Che Underground: The Blog

When Garris met Cornelius

March 27, 2019October 1, 2008 by admin

I find the pedigree of this flyer in the Tom Goddard Collection colorful enough to stand on its own: an advertisement for the Tell-Tale Hearts’ April 28, 1984, appearance with Manual Scan and the Trebles at Point Loma’s Syndicate that appears to bear the imprint of two of San Diego’s most intriguing flyer artists and raconteurs.

The side-by-side signatures at the lower right of the flyer indicate the piece was signed by “SFG 84” as well as the protean Jerry Cornelius. While “SFG” and the style of the Edward Gorey/Alice in Wonderland imagery point to Steve “Fuckin’ ” Garris, Tell-Tale Heart Ray Brandes expresses certainty that the band never commissioned San Diego’s self-proclaimed “King of the Punks” to create a flyer on its behalf.

London Calling

April 21, 2012September 29, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman of Manual Scan and Lemons Are Yellow reflects on the decline of empires.)

My favorite albums were always those that weren’t just a collection of songs but presented a unified picture of their time and place, a map to their own little world. Coming of musical age in the late ’70s, one notable example was the first Clash LP, which presented a rich portrait of London as a decayed and violent landscape where one struggled for survival. This echoed the theme of how the lost power and fortune of the British empire diminished the expectations of its current citizens; this was presented by many bands, from the Kinks to the Jam.

These were distant but clever and interesting voices, and very different from the “Morning in America” world view that pervaded the US in the ’80s. They seemed especially far from San Diego, where the nearly perpetual sunshine provides a completely different backdrop from London’s rain.

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!

Hair Theatre: “Confession”

June 30, 2009September 26, 2008 by admin

Another searing track from the 1983 Lab Studios demo that featured “Rolling Soul” and “Nightfall”: Here’s Hair Theatre performing “Confession.”

Fabulous guitar work by Paul Allen; a slinky, sinuous rhythm section shaped by 13-year-old bass prodigy Sergio Castillo; and an emotionally charged performance by vocalist/songwriter/band shaman Sergio, who offers some psychological context to the song’s genesis.

“I wrote that when I was first learning how to write songs, way before I even got the band going,” Sergio says. “Being as tragic as one is as a teenager … That’s basically what that song is about — you feel like you’re the victim of everything!”

Sergio (vocals); Sergio Castillo (bass); Cesar Castillo (rhythm guitar); Paul Allen (lead guitar); Steve Broach (drums).

Listen to it now!

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”

Secret Society Scooter Club reunion

June 30, 2009September 23, 2008 by admin

(Club President and reunion organizer Tony Suarez gathers the tribes and lives to tell the tale.)

The 25th anniversary of the Secret Society Scooter Club was held over the Labor Day weekend in San Diego. One hundred twenty or so current/alumni members and their wives descended on San Diego from as far away as Boise, Idaho, and Warrington, Va. The newly formed Chicago chapter (of two) and the San Francisco chapter made it as well.

Cat-herding folks that I hadn’t seen for a good 20 years was not as difficult as I had predicted. Getting folks to pay for a dinner at a hotel on time for our due date was another story! Threats of e-mail spam and other modern online tactics got everyone together.

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.

This We Dug: X-ray Spex

December 16, 2017September 19, 2008 by admin

(In the first installment of a new series, Dave Rinck takes the mic in praise of germ-free adolescence.)

Hi guys, this is Dave Wallflower. Here on the Che Underground Web site, we’ve mentioned in passing a lot of the very cool bands outside the SD music scene that inspired us, excited us or are simply cool bands to listen to.

Well, not everyone may be familiar with all of these bands, so in this new series I plan to talk about bands we’ve dug through the years, why we dug them and what they’re doing now. Here we go!

The other day I put X-ray Spex on over the iPod at a party, and people around me reacted like I’d lost my mind. “This band is loud and noisy,” someone complained, “and the singer is screaming.” Hmmm … Yes, that’s all true, but exactly what is it that you don’t like about them?

Then and now: Off the Record

January 1, 2011September 17, 2008 by admin

(Roving correspondent/photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits the scenes of our youth. Today, Off the Record’s original location is roadkill.)

It takes my breath away that the candy store of my youth has been diminished to something as unsavory as a used-tire store. Off the Record has had a history, migrating from its origin on 6130 El Cajon Blvd. to the heart of the Hillcrest shopping district, where a much larger store thrived in the ’90s and early 21st century with San Diego’s indie rock scene and the DJ phemenon. The in-store concerts were memorable and yielded huge turnouts for bands such as The Misfits, Husker Du, Mudhoney and Nirvana. (Check out Nirvana at OTR in October 1991.)

After the original owner Phil Galloway sold the store, it downsized its stock considerably and in 2005 moved to a small storefront on University Avenue in North Park. The end of an era: Music stores can’t compete nowadays with the instant accessibility of MP3s and shareware. Record stores are reserved for the discriminating vinyl collectors who will never sell out completely to technology, no matter how clever those gizmos are!

Records will always be cooler.