Reviving San Diego's Rock Renaissance
(Ray Brandes provides a brief history of a new band with a long San Diego history.)
The Secret Squares: pleased to make your acquaintance!
The Secret Squares is a musical project that has its origins in Gary’s Kids, a band assembled to back Gary Heffern on a solo performance at the Casbah in January 2019, and The Wrecktangle, which performed once at the Che Underground’s Leap Year show at the Riviera Supper Club, mere days before the world went into quarantine in March 2020.
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)!
Read moreMark your calendars for ‘A Che Underground Midwinter Masque’!
(Paul Kaufman solicits support for a new project by Che Underground’s own.)
San Diego has embraced its prodigal musicians as they return after decades. Consider the Comeuppance, a “chamber pop” combo led by David Fleminger (guitar, vocals) and Heather Vorwerck (cello).
This ensemble has a distinctive sound influenced by diverse jazz, country and classical traditions, all the while staying true to the high standards of songwriting that Che Underground readers know to expect from all of Dave’s endeavors.
Readers of this blog will recall that the Comeuppance relocated last spring to San Diego. The move marked a homecoming for David after 25 years in San Francisco; it’s a return to the city where he created so many memories as the creative force of bands like the Answers and the Mirrors as well as a founding member of a wide array of musical notables from Social Spit to Manual Scan.
In mid-June, the reunited Crawdaddys and Nashville Ramblers were the latest of our San Diego crowd to enjoy the hospitality of Spain. Both bands played the Go Sinner Go! festival in Toledo June 10 and 11, and the Crawdaddys followed up the next day with a surprise appearance at the renowned El Sol club in Madrid.
I’m grateful to Silvia Zadarnowski (spouse of Crawdaddys bassist Mark) for these photos of all three events and to musician and show organizer Eduardo Arriero Hernandez for answering my questions about the show and Spanish fondness for this San Diego scene.
Buy your tickets now for the Crawdaddys and the Unknowns at San Diego’s Casbah, Sept. 2-3!
What is your own involvement with the Spanish music scene? You have a band, and you’re an organizer of the Go Sinner Go! Festival. Can you tell me briefly about those and how long you’ve been part of the music scene over there?
I’ve played in bands since I was 17, and I’m 32… so half of my life!! I’ve played guitar and sung with Hollywood Sinners for 11 years and keyboard with Fumestones for one year. I started organizing concerts in Toledo, my home town, of national bands I liked, and I continued it in Madrid. I can try get my favorite bands from all around the world, spend some days with them and have fun!!
Read moreThe Crawdaddys, Nashville Ramblers
in Spain: A view from Toledo
(Crawdaddys Redux: Joe Piper channels his inner Andrew Loog Oldham to write this eyewitness account of the Crawdaddys’ long-awaited return to the stage last Sunday.)
What was originally intended to be a “low-key warmup gig” for the reunited ’81-model Crawdaddys prior to their jetting off to Spain for a prestigious appearance alongside The Nashville Ramblers at a bullfight or somesuch (actually “Go Sinner Go!! 2011”), quickly turned into The Event Of The Summer one whole day before summer even officially kicked off.
A capacity crowd crammed into the Rhino Records pop-up store on Santa Monica Blvd. last Sunday evening to raise money for a most worthy cause (MusiCares, providing a safety net for music people in times of need — feel free to contribute any time) and get their Rave Up R&B groove thangs righteously refurbed.
Where were you 30 years ago? If you were hanging with San Diego’s cool kids, chances are a gig featuring the Crawdaddys and/or the Unknowns was on your social calendar. And since a few decades hardly matter among friends, Che Underground: The Blog is proud to present a Labor Day weekend featuring both these legendary bands at San Diego’s Casbah!
Here are the deets:
What, when: Che Underground presents the Crawdaddys (Friday, Sept. 2) and the Unknowns (Saturday, Sept. 3)
Where: The Casbah, 2501 Kettner Blvd. San Diego, CA 92101
How much: $20 per night, $35 for a two-night package (on sale soon via the Casbah site)
Here’s what’s cooking with our headliners:
Veteran San Diego musician and photographer Dave Doyle was on the scene Jan. 21 when the legendary Nashville Ramblers visited the Til-Two Club on El Cajon Blvd. to celebrate the pending release of their classic “The Trains.” Here’s his report:
“The Nashville Ramblers hit the stage Friday night, last exuding their honest, youthful charm as if I were standing in Bodie’s or Winston’s back in ’86.
“Despite the fact they are all older and live in different parts of the country, they are all consummate musicians and still perform regularly; their consistency should come as no surprise to the observant listener.
(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
(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.
(Rolf “Ray” Rieben of Feathered Apple Records describes how the San Diego underground reached Basel, Switzerland, and shares his cache of memorabilia from the Che Cafe and other points southwest. Stay tuned for much more of Ray’s trove from the Tell-Tale Hearts, Crawdaddys, Howling Men and more!)
I was working as a record salesman in Switzerland when the first Crawdaddys LP (“Crawdaddy Express”) on the German Line label had hit the market. Most of the Bomp! catalog was licensed to Line Records from Germany. Line Records had the best possible distribution, since because they were connected to a major label. They’ve helped to make The Crawdaddys and some of the other bands from Greg Shaw’s Bomp label famous over here in Europe.
“Crawdaddy Express” rates as the first modern ’60s garage LP ever made (after probably The Flamin’ Groovies). It was first advertised on the back cover of the July 1979 issue of Goldmine magazine. The sound was very British: wild raving rnb like the early Kinks, Downliners Sect, or the The Pretty Things, but undoubtedly influenced by Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and the likes. There’s even a few cool northern soul ballads featured on both of their LPs, too. These four fine young lads from San Diego knew what they were doing, they had the right spirits, and they could deliver in authentic ca. ’64 – ’65 style, too. It was exactly the type of brand-new LP that I was hoping for.