Dan McLain | The Che Underground

The Crawdaddys and Unknowns
mutual admiration society

December 11, 2017July 15, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

(Author of the definitive biographies of both the Unknowns and the Crawdaddys, Ray Brandes explores the connection between these two essential San Diego bands as they prepare to revisit San Diego after 30 years. Buy your tickets now!)

During the past three decades of rock and roll music in San Diego, two groups — the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns — can arguably claim to have had the most influence over the bands that followed in their wake. Both groups looked to the past, to the greats of early rock and roll and rhythm and blues for their own inspiration, and had a mutual respect for each other that transcended local band competitiveness.

The Crawdaddys and the Unknowns are looking forward to sharing the stage this coming Labor Day weekend as the Che Underground presents their historic reunions at the Casbah. I spoke with the members of each band about their love and respect for the other group.

Unknowns interview by Dan McLain

December 16, 2017December 10, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

Courtesy of Mikel Toombs, here’s a joint artifact of two hugely influential forces in San Diego music: an interview of the Unknowns that Dan McLain conducted for Issue III of his Hobogue ‘zine, dated February 1982.

“I interviewed the Unknowns 2 years ago for Snare magazine,” McLain writes. “In retrospect, I found our previous outing so incomplete that I simply had to do it over again.

Our family tree, revisited

December 31, 2010November 22, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

Thanks to the Cardiac Kidz’s Jim Ryan, Che Underground: The Blog has a fresh supply of artifacts from his band and other early participants in the San Diego punk scene.

Among Jim’s contributions is this chart from early 1980 composed by Dan McLain. It testifies to Dan’s role as underground historian and adds new fuel to the longstanding discussion of our family tree.

Let the Good Times Roll: The untold story of the Crawdaddys

March 27, 2019September 20, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

(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.