Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Lou Skum reminds us that we’ve yet to include a post on an early San Diego punk band that holds more questions for me than answers.
Considering I can’t even figure out what the band was named — the 7″ release says “Xterminators,” but most of the flyers I’ve seen for gigs at the Skeleton Club and elsewhere refer to “the Exterminators,” with a definite article and a capital “e” — I’d like to set the record straight on this early contributor to the San Diego punk scene.
(After a Reagan-era hiatus, the Front will take the stage Jan. 28, 2011, at San Diego’s Casbah. Bassist Kevin Chanel provides the 411 on the forthcoming festivities.)
Morgan Smith (guitar player) talked with Tim Mays dating back to mid-2009. He then called Mark Baez (singer) out of the blue, with nice words about old times.
We put together a practice later that year. One day as a three-piece, next as all four original dudes. (Dan Mehlos is the drummer. He was also in Personal Conflict and Men of Clay.) Sounded pretty good. Most of us had not seen each other in 20+ years.
(Abortive record mogul Kevin Chanel heralds the post-Internet return of his label with two releases into the brave new world of online media.)
“Why now?”
Been asking that myself. After 15 years of somewhat complete dormancy, Scheming Intelligentsia Records is back with a line of retro classics and unfinished tchotchkes of historical whatnot.
“But why?”
If you recall, back in ’95 we didn’t have no MP3 technology or iZunes being given away with a ten-pak of ramen. You wanted music, you had to buy it on cassette, vinyl or CD. For us instant-gratification enthusiasts, this is a great time to be human.
We are celebrating with the first two releases in our exhumation process: 1987’s PERSONAL CONFLICT album “Rest In Peace” and the previously unreleased, half-baked SOUL BROTHERS masterwerk, “Find My Keys And We’ll Drive Out Of Here.”
In another selection from her collection of vintage San Diego flyers, Dawn Hill Waxon focuses on the Front, the mid-’80s post-punk outfit that featured Morgan Smith, Mark Baez, Kevin Chanel and Dan Mehlos.
These flyers date from 1984 and include the earliest show we’ve encountered so far at the short-lived but influential Rock Palace (a gig with the Tell-Tale Hearts to usher in 1985).
