Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
A special debut on Che Underground: The Blog! A chance remark by Mikel Toombs in this forum has inspired a haunting new song by San Diego legend Gary Heffern, recorded by Scandinavian bard Al DeLoner.
The piece, “Anxiety,” is in part a meditation on the disintegration of San Diego’s late-’70s underground. Heff writes, “Consider it a present to Che … as further proof that life does go in full circles … and inspiration can be found in the kindness of a friend giving me gentle nudge.”
(Ray Brandes holds auditions beyond this veil of tears.)
In their 1974 comeback hit, the Righteous Brothers speculated on the existence of a rock-‘n’-roll heaven, which of course had a “hell of a band.” The song expressed the sentimental hope that somewhere in the universe Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Bobby Darrin and Jim Morrison were singing together in a celestial choir.
This notion is, of course, patently absurd. One can only imagine the drunken, chaotic jam session which would occur if these egomaniacs found themselves sharing a microphone onstage in a celestial amphitheater. It is fun, however, to speculate on this supergroup idea.
(Thanks to Jay Allen Sanford’s archives and Mikel Toombs‘ text conversion, here’s the second part of Steve Thorn’s epic history of SD rock ‘n’ roll. This installment first ran in Kicks #4 in December 1979. Read Part One here!)
April Fools Day, 1964, was the day KGB began its strategy to become the number one rock station. KCBQ and KDEO were the unsuspecting victims of the April Fools surprise — “Boss Radio” had come to town.
The brainchild behind the Boss Radio sound was programming wizard Bill Drake, who, prior to bringing the format to KGB, had a successful track record with radio stations in Northern California and a station in Atlanta.
(Distracted dad Paul Kaufman pops in for what is sure to be an infrequent concert review.)
Regular readers of this blog will understand why I’ve been pretty scarce lately: We have a newborn daughter in the house! She’s brought lots of joy, but naturally this means my extracurricular activities are pretty limited, and our baby-centric bedtime rules out most nighttime excursions.
I’ve made one exception since she’s arrived; a few weeks ago, I went to the first concert I’ve been to in quite some time (first since the Ché reunion, actually) to see Sonic Youth play.
People either love or hate this band, and I’m not writing this to promote my own fandom, but the show did make me think of a couple of things of more general interest. First, I couldn’t but help think about the fact that it was over 20 years ago I first saw them. That alone wouldn’t be so remarkable, except this show displayed no hint of nostalgia — they played mostly new material. (Though they never had chart-topping hits in the first place, “Teenage Riot,” their biggest college-radio tune, was not on the set list.)
Cooler and cooler: As if the Town Criers, Manual Scan and the Blues Gangsters weren’t enough to fill out the next Che Underground showcase at the Casbah, San Diego’s legendary Unknowns have joined the bill as special guests!
Guitarist Mark Neill, bassist Dave Doyle and drummer Craig Packham will round out the evening with a short set, their first gig in more than five years. If I had any question about getting my plane ticket’s worth, this answers it definitively. Don’t miss it!
Read moreThe Unknowns join the show!
Jan. 30 at San Diego’s Casbah
(Courtesy of Mikel Toombs, a story by Paul Krueger that appeared in the San Diego Union on July 25, 1978, and features some familiar names and faces.)
Promoter Bets His Shirt on Punk Rockers
“Our luck has been good so far,” Tom Griswold said between bites of corn chips and canned bean dip. “We haven’t lost much money. But even if we did, I’d keep at it ’til I lost my shirt.”
Griswold, a thin, fair-skinned 20-year-old who taps his knee nervously as he talks, is a concert promoter. But while money means a lot to most promoters, Griswold is happy if he sells enough tickets to pay the $250 rental fee for the nightclub and has $100 left to split between the two bands.
Give me a ticket for an aeroplane … Ain’t got time to take a fast train! Jan. 30’s Che Underground event at the Casbah proved too tempting to pass up. I just bought my fare from snowy New Jersey, and I hope to see you while I’m in sunny San Diego.
Our Che Games for May event was a blast — this time out, I’m looking forward to having more of a chance to relax and enjoy the evening and the company of some good friends. Please join me!
(In which Ray Brandes channels frequencies of our youth.)
The recent announcement of bankruptcy and sale of San Diego radio station 91X has had many of us here at the Che Underground reminiscing about rock-‘n’-roll radio in San Diego.
The events of my own formative years were accompanied by a soundtrack that emanated from a small transistor radio. Powered by those little rectangular nine-volt batteries that are nowadays are only used to power smoke detectors and guitar tuners, mine had a tiny two-inch speaker and a wrist strap for easy portability. Late at night, under the covers, I listened to pop and soul hits like Jean Knight’s “Mr. Big Stuff” and The Three Degrees’ “When Will I See You Again,” interspersed with “oldies” like the Seeds’ “Pushin’ Too Hard” and the Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun.”
(A New Year’s dubstep update from Paul Howland, a k a the P Man.)
Actually, I haven’t gone anywhere. I’ve been doing my radio show every week, but it’s been a while since I played out. Which is why I’m super excited that Brokenbeat has asked me to play their first night of 2010.
I’m gonna be playing the 10:45 to 11:45 timeslot so I’m gonna be catering my selections for maximum dancefloor impact. If you end up making any silly new years resolutions regarding drinking, dancing and just generally having a good time, Saturday will be the perfect time to break them. If you haven’t done so already, check out my podcasts for SD Dubstep, and some of my radio shows and other podcasts.
— Paul Howland
Courtesy of Clay himself, here’s a set of artwork that evokes his work as editor of Bamboohead and eponymous frontman for Men of Clay.
As these flyers demonstrate, MoC performed frequently in San Diego at the turn of the ’80s and was featured in 1983’s “Our Blow Out” compilation. So far, however, we’ve only discussed the band in passing. Please chime in with your memories of Men of Clay!
