Mikel Toombs | The Che Underground

Calling Poly Styrene from La Jolla

September 4, 2011April 28, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

(Mikel Toombs takes inspiration from the late punk icon.)

Poly Styrene, who died Monday after battling breast cancer (she was 53), was the subject of the first interview feature I ever wrote. It appeared in the Triton Times, before it became the UCSD Guardian and moved in next door to the Ché Café, which you may have heard about.

And what would prompt a penniless college student to place a then-pricey phone call to London to talk to someone in a band, X-ray Spex, that had a single 1977 single (“Oh Bondage! Up Yours!” backed with “I’m a Cliché”) in a style (punk) that had yet to take hold in the US, which still wanted to get down tonight?

This: “Some people think little girls should be seen ‘n’ not heard, but I say,” Poly said, “oh bondage! Up yours!”

The Skeleton Club in flyers

July 24, 2021June 10, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

Che Underground: The Blog has written before about the legendary Skeleton Club, the backbone of San Diego punk that Laura Fraser and Tim Mays ran for a scant two weeks at 921 4th Ave. before reopening (always a half-step ahead of SD authorities) at 202 Market St.

Now Mikel Toombs enriches our store of Skeleton Club lore with a wealth of flyers, including announcements that accompanied the original venue’s opening and closing.

“The one about the Skeleton Club closing was handed out at the final show at the original Skeleton Club,” Mikel writes. “I don’t have any recollection of the other one.”

Gary Heffern/Al DeLoner: “Anxiety”

December 18, 2017January 18, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

A special debut on Che Underground: The Blog! A chance remark by Mikel Toombs in this forum has inspired a haunting new song by San Diego legend Gary Heffern, recorded by Scandinavian bard Al DeLoner.

The piece, “Anxiety,” is in part a meditation on the disintegration of San Diego’s late-’70s underground. Heff writes, “Consider it a present to Che … as further proof that life does go in full circles … and inspiration can be found in the kindness of a friend giving me gentle nudge.”

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.

Jamul meets Little Richard!

February 20, 2018December 8, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

(Courtesy of Mikel Toombs, drummer Ron Armstrong of San Diego’s Misfits and Jamul describes the latter band’s TV appearance supporting a rock-‘n’-roll legend.)

It was 1970 and our band, Jamul, was playing the Whiskey in Hollywood. We were stoked that Little Richard came in to catch our show. We learned he loved our cover of his song, “Long Tall Sally.”

He told our leader/singer/guitarist that he liked our band better than his previous large 16-piece group and wanted us to back him for a Barry Richards TV special in Washington, D.C. We did and also performed a song … explained from a recent Internet link here.