Jerry Cornelius | The Che Underground

‘I saw a film today, oh boy’: A Che Underground feature film

October 18, 2014March 14, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

(Ray Brandes brings the casting couch to your browser.)

director's chair The characters and events of our youth, it has often been suggested, would make excellent material for a big budget, Hollywood drama. Imagine having $100 million to re-create a show at the Che Cafe, a late-night Presidio Park gathering, a line of scooters outside the Ken Cinema for a showing of “Quadrophenia,” or a fight behind the North Park Lions Club, for example, using some of the top names in the business today.

Earlier threads, back in the days of the Che Underground blog’s infancy, floated names like Christopher Walken, Shia LaBeouf, Johnny Depp and Daniel Radcliff (of Harry Potter fame) to play Steve Garris, Matthew Rothenberg, Jerry Cornelius and Bart Mendoza, respectively.

Photo paydirt from the garage

January 1, 2011February 7, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

“Hi Matthew,” writes Greg S. “Maybe you remember me. … Toby Thunderbird/ Lifehater/ Gibson told me about your site.

“I’m visiting the US and thought I’d dig up some old photos to contribute, which have been sitting in a box in my mom’s garage. … Wasn’t sure how/where to post them, so here they are.”

Pictures through the past, darkly

December 31, 2010December 6, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

(A plaintive cry for ephemera from Darren Grealish.)

Hey, I don’t have any pictures from my youth at all. A crazy girlfriend I had in the late ’80s threw all my photo albums away, and sadly, all my pics are gone forever.

If you have pictures from the good old days with all of us please post ’em up! Maybe if we get enough of them after time we can get a groovy slide-show movie that people can watch on the site. Maybe we can have Jerry Cornelius be the narrator!

Come on and sock it to me! I would like some visual memories to look back on. As it is now I have only memories and this site!!!!! If you got em’ put em’ up! Let’s see the gold!

— Darren Grealish

[Editor’s note: All vintage Grealish beefcake welcome at Che Underground HQ: cheunderground@gmail.com. We will ensure Darren receives your contributions posthaste.]

“Sister Heat”

August 2, 2017October 5, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

(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!

When Garris met Cornelius

March 27, 2019October 1, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

I find the pedigree of this flyer in the Tom Goddard Collection colorful enough to stand on its own: an advertisement for the Tell-Tale Hearts’ April 28, 1984, appearance with Manual Scan and the Trebles at Point Loma’s Syndicate that appears to bear the imprint of two of San Diego’s most intriguing flyer artists and raconteurs.

The side-by-side signatures at the lower right of the flyer indicate the piece was signed by “SFG 84” as well as the protean Jerry Cornelius. While “SFG” and the style of the Edward Gorey/Alice in Wonderland imagery point to Steve “Fuckin’ ” Garris, Tell-Tale Heart Ray Brandes expresses certainty that the band never commissioned San Diego’s self-proclaimed “King of the Punks” to create a flyer on its behalf.

The Answers: “Home”

January 21, 2018July 24, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Here’s Answers Phase Two in kinetic action!

“[‘Home’] is from a performance at King’s Road, Aug. 13, 1982, opening for Banner,” writes guitarist/ vocalist/ songwriter Dave Fleminger. “Luv the impromptu intro with [MC] Jerry [Cornelius].

“As always, Dave Anderson delivers the powerhouse drumming that propels the breaks right out of the gate. One minute and 40 seconds in the key of A, all about an unfamiliar place with dirty dishes that remind you of home.”

Then and now: El Cajon Blvd. Denny’s

January 1, 2011July 13, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

(In the first installment of a series, roving correspondent/ photographer Kristen Tobiason revisits and documents the scenes of our youth. Today, a daylight visit to “Gay Denny’s,” 2008!)

Denny’s on El Cajon Blvd.: A night-time hang-out spot? I don’t see many hipsters hanging there today. Maybe pimps and their respective employees … but for us it was another after show/party place to kill time and wait for the sun to come up.

I recall sitting in front of a plate of hot French fries with a side bowl of brown gravy, cigarette in hand … Across from me, you might find Tom Ward with his classic shaded spectacles, Chris Negro wearing his black revolutionary coat, a couple of Gravedigger V members, Jerry Cornelius, Denise, Alena … among many others.

Pictures in an exhibition

January 1, 2011July 6, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Aside from rock-‘n’-roll music and tattoos, flyer art was one of the highest forms of expression in our circle. Today, the Che Underground flyer gallery welcomes new show pieces from the collection of Dave Fleminger.

“The Greenwich Village West one is a Kristen Tobiason work (including initials),” Dave writes, “the Che is Kristin Martin’s (initials again), the Pandoras gobble is mine, and the Rain Parade/Tell-Tale Hearts is certainly one of the most inscrutable of Jerry Cornelius’ flyers.”

The Morlocks: Live at the Swedish American Hall

January 1, 2011June 28, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Just as Canada offered political asylum to Wallflowers artifacts over the past quarter-century, Croatia emerges as the sanctuary for sounds of the original Morlocks.

Drummer Mark Mullen last week received this track fresh from the former Yugoslavia — the first in a completely preserved 13-song show at San Francisco’s Swedish American Hall that was originally broadcast live on KALX. (Could it be this show from Sept. 28, 1985?)

Freshly arrived in town, Jerry Cornelius outdoes himself as MC. “That’s me,” Jerry writes. “Doing the intro in imitation of the Dutch band, Q65 — which the Morlocks worshipped.”