Ray Brandes | The Che Underground

Best San Diego record?

September 4, 2011January 8, 2011 by admin

(Ray Brandes puts out a call for swinging singles.)

Later this month, Mike Stax’s Ugly Things Records will release a celebrated local recording, the Nashville Ramblers’ “The Trains.” If one were to rank the best recordings ever to be made by San Diegans, this one would no doubt place in the Top 10.

On any list it would face some tough competition, though, from Rosie and the Originals’ 1961 classic, “Angel Baby,” to my personal favorite, the Crawdaddys’ “5 X 4” EP, released in 1980.

What is your favorite San Diego recording and what is your personal connection to it? (Feel free to consider artists from San Diego who moved or recorded elsewhere.)

— Ray Brandes

Read moreBest San Diego record?

Nashville Ramblers release party

July 3, 2011December 27, 2010 by admin

(Ray Brandes alerts us to the long-overdue release of “The Trains,” with attendant parties in San Diego and LA.)

It is true that good things come to those who wait. The Nashville Ramblers’ song “The Trains,” which Steven Van Zandt once called “one of the most unspeakably gorgeous instances of romantic yearning disguised as a pop song,” will finally, after 25 years, get its own release.

Mike Stax’s Ugly Things Records will release “The Trains” at a special record release party on Friday, Jan. 21, at the Til-Two Club at 4746 El Cajon Blvd. in San Diego.

It’s 1985: Do you know
where your bell-bottoms are?

December 17, 2017December 8, 2010 by admin

(Ray Brandes reopens the case of People vs. the Che Underground.)

Thursday morning, during the last week of August, 1985, I arrived at work at 4:00 a.m. to begin my shift collecting and baling the cardboard boxes left scattered on the floor of the Food Basket on Washington Street. As I donned my apron, the hoots and catcalls began. “Hey, Hollywood!” shouted one of the night-crew guys as he leaned back in the seat of the forklift, a smug look on his face. In one hand he held a can of New Coke; in the other was the latest copy of People, emblazoned with the headline, “Madonna Weds Sean.”

A few weeks earlier, my bandmates and I had made the trek to Los Angeles and endured a several hours-long photo shoot at the Cavern, music maven and cult impresario Greg Shaw’s modest live-music club located in an alley off Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood. The article, we had been told, would put Bomp! Records on the map and catapult the Tell-Tale Hearts to stardom. This would be my ticket to fame and fortune, I believed. I would quit my job bagging groceries and baling cardboard, take a few semesters off from college, and enjoy the good life.

Happy birthday, Ray Brandes!

July 3, 2011October 19, 2010 by admin

Perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the Che Underground blogging adventure has been the opportunity not only to revive longstanding friendships but to revisit old acquaintances and find new kinship there.

Case in point: Ray Brandes, the vastly talented veteran of the Hedgehogs, the Mystery Machine, the Tell-Tale Hearts, the Town Criers, the Shambles and a variety of superb solo projects, who celebrates another solar orbit today.

The long and winding road

December 11, 2017September 29, 2010 by admin

Thanks to my day job, I’m currently on a whirlwind tour of bookstores across the country: from New York to points south, through Texas, up California and ending up in Chicago. I’m riding trains, I’m taking planes, I’m doing interviews and grabbing naps where I can find them. The next week or so should be a blur (and I’m hoping to see many of you along the route)!

But it also reminds me that I never actually had the stress and pleasure of touring with a band (besides a few forays to Los Angeles and of course our recent San Diego reunions). It’s a dynamic that’s always fascinated me: how creative types function move in a group from town to town and get up in front of a new audience each night.

Town Criers, Gary Heffern at the Casbah

February 2, 2011August 8, 2010 by admin

One of the highlights of our Che Underground showcase at San Diego’s Casbah Jan. 30, 2010, was the 20-year reunion of the city’s pioneering alt-rockers the Town Criers.

And adding to the Penetrators theme of the festivities, Gary Heffern (frontman for that legendary band) flew in from Finland to join the band in a rare San Diego guest appearance.

Read the Town Criers’ story!

First off, here’s the Town Criers performing “My Baby Left Me,” written by Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup and performed by Elvis Presley, among others. The lineup fueling this first performance in more than two decades included Ray Brandes (vocals, guitar); Mark Zadarnowksi (bass); David Klowden (drums); and Peter Miesner (lead guitar).

Remember Walking in the Sand?
Sunscreen, lemonade and summer radio

December 14, 2017June 14, 2010 by admin

(Ray Brandes ushers in the season with a call for signature songs.)

“In summer, the song sings itself.”
— William Carlos Williams

“School’s out for summer!”
— Alice Cooper

Some of the greatest songs in the rock-‘n’-roll era were released in June, July and August. A great summer song doesn’t necessarily have to be about summer itself, but rather capture the quintessence of the season: that feeling of long, lazy sunburned days and humid nights spent making love to the sounds of crickets.

The summer of 1965 alone gave us the Rolling Stones’ “Satisfaction,” the Beatles’ “Help,” Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone,” James Brown’s “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” and Martha and the Vandellas’ “Dancing in the Street,” songs that are quite different in theme but are bursting with the exuberance of the sunny season.

Spotlight on Mark Zadarnowski

January 6, 2011June 1, 2010 by admin

(Bart Mendoza offers an appreciation of this San Diego bass phenom.)

Although I had seen the Crawdaddys numerous times by that point and had probably even been at some of the same parties, I was first introduced to Mark Zadarnowski (a k a Mark Z.) by Carl Rusk. Mark was living behind the Kings Road Café at the time and while I’m sure he was less than thrilled to have his house invaded just prior to a show, it was cool formally to meet a member of one of my favorite bands.

One of the bedrocks of the San Diego music scene, the roll call of bands Mark’s recorded with would rank him as a music legend, even if he had stopped after the first one.

A founding member of the Crawdaddys, he can be heard on the legendary 1979 Crawdaddy Express LP, as well as the 5X4 EP and “There She Goes Again” 45. He’s not on another release for a few years, but when he next pops up, once again, it’s on a winner: the short-lived Mystery Machine’s “She’s Not Mine.” Included on the seminal 1983 compilation, Battle of The Garages Vol. 3, the tune has appeared on several other compilations since.

‘They’re playing our song’:
Covers and the Che Underground

January 2, 2018May 19, 2010 by admin

(Ray Brandes looks under the covers of favorite songs by our songwriters.)

For a songwriter, it is both a peculiar and rewarding experience to hear one’s songs interpreted by others. Over the past 30 years I have been writing songs, I have had the honor and privilege of listening to cover versions of my songs on many occasions, and it never fails to leave me gratified. One of the first songs I ever wrote, “Crawling Back to Me” (which is the opening track on the Tell-Tale Hearts’ eponymous debut album), has been covered on record by numerous artists, including Spain’s Agentes Secretos, England’s Diaboliks and Australia’s
Shutdown 66.

Perhaps my favorite cover of a song I wrote is Rachael Gordon’s “I Know You’re In Love Again,” which I contributed to her 2002 album “The Coming of Spring” on Subterrania Records. Rachael, an old friend and San Diego native, released the album to rave reviews, particularly in Europe. Germany’s Rolling Stone had this to say:

Where on the Web … ?

December 11, 2017May 5, 2010 by admin

When we started Che Underground: the Blog early in 2008, it addressed a void in our shared history: Searching online produced very little evidence of the bands and friends who tugged at the fringes of late-’70s and early-’80s San Diego. (We started with a circle of bands who played the Che Cafe and other venues together in ’83 and ’84, then expanded out.)

The ground has shifted since then. This site itself is bringing in more than 10,000 visitors a month, including all sorts of new arrivals from the old days — but even more interesting to me, a slew of new online efforts are taking off, powered by Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and more. (I’ve recently been enjoying the Injections’ new Facebook page and Ray Brandes’ YouTube channel, to name just two vectors for San Diego underground history.)