Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
(Jeremiah Cornelius considers the reach of the Fab Four into contemporary economic debate.)
It’s been said, ‘in oh so many ways’, that everybody loves the Beatles.
With that in mind, here’s a little salute, to the 100%:
And now, a little consolation for the injured parties in the last video. They can hum this little ditty to themselves at night, and muse that, at least George, once sympathised with their plight…
(Paul Howland, a k a P Man, ushers in a new podcast straight out of San Diego.)
Oct. 11, 2011, was the official launch night of a new dance called “Geeked.” Geeked was very pleased to be able to present The Pure Boom Hi-Fi.
Episode 1; Pure Boom Hi-Fi Live at Geeked Launch Night 10.09.11
Pure Boom is one of my very favorite selectors. I met him through the Dubstep scene in San Diego in early 2009. Here though, by special request of Geeked, he’s playing roots steppers dub. Pure Boom is the only selector I know of who actually mixes this type of music, as it’s usually played “sound system style” (play the dub, flip over, play the vocal, no beatmatching). Heavy-duty mixing chops and super-sick selecting and programming skills, combine to make each of his sets a very special occasion.
(Gravedigger Five co-founder John Hanrattie recounts his side of the renowned San Diego garage band’s short but eventful history.)
I was 17 when I first played guitar for an audience. I was working as a roadie for a San Diego band called N/E One. They were a very good cover band that would occasionally write one of their own songs and include it in their set. They built up a loyal following among San Diego teenagers and started playing high-school dances and at a local “under-21″ night club called Headquarters.
They started inviting me on stage to join them in covering the Rolling Stones’ take on Bobby Troup’s “Route “ I was using a six-string Rickenbacker and playing rhythm guitar with Rob Glickman, the lead guitarist. I had been taking classical guitar lessons, but I really wanted to play rock ‘n’ roll. I switched teachers to someone who could teach me Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly licks. It was a long process, and I learned some chords, but my skills were limited.
During my senior year in high school, the ASB started booking bands to play in the quad during Friday lunch. They eventually got around to inviting N/E One to play, and I joined them on stage for their set. Afterward, several people approached me, asking if I wanted to start a band. I was flattered, but I held out, hoping to find people who wanted to play the same kind of music I loved. I refused to have anything to do with playing Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin covers. I wanted to play British Invasion beat and 1960s garage music.
(Father to a fast-moving toddler/ adoptive New Englander/ Ché fan at large Paul Kaufman currently makes it out of the house at night a couple of times a year, so they better count. This one did.)
In the future, I’ll have to contain the instinct to rile when I see current concert calendars loaded with bands you could have seen in the mid-’70s: Pat Benatar, America, Kansas, James Taylor. Sure, most of this stuff is hurl-worthy, but I can’t pretend that nostalgia is of no interest to me.
What were the last three shows I’ve seen? Sonic Youth, Pavement, and now, Dinosaur Jr. True, the first of these is a band still actively exploring new territory, but the others weren’t. The Pavement show was one-off reunion of my favorite band of the ’90s, playing their classics. This Dinosaur Jr. show was an even more specific revisit to a place and time: late-’80s Boston. “Playing the album ‘Bug’ (1988) in its entirety!” read the announcement. I bought a ticket the moment I saw the ad.
The show was at The Paradise Club in the student-centric Allston neighborhood, a few blocks and 22 years from the first time I had seen them. Back then, Dinosaur Jr. was the “it” band among the many Boston college radio stations, and they had joined the übercool SST indie label, but I was lucky to catch them at a small place (“Bunratty’s,” now defunct, still notorious.
San Diego photographer Sean McMullen is a true friend of Che Underground: The Blog and of most of the participants featured here. He’s also a friend to anyone who cares about preserving gorgeous images of the town’s most exciting gigs.
Sean McMullen, Dave Doyle talk photography
I’m very grateful to him for his latest contribution: this wonderful set of photos from our recent showcase at the Casbah, which ran Sept. 2 and 3 and featured the 30-year San Diego reunions of the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns, supported by a galaxy of local stars.
Stay tuned in the coming weeks for video and audio from Labor Day Weekend 2011!
Here are the acts, in chronological order:
Read moreCrawdaddys/Unknowns Labor Day
showcase from the McMullen Collection
Here’s another dose from the July 30, 2011, event “Che Underground present Sounds of the Sunset Strip”: two songs from 1960s Los Angeles performed with skill and élan by the Ciros, making their debut at Lestat’s Coffee Shop.
Like headliners the Sidewalk Scene, the Ciros feature a formidable list of names from San Diego’s music history, as well as some notable newcomers: Thomas Ward (12-string guitar); Anthony Suarez (rhythm guitar); David Klowden (drums); Dave Fleminger (lead guitar); Dave Doyle (bass); Lou Damian (reeds); Dylan Rogers (vocals); Heather Vorwerck (cello); Graziela Damian (vocals).
Here’s an urgent opportunity to support one of our own and get some fine, fine music in return!
San Diego expat-turned-San Francisco solo artist Jeffrey Luck Lucas is preparing to re-release his third CD, “The Lion’s Jaw,” and it will require $1,300 within the next two weeks to print the CDs his record label will distribute and promote.
It’s a quid pro quo: Donate to to “JLL, The Lion’s Jaw CD Release and General/Overall Local Artist Support Fund,” and Jeff will send you a signed copy of the newly redesigned “Lion’s Jaw” CD as well as his nearly completed new studio album, “The Love of Leaving.”
It may be a new band on the block, but the Sidewalk Scene represents a veritable Murderer’s Row of San Diego musical talent. (Don’t miss your chance to see the band open for the Unknowns along with the Comeuppance on Sept. 3 at the Casbah — Day Two of a Labor Day weekend blowout that also features an evening comprising the Crawdaddys, the Amandas and the Baja Bugs.)
Buy your tickets now for the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns at San Diego’s Casbah, Sept. 2-3!
This video clip (accompanied by photos shot by Unknowns bassist Dave Doyle) portrays the Sidewalk Scene tearing into Paul Simon’s “Richard Cory” at Lestat’s July 30, when they headlined “Che Underground present Sounds of the Sunset Strip.” A great band with hundreds of years of San Diego history among them, delivering with the passion we’ve come to expect from these consummate musicians!
(To celebrate Labor Day weekend’s 30-year reunions of the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns at San Diego’s Casbah, longtime graphic artist and Che Underground blog contributor Kristen Tobiason has prepared a striking pair of flyers to feature each night’s lineup. Here’s the story behind the art and a glimpse of the sociology of music flyering.)
It seems like yesterday I was drawing a flyer for the Wallflowers’ first gig with a black Sharpie.
Twenty years later, here I am putting together a poster for the Unknowns, while listening to one of their songs on YouTube.
I still sketch my preliminary ideas on paper, but my medium has evolved, becoming less primitive and infinitely more digitized.
Buy your tickets now for the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns at San Diego’s Casbah, Sept. 2-3!
Some girls love shoes, I love color and typography. I was never patient enough to learn guitar, but drawing came naturally. I loved record albums as a kid, and some of my earliest memories are of studying the covers from my dad’s collection. As a teenager in the San Diego music scene, flyering was a way that I could contribute to the music without having to actually be in a band. When I was 16 I got my first box of rapidograph inking pens, which I had seen Jerry Cornelius use for his illustrations. Jerry’s art was intimidating, but inspiring too. I learned by emulating his style, and used to sit and copy Tennielle’s drawings from “Alice in Wonderland,” or the covers of H.P. Lovecraft, to learn how to do the crosshatching/shading.
Read moreCrawdaddys/Unknowns reunion flyers
from Kristen Tobiason
As Che Underground: The Blog reported in May, San Diego’s extended arts family lost a member with the passing of the hugely talented costumer Todd Tomarrow in San Francisco. Now, a circle of friends plan to round out the Labor Day weekend at San Diego’s Casbah with a celebration of Todd’s life.
Catherine Pierson Waters, Kelsey Farris and Kristi Maddocks will host “The Todd Tomarrow (Todd Bundy) Memorial Celebration & Pot-luck BBQ” Sunday, Sept. 4, from 2pm to 6pm. (Since it’s in a bar, guests must be over 21.)
“The Memorial Celebration will begin with ‘An Hour of Remembrance,’ ” the Facebook event announcement reads, “followed by a pot-luck BBQ & dance in the Casbah’s back patio. The event will feature a no-host bar. … DJ Van Richter will be spinning music for your Dancing Pleasure (just as Todd would have wanted)!