the Morlocks | The Che Underground

Birth of the Nephews!

December 25, 2021December 25, 2021 by Mmrothenberg

A Che Underground exclusive: San Diego legends The Nephews revisit four decades of music ahead of their Feb. 18 appearance at The Casbah San Diego for A Che Underground Midwinter Masque. Book your tickets early and often!

The Nephews began as a comedy act in middle school around 1980. The original name was Ceilings and Floors, but we changed it to The Nephews (which has the same amount of meaning as “Ceilings and Floors”) around 7th grade.

We were very heavily into music, started playing as a rock band in high school, and were able to start playing club shows fairly quickly. Actually, our very first show outside of inland North County where we grew up was at the Che Cafe in 1984. We supported Manual Scan at Club Zu pretty early on.

Eric Cullen (Nephews keyboardist, 1989): “The first memory I have of The Nephews is of them playing during lunchtime at Poway High School. The
thing that immediately hit me about their music was how sophisticated their sound was, considering this was high school and all. Their harmonic language was dense, their chord progressions rather abstract, the lyrics obtuse. The Nephews’ music seemed advanced and not really belonging to the time, which was 1984 or ‘85. They were mining their own sound, and to this 17-year-old it sounded great. They had an air of ’60s psychedelia but were in touch with current underground bands like R.E.M., Minutemen and Pere Ubu. They also had a slight Zappa/Beefheart side about them, as well.”

Mark your calendars for ‘A Che Underground Midwinter Masque’!

February 15, 2022November 12, 2021 by Mmrothenberg

Mark ye well: A neat two years since “A Che Underground Leap Night Showcase,” the tribes will gather again in February 2022 for an effervescent weekend of mirth and music.

“A Che Underground Midwinter Masque,” Feb. 18 and Feb. 19 at The Casbah San Diego, will feature legends of the San Diego scene and beyond.

Fancy dress is highly encouraged but not required. (Stay tuned for costume contest details.)

And check out this boffo lineup (with more names to come)!

Leighton Koizumi talks ‘Power Hits’

July 15, 2021 by Mmrothenberg

While his musical roots lie deep in the sandy soil of San Diego, Leighton Koizumi has spent recent decades thousands of miles up and to the right, rocking venues from Spain to Sweden (with side trips to China and other ports of call).

Now, the legendary frontman for The Morlocks and The Gravedigger V has crafted a double album in collaboration with Italy’s Tito and the Brainsuckers — and you don’t want to miss these 24 tracks of pure chewing satisfaction.

Due out August 13, Power Hits comprises covers from the Stooges, Love, Moving Sidewalks, Kinks, Eyes, Banshees and even Gordon Lightfoot.

Leighton kindly provided Che Undeground: The Blog insights into his history with lead Brainsucker Tito Macozzi and their creation of Power Hits.

Ready for ‘A Che Underground Leap Night Showcase’?

February 13, 2020 by Mmrothenberg

Most rock-‘n’-roll historians know San Diego’s Che Underground scene as a mad scientist’s lab for musical experiments at the top of the ’80s.

Named for notable shows they staged at UC San Diego’s Che Café — but active across the region — the bands of the Che Underground brought together artists steeped in punk, psychedelia, garage and more. Throwing their influences into a high-speed blender, bands like The Answers, Hair Theatre, Noise 292, The Rockin’ Dogs, The Tell-Tale Hearts and the original SD Wallflowers provided a soundtrack for Southern California youth culture.

Four decades later, those musicians and artists continue to kick out the collective jams — and on Feb. 29, some of the best minds of that generation will stage a family reunion at the Riviera Supper Club & Turquoise Lounge for “A Che Underground Leap Night Showcase.” The night’s lineup of Che Underground supergroups will feature two stars of the scene who haven’t performed in San Diego for more than three decades: Jeremiah Cornelius and Tom Clarke.

Pictures of Jerry

May 5, 2019October 18, 2014 by Mmrothenberg

Thanks to Jeremiah Cornelius for providing this portrait of himself as “Romulus Johnson”, ca. 1988, after many of us had relocated from San Diego to San Francisco and a year or so after the dissolution of the original Morlocks.

As anyone familiar with our scene knows, Jerry Cornelius was the indefatigable trend-setter, flyer-maker, lyricist, MC, band manager and catalyst behind myriad San Diego adventures.

“What Would Jerry Do?” Read all about it!

Transplanted to San Francisco, Jerry continued his cultural explorations via music and fashion.

There to Here: Paul Kaufman,
University of Massachusetts Medical School

July 2, 2012July 1, 2012 by Mmrothenberg

(In this installment, Che Underground: The Blog talks to the original drummer of Manual Scan and co-founder of Lemons Are Yellow about his memories of the San Diego scene and his far-ranging career in biochemistry. If you’d like your story told, e-mail cheunderground@gmail.com!)

We actually met right after you’d left San Diego to study at UC Berkeley, then for your doctorate at MIT. But you stayed in close touch with all of us who were still in America’s Finest City. What was it like coming back for short visits and seeing the scene change?

I have very vivid memories coming back during quarter breaks and other holidays during my first year away, 1982-3. The most shocking thing was that every time I came back, the Answers song list was totally different, even within a couple of months! At the same time, the Mod scene became incredibly huge, and the punk scene seemed to go from an artistic, underground scene to a place laced with way too much testosterone. So I did feel like I was missing a lot, a lot was indeed happening, and not being there day-to-day probably accentuated that feeling. I stayed in San Diego during that amazing summer of ’83, so I did get to see some of the best parts first hand. (cue “Nowhere”).

And then when I came back summer of ’84, so much more had changed. No more Answers. No more Noise 292. I think that summer, the Morlocks emerged (pun intended) at a party at Paul Allen’s house. I remember I had to stand back, they were so loud, and I was accustomed to some pretty loud stuff back then! They played “Voices Green and Purple,” it was intense. And before long, everyone was up in San Francisco, just across from me in Berkeley, so I got to see a bit of that era before I left for Boston in late ‘86.

Eric Rife previews ‘Garageland’ footage

December 11, 2017April 15, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

Good news for fans of San Diego music in particular and local music scenes in general: Eric Rife’s epic film project “Garageland” is approaching release in 2012, and Eric has posted a short preview of the film on YouTube.

Readers of Che Underground: The Blog as well as veterans of San Diego music are familiar with Eric’s work as a photographer and videographer. Indeed, his years of work pulling together archival and current footage for “Garageland” was an inspiration for me to start this blog in the first place.

Introducing Sceneroller

September 4, 2011March 11, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

We’ve spent the past three years here on Che Underground: The Blog talking about the bands, people, places and shows that made our scene. Now here’s a way to connect them to each other — and to other scenes around the world.

San Diego is my musical home, and our musical history is precious to me … So this is the right place for the first real public launch of Sceneroller, a software platform that lets users connect bands, people, venues and gigs to write a shared history of local music scenes.

Jeffrey Luck Lucas: ‘We Were on Fire’

September 4, 2011January 11, 2011 by Mmrothenberg

We’re overdue to devote a post to the recent work of one of the Che Underground’s most protean talents: Jeffrey Luck Lucas, veteran of San Diego’s Morlocks, Mirrors and Answers and a prolific Bay area solo artist.

I was privileged to play with Jeff for a few years in San Francisco — a longtime aspiration of mine — and I can testify to the intensity of his artistic vision through many incarnations.

The Morlocks between the covers

January 6, 2011March 28, 2010 by Mmrothenberg

More video from the original Morlocks has emerged on YouTube, including covers of songs by the 13th Floor Elevators, Q65 and the Count Five.

Exhibit A is a video by Eric Predoehl of the Morlocks performing the 13th Floor Elevators’ “You Don’t Know.” According to the post, it’s from an event produced by KFJC Radio and I.B.S. at the Works Gallery in San Jose, Calif., on Nov. 22, 1985: