Pandoras | The Che Underground

John Nee: From UCSD’s student impresario to Marvel Comics maestro

January 23, 2018January 21, 2018 by Mmrothenberg

Congratulations to John Nee for his high-profile hire as the leader of Marvel’s comic-book pack, where he’s taking over as publisher in the wake of Dan Buckley’s promotion to president of Marvel Entertainment. “As the Marvel publisher,” writes ComicBook.com (which got the exclusive), “Nee will oversee the health of the comics line both print and digital [and] be tasked with ensuring the quality of the line, managing budgets [and] guiding marketing.”

John has been a legend in the comics world for decades. He ascended to president of WildStorm Productions, then joined the executive team at DC Comics when DC bought WildStorm in 1999. John rose to Senior Vice President of Business Development at DC before staking an independent claim as co-founder of Cryptozoic Entertainment in 2010.

Like the rest of the heroes portrayed on this blog, John Nee arrives at his new job with his own Che Underground origin story.

The genesis of Elvis Christ

September 30, 2011August 2, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

(Jack Gamboa continues his Che-infused memoir of his mid-’80s band.)

It was the very first day of school after summer break. I was walking to my Propaganda Films of the Third Reich lecture. (I had already taken Bram Dijkstra’s “Devils, Vampires and Other Horrible Creatures of 19th Century Literature.”) Suddenly on the path to the quad I saw my best childhood friend Steve. I had not seen him in months!

He was a guitarist, so we were talking about the local band scene, I was telling him about the rockabilly outfit the Wild Desires. I “BongoChild” drummed for Dave “LadiesLove” Ellison on Magnatone Typhoon and bass legend Andy “ThunderTrain” Seidlinger on lownotes. A bad-ass situation too perfect to last. We had broken up a few months before. Andy had also been playing my borrowed drums for a pair of punks who called themselves Leather Geek, but he transferred to UCLA to study Structural Engineering. I told Steve: “I would love to meet up with Leather Geek! I never saw them play, but I hear that they threw legendary parties. Rumor has it that Jory is an excellent guitarist, and Eric did a poetry reading of ‘Walk This Way’ by Aerosmith!” Steve was laughing and digging that. So we were gossiping about musicians and stuff like that. We turned a corner and entered an open lawn area (I think it was called ‘the Quad’ in those days) …

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.”

Noise 292: “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

January 1, 2011April 5, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

Here’s another helping of sonic steak Tartar, to borrow Dave Rinck’s evocative phrase: Noise 292 serving up a very raw version of Bob Dylan’s “Subterranean Homesick Blues” at the Headquarters in Pacific Beach, August 26, 1983 (opening for the Pandoras and the Answers). This was the first Noise 292 lineup, and this number features Kristin Martin on bass; David Rives, guitar; Hobie Hodge, trash percussion; Joanne Norris, drums; Matthew Rothenberg, vocals and S&M tambourine (with which I raised a big hematoma on the heel of my hand every time we played this song). Leighton Koizumi (later of the Gravedigger V and the Morlocks) made his live rock-‘n’-roll debut playing electric violin on “Heroin” that evening, although Wendell Kling also took over violin duties when he replaced Hobie on percussion.

I always enjoyed how this cover threw a bunch of our noise-rock, art-rock, punk and garage influences into the Cuisinart and basically hit “purée”! (Can anyone identify the voice of the girl talking about her calculator at the beginning of the track? I keep wondering if she ever got it back.)

Listen to it now!

Dave Fest/Party at Pat’s House

December 11, 2017March 8, 2008 by patrick works

Whacky…yeah we had a lot of parties. Most of you got laid or arrested there.

Pretty quickly we learned that most of our friends were cool, some were knuckleheads, and then we knew a few named Dave. Dave Rinck was our inspiration here…so rather than castigate them we decided to celebrate them…hence the 3 different parties called Dave Fest.

The first was The Wallflowers, Manual Scan, and the Tell Tale Hearts. That was the Hearts’ first gig if I remember correctly. That one was broken up when Arturo of SDSH used a Mission Hills mod I had a feud with as a battering ram and broke the toilet…whence we learned the rule “always put the keg outside.”

Dave Fest 2 was promoted quite a bit more widely, finally resulting in radio DJs in SF and LA announcing in for a week, bands from LA calling asking to be allowed to play…and yeah…that was broken up too when the guy we brought in to do security told all his friends to come and a couple of them had just got out of jail that day…they kinda ran amok, but they were not Red and White. Just SDSH associates.

That one was the Wallflowers, and the Hearts again, the Answers, and The Pandoras (they never got to play but they got paid)

I called the cops on that one myself. It was out of hand.

Dave Fest 3 was 10 bands for $10 at Che Cafe…get the keg out of the bathroom, and take it to the other end of town! Too many bands to name, but we had Noise, Hair, Hearts, Flowers, and on and on. I left town after that one.

Door policy at the house parties was as follows:

$3 admission, $2 if you wore your sunglasses after dark, and FREE if your name was Dave.

We had a lot of great times at 2866 E St. Many of our friends came to live there for extended periods of time. My mom (the much loved Linda) and I sat down and counted all the kids who at one time or other actually lived there (not just staying for the weekend) and it was over 26 names. You know who you are and are still loved.

Ironically after all the wild times I had with all of you, my little brother’s friends moved in after I left for SF and they ended up looting the house. Nobody would believe that this was my brother’s friends doing…it had to be me. Funny.

BTW I am throwing another party March 13 here in Watsonville to open my new studio. I mailed out 400 invitations and personally invited another 200 people. You are all invited too. Drop me a note and I’ll give you directions.

I still have the bug…heheheheheheheheh The local chamber of commerce actually sent me a flyer on “how to throw a successful party”. LOL

BEZEEYINGYOU

— Patrick Works