Thanks to documentarian Eric Rife, those of us far from Southern California can enjoy video of the Penetrators performing at the 2011 San Diego Music Awards at Humphrey’s by the Bay August 8, when the band received a lifetime achievement award for its contributions to local music. (Vocalist Gary Heffern in June shared his thoughts on the honor with Che Underground: The Blog.)

If these performances of “Walk the Beat” and “Sensitive Boy” put you in the mood for more stimulation, don’t forget: The Penetrators will hold another reunion performance at the Casbah August 13!

(more…)

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!!

(more…)

San Diego music veteran Harold Gee continues the painstaking process of developing precious negatives from the glory days of the San Diego underground scene, then digitizing them for his Flickr set.

Here’s a new one that captures the essence of a larger-than-life figure from that era: the late Steve Epeneter on stage at Studio 517, the club he managed and the inspiration for the Wallflowers’ classic “Paradise on 4th Avenue.”

(more…)

(Sidewalk scenes and black limousines: On July 30, Che Underground presents Sounds of the Sunset Strip at Lestat’s Coffee Shop, featuring the Sidewalk Scene, the Ciros, Wendy Bailey & True Stories, and James Ruelas. Show organizer and Ciros reed player Lou Damian reflects on how Los Angeles’ sound of the ’60s influenced so many San Diegans who came of age 15 years later.)

The crazy thing about this July 30 show is that we relate to this music from the Sunset Strip of the mid- to late ’60s as our music, as the music we grew up with. But in actuality, we were just tots or infants when it was first published. There’s something about this music that stays within our fabric even today. When I hear a Byrds song or a Buffalo Springfield song, I know that I heard it as a young man on the radio. I know I heard that song when I was a year or two old. And it’s just another part of who I am.

The garage rock, psych rock, and blues and folk rock of that era is an important contribution to American music and the West Coast sound. This is what we always championed as our West Coast identity … in the so-called “Che Underground.”

(more…)

What could be hotter than the triumphant return after 30 years of two famed San Diego bands? The tickets to the event, which just went on sale on the Casbah Web site!

Here are those details again of this can’t-miss event: (more…)

While we’re in a Buffalo Springfield frame of mind: San Diego music stalwart, songwriter and radio personality Gary Ra’chac has generously shared backstage photos of Poco at the West Coast Gnurl Music Festival, October 12, 1969.

This event, which drew more than 10,000 people to Balboa Stadium, also featured Country Joe and the Fish, San Diego’s own Framework, Merryweather, and Chicago.

Gary describes the back story on the photos: “Gary Ra’chac (yeah, that’s me!?!) with the great Richie Furay (and what appears to be drummer George Grantham and Gram Parsons standing directly in back of us.

(more…)

Happily for anyone who’s interested in San Diego underground culture of the ’80s or insightful photography of any stripe, San Diego expat Harold Gee wrote to inform me he’s warming up the scanner to add more images to his definitive Flickr set.

One of the great things about Harold’s collection is all the comments he’s amassed over the years from peers who’ve recognized themselves and their friends. Hence, he’s starting with this group shot from March 1985 and hoping that the folks in the photo will help set the scene.

(more…)

A lost artifact from the heady cyberdaze of the 1990s Bay area emerges two decades later. After being hidden away since before the turn of the millenium, the album “I.O.U. Babe” by Mondo Vanilli (a k a M.V., Inc) has been officially released, and after being initially offered for free on Bandcamp, downloads of ‘IOU Babe’ have exceeded the site’s limit for free downloads. A conventional CD version of the album (with bonus tracks) will be released soon.

Download Mondo Vanilli’s “IOU Babe” album (free download limit exceeded, it’s now 50 cents to download but still free to listen/stream ) and view remix videos by Link C!

Hear Mondo Vanilli’s “IOU Babe” album for free on Soundcloud!

Quick history: A few years after a brief collaboration as the Merry Tweeksters in the mid-‘80s, cultural visionary R.U. Sirius (of Mondo 2000 fame) and Che Underground expatriate Dave Fleminger reunited to begin work on creating the world’s greatest cyber-band. Soon thereafter R.U. invited alien/artist Sim1 3Arm to join the mix, and Sim1′s boundary-pushing performance experience helped turn MV into a sirius triple-threat.

Says Fleminger, “At that point, I had literally no computer experience, and knew nothing of the music RU was referring to as a stylistic jumping-off point, but his ideas were quite inspiring to me and he said, ‘You’ll figure it out’ … so that was enough encouragement for me to give it a try.

(more…)

Gary Ra’chac is a San Diego institution in his own right: a native of the city, witness to multiple generations of San Diego music; friend of San Diego legends from Lester Bangs to Ray Brandes; veteran employee of the late, lamented Tasha’s Music City; currently singer-songwriter and radio personality.

Gary has recently been producer of “Vince Martell Rocks America,” featuring the Vanilla Fudge guitarist and hosted by WNJC 1360 AM, New York.

(more…)

(On April 6, a group of San Diego music veterans backed local hero Gary Heffern when he returned from Finland to play the Casbah. Joe Piper recounts the 34 years leading up to his own part in the gig.)

Life’s funny…

When Gary Heffern’s Blood On Fire took to the Casbah stage earlier this month it was, for me, more than just an opportunity to play with some truly outstanding musicians who just also happen to be a group of the greatest guys you could ever hope to meet. It was more than a chance to take part in what is possibly the most enjoyable project I’ve ever worked on. It was all that and more —  it was a chance to take care of unfinished business.

(more…)