Enter P Man

(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.

Read moreEnter P Man

Lemons Are Yellow: “America’s Finest City”

Detail: Sheldon’s placemat (”San Diego”)“Destroy All Music,” the superb 2005 album by Che Underground supergroup Lemons are Yellow, serves as a deliriously bacchanalian Greek chorus for the fringe of early-’80s San Diego and predicts many of the major themes sounded on this blog.

Study “America’s Finest City” by Paul Kaufman to learn more about our local argot, about Sheldon’s thick and creamies, and about the romantic life and times of Steve Garris. (Then study it again; it’s a rockin’ little number I want my jockey to play.)

David Fleminger (guitar, vocals); Kristin Martin (bass guitar, vocals); Paul Kaufman (guitar, vocals); and Ed Meares (drums).

Listen to it now!

Sheldon’s After Dark

Detail: Sheldon’s placemat(A sentimental epicurean journey by Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veteran Paul Kaufman.)

Regardless of where the show was, chances are the night would end up at Sheldon’s, the Eisenhower-era styled, non-conglomerate “family” restaurant that once loomed large in the all-night dining Pantheon of San Diego. Most memorable for me were items with descriptions like “Large 24 oz. Malted Milkshake, Thick and Creamy, $1.25” and “Demi-loaf of home-baked bread, served here with butter, 75 cents.” Those Thick and Creamies became a significant part of my diet, and one of their original ashtrays still is on the mantle. Also iconic was their placemat, with postwar cartoon depiction of San Diego’s highlights.

My first time was after the first Manual Scan show at the London Tavern.

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Rockin’ Dogs: “Back of Your Heart”

Detail: Rockin’ Dogs two and twoI am very excited to unleash another track from the Rockin’ Dogs’ legendary AccuSound sessions, and a personal favorite in the Che Underground canon. “Back of Your Heart” has me hooked; the Link Wray chicken-scratch lick just before “Your bo-o-oy” is another addictive Dogs signature, Cole Smithey’s drumming is especially sharp on this number, and I love the call-and-response on the chorus.

Listening to all these great recordings from that era, the Rockin’ Dogs’ background vocals are a welcome anomaly. Does anybody remember why so few of us were singing together in those days? Was it the shortage of mics in our garages, teenage reticence or a fear of coming across like Spinal Tap’s graveside rendition of “Heartbreak Hotel”? Whatever was stopping us, I wish more of us had put our voices together as effectively as Sam and Dave.

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She gets confused … Flying over the dateline

Yesterday Kristi Maddocks, Tom Ward and I (Matt R.) had a reunion lunch (at the fabulous uptown Vynl restaurant on NY’s Columbus Ave.), and we were comparing notes on our respective migratory patterns since leaving San Diego.

The conversation turned to a subject I’d planned to raise here: While many of us used LA as an occasional or frequent playground in our youth, it seems most of the expats on this blog made a beeline to San Francisco once they’d decided to leave San Diego.

Read moreShe gets confused … Flying over the dateline

A Che lexicon

Detail: Manual Scan, Answers flyer: “We’re talking Circle 5, man!”Linguistics 101: Along with costumes, ceremonial gatherings and dietary rules, communities employ language as a richly symbolic tool of inclusion and exclusion. The convergence of microenvironments that created the Che Underground united a mob of very clever youngsters, most of them extremely verbally adept. Each sub-scene seemed to have its own patois, and the resulting Tower of Babel continues to invite analysis lo these many years later.

A few examples we’ve already explored: “LUTAN!”; “Taste the fury, Babyface”; “the grinding wheel” and “rule the wasteland.”

Let’s discuss FONO, Vault XIII, Circle 5, laal, Stanky Pickle and the rest of the San Diego underground’s oral tradition. What were we talking about, anyway?

Can you hear me now?

The Amazons logoWe were all connected by music back in the day, but I hope our musical adventures aren’t all retrospective. Time to look beyond the Reagan Administration for inspiration!

What have you created since 1985 that we can share here on Che Underground: The Blog?

Putting my MP3s where my mouth is, I’ll go first. Here are two tracks that live on a nascent site dedicated to the Amazons, my aforementioned San Francisco-based acoustic trio. “Tales of Brave Procrustes” and “Roll Like Sisyphus,” recorded at the Amazons’ farewell gig March 2001 (with the fabulous Lemons Are Yellow), are two installments of an unfinished triptych (Greek mythology-themed, in keeping with the Amazonian imagery). The unwritten Icarus song has been percolating for nearly a decade, and maybe sharing these tracks will shake it loose at last.

Read moreCan you hear me now?

Another side of Dave Klowden

Dave Klowden in Mystery Machine/5051To celebrate the diversity of the early-’80s San Diego underground (and shamelessly solicit contributions to Che Underground’s Related Bands page), here’s a double-decker salute to David “GI” Klowden, nimble navigator of the San Diego scene and keystone of 5051, the Mystery Machine and the Tell-Tale Hearts.

Side One: “El Salvador” from 5051’s 1981 seven-inch. David Klowden (vocals); Sam Topper (guitar); Squirrel Oberg (guitar); Scott Harber (bass); Joel Roop (drums)

Side Two: “She’s Not Mine,” recorded in 1983 by the Mystery Machine. Ray Brandes (vocals, tambourine); Carl Rusk (six-string Guild Starfire, 12-string Rickenbacker 370-12, vocals); Mark Zadarnowski (bass); Bill Calhoun (Vox Jaguar); David Klowden (blue Japanese Majestic drumset).

What a difference two years make!

“Who’s the OLD dude?”

Wallflowers skeleton flyer detailTime for a little topical palate-cleanser after all this rear-view mirror-gazing: I want to know if we really are the people our parents warned us about. (Well, not mine, considering some of their friends — but maybe yours. Maybe.)

Here’s the question: If you had the chance to spend half an hour chatting with yourself ca. 1983, what would the 1983 you have to say about the 2008 you? (Let’s say you couldn’t reveal your identity or tell yourself to buy Microsoft.)

Read more“Who’s the OLD dude?”

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