfield Kings at SDSU’s Backdoor; and a Distillery East show with Manual Scan, the Untouchables and UXB, a band I’m afraid I’d forgotten completely before taking delivery of this cache.

The Ho Hos: “Gina Says/Infinite Prague”

January 1, 2011October 12, 2008 by admin

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.)

Noise 292: “Eyesight”

January 1, 2011October 10, 2008 by admin

Noise 292 fan turned rock ‘n’ roll anthropologist Stefan Helmreich joins our ranks with a collection of tracks, including this late live performance of the band performing my early composition “Eyesight.”

“I recently stumbled across your Ché Underground site and was delighted to read such loving accounts of those long-ago days and nights,” Stefan writes. “I was still in high school — a year behind [Noise 292 percussionist] Wendell [Kling], then a senior at at San Dieguito — when I went to to the Nov. 17, 1983, Noise show, which stunned my then 17-year-old sensibilities and tracked me toward discovering Joy Division; the Velvets; and, soon enough, prompted me to start my own band.

This We Dug: Iggy Pop

December 11, 2017October 3, 2008 by admin

(Wallflower Dave Rinck explains how an Iguana bested the Lizard King.)

Look, let’s talk about five words that loom large in the history of the Che Underground … Or OK, well … To be more precise, five words that loom enormous in the history of all underground: Iggy Pop and the Stooges.

I guess everyone knows this story, but it apparently goes something like this: Sometime in the late ’60s (as the legend goes), in some gritty-poor Detroit neighborhood, a bunch of really bad-ass white-trash dudes left their trailer-park homes one night and went down to the University of Michigan gym and caught a show by the Doors, who happened to be on tour at the time.

Well, as fate would have it, Jim Morrison was drunk, and most of the crowd didn’t get it, and they ended up pissing him off, and he ended up getting into a bit of a shouting match with the audience, and you know how those college jocks are. But apparently one guy in the audience did get it — one of those trailer-park bad asses — an upstart little punk by the name of James Osterberg.

The Morlocks in flyers

January 1, 2011September 28, 2008 by admin

Tom Goddard’s trove of flyers continues to bear dividends for Che Underground: The Blog. Today’s bequest from the Goddard Collection features show pieces from the Morlocks’ 1984 and 1985 performances in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco, created by artists including Jerry Cornelius and Kristen Tobiason.

“For more information, call [Tell-Tale Hearts bassist] Mike [Stax],” reads the Tobiason flyer in the lead spot of this post. “If he ain’t home, call [Morlocks guitarist] Ted [Friedman] … If he ain’t home, call [Morlocks bassist] Jeff [Lucas] … ,” providing phone numbers for each. Now that’s customer service!

Ray Brandes: “Monkey Planet”

March 27, 2019September 25, 2008 by admin

(Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes channels his simian muse with the story behind the song.)

I wrote “Monkey Planet” in 1996 after watching a complete “Planet of the Apes” marathon on late-night cable. I originally saw the film in a theater when I was five years old, and the image of the Statue of Liberty on the beach stayed with me a long time afterward, even if I didn’t fully understand it at the time. I later saw all of the films in the series multiple times. One of my favorites is “Escape from the Planet of the Apes,” the one in which Cornelius and Zira return to the Earth in the early ’70s, and from which the picture on the sleeve was taken.

Read moreRay Brandes: “Monkey Planet”

The Answers: “It’s OK”

January 21, 2018September 22, 2008 by admin

(Answers guitarist Dave Fleminger shares a rockin’ track and the axe behind it.)

“Ode to a Jazzmaster”
Back in ’83, you could walk into Guitar Trader on Clairemont Mesa Blvd. and pick up a vintage Fender Jazzmaster for $249. That was the tag price. Although the guitar had a neck of questionable authenticity as it had no headstock logo, it played great, albeit a bit buzzy with worn frets, and sounded BOSS (no, not in reference to Boss pedals … it was an authoritative-sounding axe).

That summer the Answers went into Soundtrax studio to record four songs. When it came time to track “It’s OK,” a fun, throwaway rocker that was my sideways ode to talking to myself and Ray Charles’ “What’d I Say?,” my Jazzmaster was deemed too grotty-sounding, and I was offered a spanky Telecaster that happened to be on hand at the session. I caved in even though I couldn’t play the Tele for crap, and the results sound way too clean on the recording … resulting in a version of the song that evokes the B-52’s, right down to the agitated, Fred Schneider-esque vocals, rather than the original garage-rock intent.

Let the Good Times Roll: The untold story of the Crawdaddys

March 27, 2019September 20, 2008 by admin

(Excerpts from Tell-Tale Heart/Town Crier Ray Brandes’ groundbreaking history of San Diego’s original retro-visionaries. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section.)

The Crawdaddys have been called one of the most influential bands ever to come out of San Diego. When one looks at the groups its members have spawned, as well as the recurring popularity of ‘60s-style punk and rhythm and blues over the past 30 years, it’s hard to dispute that assertion. Armed with an encyclopedic knowledge of music history, an uncompromising commitment to artistic integrity, and a roster of musicians with unparalleled talents and distinct individual styles, the Crawdaddys single-handedly gave birth to the revival of garage music in the late 1970s in the United States. The reverberations of the first few chords they played are still being felt today.

The Crawdaddys’ story begins and ends with lifelong Beatles fanatic Ron Silva, who grew up on Del Monte Avenue in Point Loma. He and his neighbor Steve Potterf started listening to records together in the ninth grade, and while Silva would barely tolerate Potterf’s love for Kiss, Aerosmith, Jethro Tull and Led Zeppelin, he gradually convinced his friend to appreciate his own tastes. “After a while Steve started getting into the music I liked — Beatles, early Stones. I remember sitting in his room playing guitars along to my dad’s Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley 45s,” says Silva.

The Amazons: “Brother P-Touch”

March 29, 2019September 16, 2008 by admin

“Brother P-Touch” is a song I originally wrote for the Ho Hos that became a flagship number for my last San Francisco band, the Amazons. I share it here with a San Diego twist and a fun anecdote about the power of Web distribution.

When I penned this number around 1993, I was writing about printers for MacWEEK magazine. The Brother P-Touch was and remains a very popular line of label printers. When I first heard the name, I pictured this lecherous messianic figure, kind of a cross between Rasputin and David Koresh, and built the song from there. The chorus leads with the exhortation, “Brother P-Touch — raise your arms!” I don’t think any of my San Diego expat bandmates ever realized I was evoking not only a charismatic preacher but the Penetrators’ song “Nervous Fingers,” during which those of us in the pit would raise our arms and wiggle our fingers.

Read moreThe Amazons: “Brother P-Touch”