Be My Friend | The Che Underground

The Answers Never Existed

January 21, 2018July 13, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

(In preparation for the band’s July 31 reunion at the Che Underground Rock-‘n’-Roll Weekend, founding Answer Dave Fleminger unvaults a historic track and the story behind it.)

Contrary to what this post’s title implies, the Answers did indeed exist; it was just too tempting to suggest that here was a band that never existed in order to introduce a recording few knew existed of a song entitled “Never Existed.” Enough of that …

During the summer of 1982 the Answers had the pleasure of performing a number of times at the Kings Road Cafe, previously known as the International Blend. Among the audience at some of these shows was Terry Marine, who enjoyed our noise enough to mention us in his mag Be My Friend, referring to us as “tight, nervous new stuff.”

Bamboohead 3000 on Terry Marine

January 6, 2011June 24, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

Clayton Colgin continues to reimagine his formative Bamboohead ‘zine online. This week, Bamboohead 3000 touches bases with another historic figure of the San Diego punk scene: Terry Marine, founder of Be My Friend magazine and a familiar face to anyone who frequented the SD underground of the late ’70s and early ’80s.

“I was always fascinated by Terry because something told me he was crazier than most of us,” Clay writes by way of introduction. “Nobody ever told me to watch out for him, and I never heard any ugly stories about him back then. I never saw him needlessly brutalize anyone. I did see him rush to defend the ranks when particularly-ornery-crews of LA-punks would come to our shows for the purpose of flexing fear-and-intimidation. He never shied from these situations.

Have you ‘zine me? San Diego’s indy music mags

December 18, 2017August 11, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Detail: Quasi-Substitute #2, 1980 (collection Dean Curtis) Another pillar of SD punk’s plastic arts (along with music, tattoos and flyers) were ‘zines, the samizdat publications created by luminaries such as Marc Rude, Harold Gee, Terry Marine and Clayton Colgin.

Over in the Che Underground forum (separate registration required), Dean Curtis and Toby Gibson, among others, have been bringing these treasures to light. One of Dean’s first contributions was Issue 2 of Quasi-Substitute, dating from 1980 and featuring the Crawdaddys on the cover.

Detail: Snare #1 (collection Dean Curtis) Its reappearance prompted this wonderful response from David Klowden: “Seeing this issue of Q-Sub triggered an intense emotional stew of white hot longing for that place and time, deep black terror at the passage of the years & a kind of fatherly love for my younger self that is beyond description.