Best San Diego record?

(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

Read moreBest San Diego record?

Holiday alternatives

Reflective SantaI’ve opined that the two definitive eras for Christmas music were the Middle Ages and the 1940s. Even my favorite performers from later eras have come up with compositions that underwhelm me. (Exhibits A and B: Chuck Berry’s “Run Rudolph Run” and the Beach Boys’ “Little Saint Nick,” with both Lennon’s and McCartney’s efforts representing C and D.)

However, there are some holiday songs that do offer new views of the season … Not always jolly, but interesting in one way or another.

Read moreHoliday alternatives

The Che Underground