the Unknowns | The Che Underground

Bruce Joyner: Che Underground regards

December 11, 2017October 24, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

(Ray Brandes leads a karmic rally on behalf of a local hero.)

Unknowns’ Bruce Joyner (photograph by Tim LaMadrid; all rights reserved) 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.

Che Games: Photos from the Doyle Collection

January 1, 2011June 22, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

Che Underground archivists are frankly embarrassed by the riches rendered from the Che Games for May festival May 29-30 at San Diego’s Casbah. Twenty-five years or more later, the shows offered a great opportunity to showcase beloved material — and capture it with 21st-century technology.

While few early-’80s performances have survived, this event was immortalized from every angle with digital audio, video and photography; our biggest challenge now is to collate and edit this wealth of material.

In other words: I hardly know where to start!

I’m proud to get the photographic ball rolling with the camera work of Unknowns bassist/ photographic powerhouse Dave Doyle, who took some beautiful shots of the Mirrors, the original San Diego Wallflowers, Noise 292 and Hair Theatre on the second evening of the show. (Stay tuned for a gallery of Friday night’s superstars: Everybody Violet, Manual Scan, the Gay Dennys and the Answers!)

Who’s next? Bands that mattered

March 30, 2019March 31, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

I’ve likened Che Underground: The Blog to one of those God’s eyes many of us made in the groovy ’70s: While the original effort has been focused on a small set of bands playing together in San Diego in the early ’80s, much of the beauty has come from the warp and weft of wider connections.

Along the way, we’ve talked about many local bands that influenced us and some later bands that shared members or aesthetics with the scenes and sub-scenes at the tight core of the site.

A few examples: Ray Brandes has done unprecedented historical research on the Crawdaddys, the Zeros and the Unknowns, and participants themselves have told us tales about Claude Coma and the IVs, the Injections, 5051, the Front, the Frame, Atrocity Exhibition and Structural Fracture, among others.

So, whose story should we tell next? Let’s discuss local bands you’d like to learn more about!

Dream Sequence: The history of the Unknowns

December 11, 2017January 18, 2009 by Mmrothenberg

(Excerpts from Ray Brandes’ epic account of San Diego’s first major-label band since Iron Butterfly. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section.)

Anyone who had the opportunity to see the Unknowns play had an unforgettable experience. Crisp, staccato drumming and the dripping-wet reverberation of Mosrite guitars through Fender amplifiers was punctuated by the yips and howls of the legendary melodramatic lead singer, Bruce Joyner, who sang from a chair or aided by a cane, looking every bit like a down-home Barnabas Collins in search of fresh blood.

Their tight and powerful act upstaged every band with whom they played, including the Go-Gos, Madness, the Blasters, the Plimsouls, Wall Of Voodoo, the Romantics, Joe King Carrasco, Romeo Void, the Textones, the Suburban Lawns, Missing Persons and scores of others.

At times the band members themselves have lamented that their place amongst their peers seems to have been forgotten over the years, yet they were the first San Diego band signed to a major label since the Iron Butterfly in 1967. They were named one of the top four bands in California by the Los Angeles Times in the early ‘80s. They were the first band from the San Diego scene to perform live on a major syndicated television show, Peter Ivers’ “New Wave Theater,” which was picked up by Armed Forces Television and the USA Network’s “Night Flight.” And their Sire album “Dream Sequence” has sold nearly 100,000 copies to date.

Our family tree

December 18, 2017August 4, 2008 by Mmrothenberg

The Che Underground site was first conceived to capture an interesting and undocumented moment in San Diego music history — but our scene was one significant limb among several in a tree with healthy roots and many branches.

To understand this fluorescence better, we’re undertaking something ambitious: a mapping project to lay out the history of San Diego’s rock-‘n’-roll underground. Step One is to solicit some general ideas about the shape of this family tree.

Here’s my first take, which is completely skewed by my age, my location and my own tastes. For me, the San Diego underground sprang in the late ’70s from three large, intertwined roots: the first wave of SD punks (Marc Rude et al.); great New Wave bands like the Penetrators and Unknowns; and a unique SD brand of retrovisionary cool, starting with Ron Silva and the Crawdaddys.