Paul Kaufman | The Che Underground

Father’s Day: Past, present and future

March 30, 2019June 19, 2010 by Paul Kaufman

(Old Lemons Are Yellow guitarist/new dad Paul Kaufman has something extra to celebrate this weekend.)

This is the first Father’s Day that I’m actually a father! This prompted me to share some musical thoughts with all of you.

Last fall, my dad was visiting the new baby and us, and one evening we saw one of those PBS retrospective/fundraiser specials highlighting major musical performances that had been on the Ed Sullivan show. Lots of classic bands at their peak: Beatles, Stones, Sam and Dave, Sly Stone, Byrds, et al.

This footage had all been shot when I was 0-5 years old, and that era remains the bedrock of my musical upbringing. However, to my daughter, the January 1967 performance of Mick Jagger asking to spend some … time … together is as distant from her birth as a scratchy newsreel of flappers dancing the Charleston is to mine. So, 40 years from now, will I be watching a Justin Bieber documentary with our grandkids?

Songs for the DIYper set

January 6, 2011May 15, 2010 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman kicks out the jammies with new kid-friendly lyrics to old favorites.)

I’ve mentioned before that a little bundle of joy arrived at our house last fall. Our daughter is six months old now, and she’s a wonder to behold. She’ll soon reach the age at which I have to stop singing the real lyrics to “I Wanna Be Your Dog” during our musical play times.

But I’m thinking that instead of discarding such classics altogether, how about substitution of age-appropriate lyrics? I think Dr. Seuss could probably help with a lot of these situations:

“Somebody’s calling on the phone,
A voice says, hey, is Dee Dee at home?
Do you want to wear some socks?
Do you want to box a Gox?
Do you want wear some Gox box socks?”

Seen any good shows lately?

December 18, 2017January 9, 2010 by Paul Kaufman

(Distracted dad Paul Kaufman pops in for what is sure to be an infrequent concert review.)
Regular readers of this blog will understand why I’ve been pretty scarce lately: We have a newborn daughter in the house! She’s brought lots of joy, but naturally this means my extracurricular activities are pretty limited, and our baby-centric bedtime rules out most nighttime excursions.

I’ve made one exception since she’s arrived; a few weeks ago, I went to the first concert I’ve been to in quite some time (first since the Ché reunion, actually) to see Sonic Youth play.

People either love or hate this band, and I’m not writing this to promote my own fandom, but the show did make me think of a couple of things of more general interest. First, I couldn’t but help think about the fact that it was over 20 years ago I first saw them. That alone wouldn’t be so remarkable, except this show displayed no hint of nostalgia — they played mostly new material. (Though they never had chart-topping hits in the first place, “Teenage Riot,” their biggest college-radio tune, was not on the set list.)

‘Sesame Street’: Forty years ago today …

January 6, 2011November 10, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman commemorates the Nov. 10, 1969, launch of a kid’s show that defined a generation.)

I’m just the right age for this tribute, because I recall the day this new show first appeared in the afternoon lineup when I was five.

“Sesame Street”‘s short scenes, fast action and large cast of adorable puppets were very different from other kids’ shows at the time (Captain Kangaroo and Mister Rogers had been my faves). The respectful multiculturalism of this show was groundbreaking, but I won’t try to catalog all the positive social influences of this show here, as I’m sure that’s being discussed at great length elsewhere. (What other anniversary has had a whole week of specialized Google logos?)

For this blog, I do want to emphasize how “Sesame Street” literally rocked in ways that kids’ TV hadn’t before, both with outstanding outside guests:

Beatles: Rock Band … The missing buttons

December 11, 2017September 9, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Paul Kaufman contemplates exciting new hacks for the Beatles simulation game.)

VH1 is in full promotional mode for the release of the The Beatles: Rock Band game. I’m an unabashed fan of the band, and I’m generationally marked as one who never tires of hearing these tunes and seeing the film footage. Seth Schiesel of the New York Times raves that “by reinterpreting an essential symbol of one generation in the medium and technology of another, The Beatles: Rock Band provides a transformative entertainment experience.”

I like that idea in concept, and teaching a new generation about this music via today’s electronic vernacular is a great idea. But somehow, hitting color-coded buttons in time to the music strikes me as a rather limited goal. As the technology grows, these are the buttons I’d like to be able to push:

French rock ‘n’ roll: An oxymoron?

December 14, 2017July 14, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

Especially in honor of Bastille Day, here’s an eternal question inspired by an absolutely charming 1966 performance Dean Curtis surfaced by a French combo dubbed Antoine et les Problèmes. “Les élucubrations” is delivered with élan, esprit and a ton of other wonderful French nouns … However, I still find it extremely difficult to listen to.

(It actually reminds me of a small child Robert Labbe, Paul Kaufman and I watched working cafe tables in Belgium, frantically wheezing into a harmonica until he was paid to leave.)

But — mon Dieu! — Che Underground: The Blog is here to smash stereotypes, not to perpetuate them! An unrepentant francophile myself (with a healthy appreciation for other Gallic art forms), I need guidance: Where are the French rockers?

This we Dug: Wire

April 23, 2012April 17, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Guest columnist Paul Kaufman picks his favorite late ’70s LP as part of the ongoing series originated by Wallflowers frontman David Rinck.)

Best album from 1977? There’s a lot of competition. Of course, a lot of press covered the Sex Pistols’ “Never Mind the Bollocks” and the first Clash album; deservedly so.

But if I had to choose just one from that year to take to a desert isle, it would be “Pink Flag” by Wire. This primitive collection of 20 very short songs (some under 1 minute) dramatically threw down the aesthetic gauntlet back then: all you boring, epic-writing, guitar soloing prog rockers are now obsolete. Without the overt political slogans of the time, they were nevertheless revolutionary in their sound and approach. Spare three chord music; spare imagery:

Lemons Are Yellow: “Spotted Dick”

December 13, 2014March 20, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Lemons Are Yellow member Paul Kaufman describes the secret sauce behind the song.)

Back in the day, Tower Market atop Mount Davidson in San Francisco was the place for the band Lemons Are Yellow to stock up on snacks. This medium-sized grocery had an inexplicably large “British Foods” section, where you could stock up on Devonshire cream; HP sauce; and a mix for making your own dessert known as “Spotted Dick,” a baked pudding containing dried currants (hence the spots). Of course, the packaging called out to us, and soon we were at the Fleminger kitchen, baking up a batch.

Nostradamus, I’m not. Part 3: Punk rock sweeps America!

April 21, 2012February 17, 2009 by Paul Kaufman

(Here’s Part Three from Che stalwart Paul Kaufman on how his young self was Dead Wrong on some major issues of our time.)

In the comments following Dave Rinck’s recent “This We Dug: The Sex Pistols” post, Dave Ellison perfectly nailed how I felt about hearing those records for the first time: “the Sex Pistols album made all the rock music, clothes, hairstyles, etc. that were around at the time seem completely outdated.” It’s hard to cast your mind back to fully capture how revolutionary it felt.

It was so clear in 1977. The Ramones and Patti Smith at CBGB, the Sex Pistols, Clash, Wire, X-Ray Spex, 999 and all the rest in England. So vibrant, making commercial radio (and San Diego was ALL commercial radio) taste like a mouthful of ashes. As a 13-year-old, I envisioned all the old boring stuff would be swept away in a tide of cultural and political enlightenment in the US. The UK was actually having records in the Top 10 that you didn’t have to leave the room for — why not in the US, too?

Ché Games for May: Musical Promo 2

December 13, 2017December 22, 2008 by Paul Kaufman

(Once again, Manual Scan/Lemons Are Yellow veterans Paul Kaufman and David Fleminger bang the gong to promote the Ché reunion. Except this time, they get some help from a very special guest.)

Last week, the planets aligned — I was in San Francisco, visiting Dave Fleminger at his house; this led to the first musical promo for the reunion in May 2009 that was posted recently. Little did we know that our musical universe was about to explode.

Someone was calling on the phone. A voice said, “Is Dave Fleminger at home?” It was Dave Rinck, the iconic lead singer of the Wallflowers, visiting from Nairobi. Soon we’re all in the studio, and here’s the result. Considering the last time I had seen Dave Rinck in person was when he was onstage in 1984, this was an especially big thrill for me.