Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Here’s a mini-mystery for Che Underground irregulars: Who’s the kid in this picture Cyndie Jaynes shot in Presidio Park? A team of forensics experts has so far been unable to ID him definitively.
Ray Brandes’ best guess, with accompanying documentary evidence: “I’m pretty sure it’s Mike Therieau, who was in the Event–I didn’t think they were around yet, but then I found the attached flyer.”
Young mystery mod, the Che Underground salutes you! Step forward into the warm embrace of your peers.
The Cyndie Jaynes photo collection poses a curatorial challenge: There’s so much marvelous stuff here, it’s hard to decide how to slice and dice it.
Here’s another set of portraits designed to tickle the Proustian memory banks of anyone circulating in this corner of the early-’80s San Diego underground. Plus, they’re lovely photos in their own right. Help fill in the narrative blanks!
(Everybody Violet founder and SD scenestress extraordinaire Kristi Maddocks contributes practical tips for female food ‘n’ frolic in the San Diego underground.)
Author’s note: I have so much to say about the Che Underground, but I didn’t know where to start. So I began with the obvious: Being a female in the scene put you at a bit of a disadvantage … Even if you were smart and had creative contributions to make, the better sex was still received, perceived and judged on its looks and physical persona first and foremost.
Even though the sexual revolution had occurred in the ’60s-’70s, ironically feminism wasn’t a player in the retro mod/psyche scene of early-’80s San Diego. I was as guilty as the next girl for using my legs as a personal weapon or batting my big eyes at the boys in the band. Heck, these maneuvers got me in the door — and definitely helped me get deep into the scene and later helped me front my own band, Everybody Violet.
What can we say about Cyndie Jaynes? Not only is she a published author and successful graduate of the San Diego underground, she’s also a marvelous documentarian with an unrivaled cache of photos and flyers from early-’80s SD.
Here’s a sampling of the great things she’s shared with me … I’m very grateful for the chance to bring these treasures to light. Stay tuned for more!
Here’s a conversation-starter, or -killer: Most music historians would agree that the Che Underground era came to an end when a substantial percentage of its key participants decamped to San Francisco. Beginning in 1985 with the departures of Jerry Cornelius, Dave Fleminger and the Morlocks, a steady stream of San Diego expats made its way up to the Bay area through the 1990s.
I joined the throng in August 1987, met my wife and had two kids there, and stayed almost 14 years in San Francisco. It’s still my favorite American city; I had two great bands there, of which the majority of the members were beloved old friends from Slow Death; and I never once regretted the move.
And yet … the sense of a music scene just never happened for me in SF the way it did in SD.
Essential ingredients in our recipe for adolescent hijinx were the houses, apartments, nooks and crannies where we gathered to play and hang around and talk and commit a variety of small indiscretions at odd hours. We’ve talked about Patrick Works’ house, about Gay Denny’s and its ilk, about Presidio Park and Balboa Park … What were some other notable hangouts?
That’s three to start, but there were many more. Where else did we hang our hats?