Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
Sad news from San Francisco: San Diego fashion veteran Todd Tomarrow (né Todd Bundy) passed away May 21. According to the Antebellum Blog, “I’m sad to say that we lost Boy Bar / Jackie 60 legend Todd Tomarrow (aka Lulu) yesterday. Todd died suddenly from blood poisoning. He lived in San Francisco with his partner David for the last few years.”
Condolences to Todd’s many friends.
Ava points out that it was exactly one year ago that Che Underground: The Blog hosted its first-ever reunion gig (a k a “Che Games for May”) at San Diego’s Casbah.
The two-night blowout included eight great San Diego bands (nine, if you count the unannounced, sizzling first-night mini-set by Lemons Are Yellow), most of whom hadn’t played together in a quarter-century. It marked the first time most of us had been together since the mid-’80s — and the opportunity to meet a few new friends who’d met through the site and their shared San Diego musical history.
This anniversary thus represents an interesting object lesson in the recursive nature of memory: This event itself has now passed into its realm and hence deserves its own commemorative post!
Read moreForever changes: Che Games for May
and the the perpetual nostalgia machine
(Wallflower David Rinck introduces a new project by old friends.)
Here’s our new record. As far as we know, this is the latest project by musicians associated with the Che Underground.
We wrote the music over the Internet, since we now live in various far-flung corners of the globe (Africa in my case). One of us would write a riff and a few lines of lyrics and then send it on. Pretty soon it added up to a song, and then the eight on the record (actually more, but we could only record eight ’cause of time limitations).
But we all used to be in bands in San Diego and play shows together, so we were used to working together, and the distances were easily overcome.
A quick one, while he’s away: I’m tying up some loose ends before my flight back from San Diego to New Jersey after Day Two of the Che Underground’s Che Games for May reunion event at the Casbah Club.
Thanks to a crack team of documentarians, we’ve got audio, video and photos to share and enjoy — and those will be making their way onto the site in the coming weeks.
But for now, a simple “Thank you!” and an open invitation to talk about what our quarter-century reunion did to or for you.
You’re all very, very important to me, and easily my biggest regret is that I couldn’t be everywhere at once to talk to you and share time. But please: Let’s come together here and swap a few stories for each other and for our friends who couldn’t be with us this time out.
What’s an iconic concert without an iconic poster? In honor of Che Games for May, the 25th anniversary tribal gathering slated for May 29-30 at San Diego’s Casbah, Ray Brandes and artist Kevin Diamond have created this handsome memento so participants near and far can own a piece of music history.
Enjoy this commemorative gift, and we hope to see you there!
“Perhaps another thread for ’70s appreciation is in order, too,” writes Ray Brandes of yesterday’s post focused on the darkest aspects of our formative years.
Toby Gibson concurs: “While my dark, apocalyptic views of the ’70s (and my gritty black-and-white memories) seem negative, I wish I could go back for so many things that are gone now, and to get away from so many things that are just WAY worse.”
Let’s accentuate the positive! Many of us idolized the ’60s, but most of us spent the majority of our minority in the ’70s. What memories of the era warm you up when the modern world seems cold?
(Miss Kristi Maddocks takes one step beyond childhood with a heavy, heavy monster party. Pick it up, pick it up!)
Before there was MTV, princesses all over the world celebrated their teenage years with fabulous Sweet 16 birthday parties. Although by that time I was a child of the Che Underground, celebrating this rite of passage was an excuse to throw a wonderful party, as well as an old family tradition that I could not pass up.
When I turned 16 in 1982, the Headquarters and Distillery East were my favorite hangouts. I spent my days playing volleyball and studying at Torrey Pines High School, and hung out with the mod/punk/surfer clique known as “The Scrubboes.” In the evenings I was out dancing with my friends from UC, La Jolla, PB and downtown. It only made sense that my ska-theme birthday party included kids from both walks of life!
Believe the hype: May 29-31, 2009, is the time and San Diego is the place for the Che Underground’s 25-year reunion and performance showcase.
A crack team of musical geniuses, party planners and cranky old hipsters is hashing out the details, which will be forthcoming in this space. But go ahead and book your E-tickets now for a long weekend in America’s Finest City!
Among the bands on track for the show, Che Games for May will feature:
Here’s a fun and easy one: In the consumer society of post-World War II America, nothing helps date a community like its memories of technological innovation.
Our reminiscences about mimeographs and Dymo label printers and vinyl records have been powerful reminders of the lost world we grew up in. Spankin’-new San Diego in our youth was a land of early adoption, but I bet most of us can still remember the novelty of seeing our first:
And maybe even our first color TV show, photocopier or portable cassette recorder.
(Paul Kaufman of Manual Scan and Lemons Are Yellow reflects on the decline of empires.)
My favorite albums were always those that weren’t just a collection of songs but presented a unified picture of their time and place, a map to their own little world. Coming of musical age in the late ’70s, one notable example was the first Clash LP, which presented a rich portrait of London as a decayed and violent landscape where one struggled for survival. This echoed the theme of how the lost power and fortune of the British empire diminished the expectations of its current citizens; this was presented by many bands, from the Kinks to the Jam.
These were distant but clever and interesting voices, and very different from the “Morning in America” world view that pervaded the US in the ’80s. They seemed especially far from San Diego, where the nearly perpetual sunshine provides a completely different backdrop from London’s rain.