Dave Fleminger | The Che Underground

Ché Games for May: Musical Promo 2

December 13, 2017December 22, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Once again, Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veterans Paul Kaufman and David Fleminger bang the gong to promote the Ché reunion. Except this time, they get some help from a very special guest.)

Last week, the planets aligned — I was in San Francisco, visiting Dave Fleminger at his house; this led to the first musical promo for the reunion in May 2009 that was posted recently. Little did we know that our musical universe was about to explode.

Someone was calling on the phone. A voice said, “Is Dave Fleminger at home?” It was Dave Rinck, the iconic lead singer of the Wallflowers, visiting from Nairobi. Soon we’re all in the studio, and here’s the result. Considering the last time I had seen Dave Rinck in person was when he was onstage in 1984, this was an especially big thrill for me.

Manual Scan in autofocus

December 31, 2010December 14, 2008 by admin

Bart Mendoza of Manual Scan and the Shambles comes through with a cache of photos, sounds and a video montage of Scan and its predecessors, the Pedestrians and Starjammer.

First up: a photo of three-quarters of the original Manual Scan lineup from 1981. The band had recently formed when Bart Mendoza and Kevin Ring of the Pedestrians (guitars) joined forces with Dave Fleminger (bass) and Paul Kaufman (drums). Says Bart (on the left), “Here is an early pic for the site, I’d love to hear what Paul remembers of this day. I think it’s a transitional pic, just post-Pedestrians, probably a few weeks after.”

Paul Kaufman responds, “It’s a blast to see this! Yes, I remember when we headed down to Balboa Park, which provided nice backdrops for a photo shoot … But where’s Dave in this photo?… You can tell I wasn’t able to keep up with the Mod attire. I think the jacket might have been a last-minute addition from the Ring wardrobe.”

This We Dug: The Red Krayola

December 11, 2017October 28, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

Hi everyone! Dave Wallflower here again. Underground culture is a worldwide phenomenon. It is everywhere. It is all around us. It is like the air we breathe, the water we swim in (assuming that we are fish). In this the third edition of This We Dug, you will learn about Red Krayola, a band that helped form the collective Che Underground consciousness. They were like some of the water we fish swam in. This issue of This We Dug was supplied by Che alumni Paul Kaufman and Dave Fleminger, two guys who in turn provided more than a little of the underground air we breathed.

Austin, Texas, made some very high-profile contributions to the psychedelic scene, notably Roky Erikson’s 13th Floor Elevators. But there were other bands in that scene you should check out. The Bubble Puppy album is cool. But my all-time favorite album from this time and place is the second LP by Red Krayola, “God Bless the Red Krayola and all who Sail with It.” This came after their half-song, half-“free form freak-out” debut LP “The Parable of Arable Land,” which provided the immortal “Hurricane Fighter Plane” (notably covered by Boo in the mid-’90s).

David Anderson: Drummer at large

April 21, 2012October 24, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow vet Paul Kaufman recognizes a man who set the pulse of the scene.)
Many contributors to Che Underground: The Blog have already mentioned David Anderson, a legendary figure in our musical history. To recap, he made major contributions to The Gravedigger V, The Answers, Manual Scan, The Crawdaddys, The Trebels and I Spy. This vast resumé reflects the fact that Dave was already a formidable drum talent by his early teens. At one point his kick drum read, “Your Band Name Here.”

But Dave was much more than just a guy behind the drum kit. Answers bandmate David Fleminger says, “I first met Dave (I think he was 13) when he was playing with I Spy. He’s an amazingly energetic and innovative talent who can lay down a foundation beat like no one else. A fantastic bandmate with a great sense of humor.”

“David Anderson? A legend!” Manual Scan co-founder Bart Mendoza recalls. “Some of my fondest tour stories involve him. We once snuck all our friends into the General Public shows we were opening in San Francisco and had one of the best parties ever. I remember playing bumper chairs as beer was spilled all over the floor of our dressing room at The Kabuki Theatre and the night getting pretty rowdy. David nearly caused a riot in Las Vegas because he went commando onstage. He played a squeaky-toy solo at the Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco.

Sucking in the ’60s

April 21, 2012October 22, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Original recipe/extra crispy Manual Scan rhythm section Paul Kaufman and Dave Fleminger come to honor the decade, not to rile on it.)

Even the most hardcore among us admire some aspect of ’60s music and culture. And for some, this era still remains the zenith of everything that was cool. There were rapid changes in taste and style from one year to the next during that tumultuous time, and by the end of the decade the seeds of excess were already planted. So, we ask the simple question:

When did the ’60s jump the shark?

Some moments worth considering:

The assassination of Martin Luther King.
Death of Brian Epstein.
Death of Brian Jones.
Altamont.
Letting Phil Spector “produce” the Let it Be album.
Magical Mystery Tour.
Sonny Bono says “Music took a left turn.”

Noise 292: “Eyesight”

January 1, 2011October 10, 2008 by admin

Noise 292 fan turned rock ‘n’ roll anthropologist Stefan Helmreich joins our ranks with a collection of tracks, including this late live performance of the band performing my early composition “Eyesight.”

“I recently stumbled across your Ché Underground site and was delighted to read such loving accounts of those long-ago days and nights,” Stefan writes. “I was still in high school — a year behind [Noise 292 percussionist] Wendell [Kling], then a senior at at San Dieguito — when I went to to the Nov. 17, 1983, Noise show, which stunned my then 17-year-old sensibilities and tracked me toward discovering Joy Division; the Velvets; and, soon enough, prompted me to start my own band.

“Sister Heat”

August 2, 2017October 5, 2008 by admin

(Jeremiah Cornelius describes the genesis of one of the great lost collaborations of post-Che Underground San Francisco.)

“Sister Heat is on slow drip — Someone blew her fuses”

A critical, high-concept description of my input to “Sister Heat” is “The Damned cover Bauhaus” — both of which were inspirations and targets for satire. The resulting style is a sub-genre of Glam that I call “Mock Bombastic” – A hallmark of both Romulus Johnson’s Deep Six and King Therapy, which were to follow in the next years.

The words for this song were written during a whirlwind of confusion that seems temporally located in the first half of 1985. It was conceived of as one of a dozen or so songs that I’d penned for a vaguely imagined power-trio. The ingredients for this concoction were a rooted in my revulsion at the general idea of intravenous entertainment — and a specific dismay at the introduction of a couple of young ladies to the pastime. Add large doses of imagery from Michael Moorcock books, half-digested Nietzsche and a steady diet of histrionic rock performers, and you get the kind of song that Dave Rinck hates!

The Answers: “Annual”

January 21, 2018September 2, 2008 by admin

(Answers guitarist/vocalist Dave Fleminger discusses the genesis of another crucial track made more poignant by the years.)

The Answers, “Annual,” recorded at Ewing’s SoundTech studios, one of 13 songs recorded one day in February 1983.

I originally wrote this song in advance of receiving my high-school annual. Even before I got the book I didn’t want to read it … I was already trying to form a picture of how my connections with my friends and classmates would last over time and how I would view that period of my life in retrospect … And now in retrospect, I see this more as a way to disassociate rather than feel and experience the process.

Hair Theatre: “Rolling Soul”

June 30, 2009August 31, 2008 by admin

From the same 1983 Lab Studios demo that brought us “Nightfall,” here’s Hair Theatre performing “Rolling Soul,” another signature number and staple of the band’s early-’80s repertoire. This track showcases the clean confidence of Hair Theatre’s early years and highlights the sophistication and charisma that vocalist/ songwriter Sergio demonstrated by age 18.

It also commemorates the collaborative skills of Sergio and Answers co-founder Dave Fleminger (demonstrated elsewhere with a recording of Sergio’s “He’s Calling You Tonight.”) “Sergio and I wrote that song one afternoon at [original Hair Theatre drummer Howard Palmer’s Carlsbad] shack,” Fleminger recalls. “The song was part of the expanded ‘3 Daves’ Answers sets, including our ‘Painted Sun’ gig opening for the Unclaimed at the UCSD Rec Gym” April 14, 1984.

Read moreHair Theatre: “Rolling Soul”