(Ray Brandes offers a recursive look at his band’s cover of “At the River’s Edge.”)

Walking in the rain
Heart full of pain
Black clouds overhead
How I wish I was dead
At the river’s edge
Walking on the bridge
Stars shine bright
Hope this pain ends tonight
— “At the River’s Edge,” The New Colony Six

From as early as 1983, when the Tell-Tale Hearts began performing in San Diego, The New Colony Six’s frantic rocker “At the River’s Edge” was a staple of their live set. The song, originally released as a single on Chicago’s Centaur Records in 1966, is an American garage-punk classic, a Bo Diddlified masterpiece replete with all of the elements of any good rave-up: reckless harp, furious maraca shaking and lightning-fast guitar. Recalling Them’s “Mystic Eyes,” the song details the agonizing thoughts of a teen on the brink of suicide.
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On the heels of their live debut at last weekend’s Che Underground showcase at San Diego’s Casbah, the Blues Gangsters will be joining our own Jeffrey Luck Lucas at the Speisekammer restaurant in Alameda, Calif., Feb. 11 for an evening of semi-acoustic dinner theater.

Jeffrey Luck Lucas is a veteran of the Che Underground scene and longtime resident of the San Francisco Bay area who has played with many of us over the years. He recently sat for an interview with Osmosis Online, where he discusses his musical roots; his methodology; and his latest album, titled “The Lion’s Jaw.”

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(Kevin Chanel recounts the rise and fall of an independent recording empire.)

This is a quicky rundown of the first (non-virtual or iTunes-aided) 10 years of a record label I owned on the fringes of San Diego’s musical culture (read: National City). It’s mostly thumbnails and sideswipes, so a lot of releases were left under the carpet. The carpet at my parents’ house, specifically.

Born of necessity, Scheming Intelligentsia Records began with its first release, The Front’s “Man, You Gotta Move” LP in the summer of 1985. The S.I.R. name had been created, the album was out, but there was no one to run the business end of things. By neglect, the duties trickled down to me, with a year of college under my belt and no business experience or interest.

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(An excerpt from Ray Brandes’ saga of this 25-year-long collaboration. Read the full version in Che Underground’s Related Bands section!)

Editor’s note: You can catch the Nashville Ramblers in their first appearances on the West Coast in 2010 the weekend of Feb. 5 and 6, when they’ll be appearing at the Tower Bar in San Diego (Feb. 5) and the Mind Machine in Los Angeles (Feb. 6). See you there!

Steven Van Zandt, guitarist for the E Street Band and host of “Little Steven’s Underground Garage,” once called it “one of the most unspeakably gorgeous instances of romantic yearning disguised as a pop song.” Indeed, the Nashville Ramblers’ song “The Trains” is a perfect piece of pop music: a once-in-a-lifetime convergence of thoughtful lyrics, exquisite melody and flawless performances by three of San Diego’s most celebrated musicians. The song, available on Rhino’s Children of Nuggets box set but until recently only found on an obscure late-‘80s pop compilation album, would be by itself enough to secure the Nashville Ramblers a place in the pantheon of great 20th century recordings.

Carl Rusk’s timeless anthem, however, only offered the world a brief glimpse of the vast talents of this undiscovered San Diego treasure. They have remained, outside of a small group of devoted fans, unknown and unappreciated. But a devotion to preserving the music they love, as well as an anger and disdain for the era in which they live, have driven them for more than 25 years.

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Attention, San Diego scenesters: To cap the run of special guests at at the Casbah’s Che Underground showcase Jan. 30, Penetrators vocalist Gary Heffern is coming in from Finland to join the festivities!

Heff will be singing with the Town Criers (while his Penetrators bandmates Chris Sullivan and Chris Davies join Manual Scan onstage). He’s also helping Che Underground: the Blog jump-start a San Diego underground retrospective exhibit and raise money on behalf of Unknowns vocalist Bruce Joyner.

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Next Saturday’s Che Underground showcase at San Diego’s Casbah continues to gain star power: Manual Scan announces a Penetrators-themed show-within-a-show featuring two members of that legendary band.

Manual Scan’s Kevin Donaker-Ring explains the circumstances that brought Penetrators bassist Chris Sullivan and guitarist Chris Davies to the Casbah show, which will also feature the Unknowns, the Town Criers and the Blues Gangsters.

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Going into the final stretch before next Saturday’s Che Underground showcase at the Casbah, here’s a handsome commemorative flyer created by David Klowden, suitable for framing or Scotch taping!

The roster of special guests is growing, as San Diego music history is revisited and made on Saturday night.

To recap the lineup so far:

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(Paul Kaufman gives new meaning to the phrase “Trivial Pursuit.”)

Here’s another parlor-type game: Describe two songs that seemingly have nothing in common (era, style, etc.) yet have multiple disturbingly similar characteristics once you list them.

Here’s an example: The Beatles “I Saw Her Standing There” and “Rock ‘n’ Roll All Night” by KISS. You’re thinking this is crazy, but hear me out:

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A special debut on Che Underground: The Blog! A chance remark by Mikel Toombs in this forum has inspired a haunting new song by San Diego legend Gary Heffern, recorded by Scandinavian bard Al DeLoner.

The piece, “Anxiety,” is in part a meditation on the disintegration of San Diego’s late-’70s underground. Heff writes, “Consider it a present to Che … as further proof that life does go in full circles … and inspiration can be found in the kindness of a friend giving me gentle nudge.”

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(Ray Brandes holds auditions beyond this veil of tears.)

In their 1974 comeback hit, the Righteous Brothers speculated on the existence of a rock-’n'-roll heaven, which of course had a “hell of a band.” The song expressed the sentimental hope that somewhere in the universe Jimi Hendrix, Otis Redding, Janis Joplin, Bobby Darrin and Jim Morrison were singing together in a celestial choir.

This notion is, of course, patently absurd. One can only imagine the drunken, chaotic jam session which would occur if these egomaniacs found themselves sharing a microphone onstage in a celestial amphitheater. It is fun, however, to speculate on this supergroup idea.

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