Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Thank you! September 2009 was Che Underground: The Blog’s biggest month ever for page views … And if it had 31 days like most self-respecting months, it would’ve handily beaten the record for the largest number of individual visitors. (Our audience did breeze past the 8,000 mark without the neighbors calling in a single noise complaint.)
You’ve been coming back month after month for almost two years, and we’re very proud and grateful. We’d also enjoy hearing from you!
(Wallflower/Blues Gangster/BeatHog Dave Rinck recounts a major skirmish in San Diego punk history.)
I wanna say it was the summer of ’80 or ’81 …
In those days, punk rock in San Diego was pretty much like a club that met at a mutually determined location every weekend. A secret underground planning system worked out the details of the meetings and spread them with military precision through a highly effective communications network.
The system functioned like this: A secret cabal of “Organizers,” consisting of the highest ranking punk rockers (like Marc Rude and any member of F.O.N.O.), would determine the event from a menu of options that included:
Ray Brandes is not only a San Diego musical treasure in his own right; he’s also established himself as a remarkable curator of our musical history.
Ray’s recent biographies of the Penetrators, the Unknowns, the Crawdaddys and the Zeros, among others, are unprecedented for their depth, narrative clarity, and comprehensive work with the original musicians and other key sources.
Other contributors to Che Underground: The Blog have added more pieces to the puzzle, with posts on formative bands such as 5051, Claude Coma and the IVs, and the Injections.
In another selection from her collection of vintage San Diego flyers, Dawn Hill Waxon focuses on the Front, the mid-’80s post-punk outfit that featured Morgan Smith, Mark Baez, Kevin Chanel and Dan Mehlos.
These flyers date from 1984 and include the earliest show we’ve encountered so far at the short-lived but influential Rock Palace (a gig with the Tell-Tale Hearts to usher in 1985).
Toby Gibson alerted me to this obituary from the San Diego Tribune and to the comments on a related MySpace page.
“Michael Dean Woods, 48, of Corpus Christi, Texas, went home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, on Thursday June 25, 2009. Mike had a rare genetic disorder, Porphyria.
“Mike was born in Oregon on April 1, 1961. He is preceded in death by his parents, Dean and Phyllis, who raised him in San Diego, California. Michael worked hanging drywall, he also made custom rockscapes.
(Injections, Noise 292 and Everybody Violet drummer Joey Miller makes a public-service announcement — with guitar!)
DISCLAIMER: This is not a project of either Matthew or me, and there will understandably be different perspectives on it. Great. Please feel free to make /post your thoughts here, but KNOW and UNDERSTAND we are only the messengers.
“Our Blow Out” was a compilation that was originally put together and released in 1983 by Cliff from Social Spit. It was an energetic and amazing accomplishment for its time, and (as many of us can attest) it was an amazing compilation.
Read more about “Our Blow Out”!
Curtis, the owner of TAANG Records, has expressed interest in re-releasing this compilation; he would like to make contact with as many band members as possible to set up a meeting. He is extremely interested in seeing this move forward, and it is our hope to put the word out to see how many originals that this information would reach.
Between the band’s San Diego pedigree and Ray Brandes’ definitive biography, punk pioneers the Zeros have a special place on Che Underground: The Blog.
The reunited band’s recent string of West Coast gigs has rallied members of our community. And considering our own recent reunion, I’d like to learn more about how our forebears are faring.
Read about the birth of the Zeros!
Who’s been to the Zeros’ recent shows? How does now stack up to then?
You asked for it, we’ve got it: The recent success of the PDF set of mod-themed flyers from the Ken Fugate Collection prompts a 31-page volume of punk classics from early ’80s San Diego, courtesy of our beloved Jason Seibert.
The Seibert flyers reference a variety of venues, including Fairmount Hall, North Park Lions Club and the Adams Avenue Theater (many of them organized by Marc Rude’s Dead or Alive). San Diego acts include Personal Conflict, Men of Clay, No Age Limit, the Skullbusters, Social Spit, Manifest Destiny, Catch-22, Moral Majority, V-5, 5051, the Nutrons, the Middle Class, Battalion of Saints, District Tradition, the Front, Sacred Lies, the Injections and Black Tango.
Jason Seibert’s generous donation of early-’80s San Diego flyers offers a prime opportunity to open discussion of the Kings Road Cafe (née the International Blend), a small venue that played an enormous role in fostering and showcasing an eclectic mix of bands.
The Seibert Collection represents a slice of life at Kings Road in the summer of 1982, starting in June when the club morphed from the I-Blend under the management of Peter “English” Verbrugge. Other artifacts, including a July 1982 calendar (with membership card offer!), highlight the variety of performers that visited 4034 30th St. that summer, both San Diego regulars and up-and-coming out-of-towners.
Punk goodfella-turned-celebrity chef Jason Seibert has donated a wonderful cache of flyers to the Che Underground archives. These artifacts span the late ’70s through the early ’80s and document events at the North Park Lions Club, the International Blend/Kings Road, the Zebra Club and the Skeleton Club.
It’s high time we take note of that last venue, which did so much to hone the cutting edge of San Diego music. (Full disclosure: Tucked away in North County, I missed out on the Skeleton Club during its brief but influential run at 202 Market St. and 921 Fourth Ave. under the management of rock-‘n’-roll nurse Laura Frasier and a young Tim Mays.)