Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Remember when records had two sides? Remember how you had to pick them up and turn them over or wait for the next record to drop? Deep into this digital age, I still catch myself waiting for the A-side to end.
Leaving aside favorite albums for the moment, what were the favorite sides of your youth? Here are just a few of many sides that did it for me then — each one has a specific association to scenes in San Diego (some of which I may be prepared to share here).
Answers founder/vocalist/guitarist Dave Fleminger has opened up his archives to share a wealth of photographs spanning the band’s illustrious career.
Here is an assortment of portrait and performance shots of the Answers featuring bassist/vocalist Jeff Lowe and drummer Dave Anderson. Just hold on tight, and you are there!
Performing at the Che Cafe Nov. 17, 1983 (with Hair Theatre and 11 Sons), Noise 292 pays homage to two of its bedrock influences, covering the Velvet Underground’s epic “Sister Ray” and throwing in a few stylings from Joy Division’s version for good measure. (Check out Kristin Martin and me tearing into the “Good night” vocals at the end, à la mode d’Ian Curtis!)
“My first memory of witnessing a Noise 292 show has you screaming your ass off during a performance of ‘Sister Ray,’ incredibly cathartic and tribal,” writes Dave Fleminger. “I’d never seen anything like it … way scarier and more musically violent than Fairmont Hall fare. Ear-punishing.
Packing so much musical talent into the confines of the San Diego scene pushed the Che Underground Mixmaster into overdrive. A couple of short years produced a dizzying melange of amputations, collaborations and creative explosions as assorted musicians formed new combinations.
Sergio of Hair Theatre sang for the Answers; guitarist David Rives from Noise 292 joined them for one performance as Painted Sun; Sam Wilson moved from the Rockin’ Dogs to the Wallflowers to Hair Theatre; Joanne Norris drummed for the Injections, Noise 292 and Everybody Violet; Crawdaddys and Gravediggers became Nashville Ramblers; half of our bands converged into the Morlocks; and Dave Anderson kept the beat for everybody else.
The Cyndie Jaynes Collection continues to generate a kaleidescope of images from the early-’80s San Diego underground … This batch features a shot I overlooked from the Tell-Tale Hearts’ performance at Dave Fest 3 as well as a variety of portraits.
Here’s a selection of Cyndie’s photos, followed by a list matching names to these well-loved faces. Note the gaps in the historical record; help us out here!
In another first for Che Underground: The Blog, here is a never-before-distributed video featuring San Diego’s legendary Mirrors, the luminous successor to the Answers. Guitarist and producer Dave Fleminger describes the creative process:
“These tracks are among the Mirrors’ last San Diego recording sessions, around June 1985. As with all Mirrors sessions, they were made in my bedroom with one mic and a Teac four-track. The soundtrack is still based on cassette mixes, as these have yet to be properly remixed.
“By the end of that summer we were all in San Francisco, part of the mass migration documented elsewhere on the blog. The players are me, Jeff [Lowe] and Anni (on guitar, bass and drums, respectively), with Jeff and me each singing the song that we authored.
Just as Canada offered political asylum to Wallflowers artifacts over the past quarter-century, Croatia emerges as the sanctuary for sounds of the original Morlocks.
Drummer Mark Mullen last week received this track fresh from the former Yugoslavia — the first in a completely preserved 13-song show at San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall that was originally broadcast live on KALX. (Could it be this show from Sept. 28, 1985?)
Freshly arrived in town, Jerry Cornelius outdoes himself as MC. “That’s me,” Jerry writes. “Doing the intro in imitation of the Dutch band, Q65 — which the Morlocks worshipped.”
(In which Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow vet Paul Kaufman revisits the day jobs of our misspent youth.)
You asked for it … There have been multiple requests for a post about the various jobs we held so that we could afford all the gasoline, musical equipment, hip apparel and rolled tacos that propelled the San Diego scene.
I’ll start the proceedings with two rather uncool jobs that I held; since both establishments are still in business, the names will removed to protect the guilty. The first was a small Italian eatery where I washed dishes. The work itself was OK, but there was a creepy and exploitative relationship between the owner and the crew.
Here’s a keystone number in Hair Theatre’s brilliant repertoire: “Nightfall” is one of my clearest memories of this unforgettable band.
According to vocalist Sergio, this performance was part of a four-song demo recorded at the end of 1983: Hair Theatre’s second demo session and the first with lead guitarist Paul Allen.
“Nightfall” was recorded at Lab Studios in Carlsbad by James of Manifest Destiny. “James was very patient with us, very good,” Sergio recalls. “He was used to doing everything punk-style: one take and out. I insisted on a couple of tracks for my vocals,” and the band devoted multiple takes to making sure the sound was polished to a fine edge.
(A remembrance of E Street and its denizens by Patrick Works.)
Hey there, folks … Jeff Lucas finally logging on and his (very kind, thank you) comments on my old house on E Street makes me think of all of you who lived and loved there within its walls.
I’d rather not mourn a place, but celebrate its memory by sharing those memories with you … and ironically enough my most vivid memories are a bit mournful, as about nine years ago I lost my youngest brother Josh, and I think of him a lot.
