Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
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.
(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.
Wallflowers guitarist turned demon barber Todd Lahman encourages Che Underground: The Blog to spread the holiday cheer with this invitation to raise a glass at Sweeney Todd’s Barber Shop on Hollywood Blvd.
I’ve been looking for an opportunity to recognize Sweeney Todd’s, the ultra-cool shop founded in 1927 and refurbished by Mr. Lahman. By all accounts, he’s parlayed his rock-‘n’-roll sensibilities into a world-class shrine to the classic tonsorial arts. (Anyone up for joining me in a haircut before the Jan. 30 show at the Casbah?)
In another exciting development for fans of San Diego’s musical history, the San Diego Union-Tribune has officially twigged to the long-pending documentary by veteran scenester Eric Rife.
Besides being a friend of many participants here, Eric was the primary videographer at our Che Games for May reunion … and an inspiration for the magical history tour embodied by this blog.
Next stop for the Che Underground time machine: Nineteen sixty-eight, when the Brain Police was the hottest act in San Diego and opened for bands like the Who, Cream, the Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. Like Ray Brandes’ recent homage to the Hitmakers, I hope a starter post here will attract some personal reminiscences of what appears to have been a very cool band indeed.
If you enjoyed (or missed) Che Games for May in 2009, here’s another chance to join us at San Diego’s Casbah for the first official Che Underground event of 2010, featuring the Town Criers, Manual Scan and the Blues Gangsters.
This Saturday night event will feature historic performances by some of San Diego’s finest sons and daughters. Jubilation guaranteed!
(Ray Brandes leads a karmic rally on behalf of a local hero.)
Che Underground hero Bruce Joyner, lead singer extraordinaire of the Unknowns, is a classic Southern Gentleman. He has graced us here with his insight and keen wit and has answered our questions with a Southern hospitality as rich and famous as sweet sun tea.
Bruce’s chronic health problems, originating with a string of accidents in his youth, have been well-documented. He has weathered years of painful operations and recurring complications like a Georgia oak: steadfastly, firmly and proudly. Bruce will soon be undergoing a series of surgeries that will keep him from performing until at least early springtime of next year.
Back in April, Ray Brandes introduced us to a novel Spanish debt-collection practice and intiated a conversation about the spiritual and physical debts we owe each other. (For me, this whole blog has been a way to express gratitude to all of you for shaping me and helping me realize potential I couldn’t have foreseen.)
I’d like to get a little more mundane, perhaps, and think about the actual objects we pooled and traded. Money wasn’t equally distributed among us, we know, but it seems everybody managed to contribute something to the economy: sharing cigarettes, giving cool boots or a coat to a friend, making a cassette that got handed around, maybe going in on ownership of a vehicle or an amp …
Unlike a straight-up purchase, there’s a social connection and a story behind every trade or gift we made. I’d like to hear some more of them!
While our conjoined roots are in San Diego, Saturday marks a significant anniversary for the Che Underground contingent that relocated to the San Francisco Bay area in the mid-’80s: the 20th anniversary of the Loma Prieta earthquake that rocked the region at 5:04 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1989.
The 7.1-magnitude quake — which received live national exposure courtesy of the 1989 World Series — killed more than 60 people, tore the region’s infrastructure and knocked some of our internal gyroscopes askew.
Friend of Che Underground Chris Mathis’ triumphant reappearance after reports of his demise dramatizes my favorite part of this whole blogging adventure: the opportunity to reconnect the people we knew then and lost track of since.
On Day Three of this blog’s existence, I posted a very modest list of folks whose whereabouts were unknown to the small circle of scenesters who were privy to our launch … Since then, we’ve located all the people on the list and many, many more besides. Even better, many of our friends have found us, thanks to the blog’s rising online profile.
So who else do you want us to track down? Let’s talk about other people who remain MIA and discuss how to connect the rest of those dots.