Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Close to Home — What it’s like on the street where you live
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Freedom Song Local Debut 1-25, Candye Kane Musical Bio, Big Bopper’s Used Coffin, Che Underground, Casbah Anniversary Events, more
Reunions at the Casbah continue all month
WANNA BUY THE BIG BOPPER’S USED COFFIN?
NME REPORTS: Fancy owning a unique piece of rock 'n' roll memorabilia?
The son of iconic '50s rock n' roller The Big Bopper has said he plans to sell his late father's casket - which he was buried in for 48 years - on eBay in the next few weeks.
The Big Bopper, real name JP Richardson, died along with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens in a plane crash in 1959. The accident has since become known as "the day the music died" after Don McLean recalled the incident in his massive-selling 1972 US Number One 'American Pie'.
The 16-gauge steel casket was exhumed from its original resting place in 2007, because Richardson's son wanted to move his father to a more visible location, reports The Beaumont Enterprise.
"I have no personal use for the casket," Richardson said. "When you get down to it, it is just a metal box. More important is what this particular metal box represents.
"In another 200 years, will people care about rock 'n' roll?" he continued. "Who knows? But why would I want to destroy it? Even though it was dad's resting place for 48 years, it's also a unique opportunity to learn more about the early years of rock 'n' roll."
Richardson, who was born three months after his father's death, said he saw his body for the first time in person after it was exhumed. Buried in a black suit with a blue-and-grey striped tie and socks, the Big Bopper's thick, brown hair was reportedly still in perfect condition.
He has since been reburied in a new casket.
Richardson says he plans to use the money raised from the eBay auction to fund a musical show about his father.
FREEDOM SONG TO DEBUT IN
Produced at Beit T'Shuvah, the only Jewish faith-based addiction recovery center in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
The Agency for Jewish Education of San Diego proudly presents the fourth annual “Yom Limmud: San Diego’s Community Day of Learning” on January 25, 2009. This year’s program will feature the San Diego area debut of the powerful original musical, Freedom Song, a story that highlights the historic universality of the struggle to free oneself from external oppression and internal bondage.
The musical, appropriate for ages 13 and up, was written at Beit T'Shuvah the only Jewish faith-based addiction recovery center in the U.S. It mixes the story of Passover and a twelve-step meeting with original modern music as the vehicle to expose the pervasiveness of the disease of addiction and its effect on everyone in the family.
Freedom Song is an extension of Beit T'Shuvah's Prevention Program and Music in Recovery. It highlights the historic universality of the struggle to free oneself from external oppression and internal bondage. Using contemporary music, Freedom Song juxtaposes personal stories of internal conflict and family dysfunction with the story of Passover.
The play not only draws parallels between being a slave in Egypt and being a slave to your addiction, but forces audience members of all ages to take a look at themselves instead of pointing the finger at everyone else. In the end, we are all enslaved to something.
Freedom Song is performed by residents and alumni of Beit T'Shuvah. This original production was written by Stu Robinson, Cantor Rebekah Mirsky, and James Fuchs and produced by Craig Taubman, Rabbi Mark Borovitz, and Harriet Rossetto.
The Agency for Jewish Education of San Diego will present two performances of Freedom Song in conjunction with the 2009 Yom Limmud on Saturday, January 24th at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 25th at 11:30 am at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS in La Jolla. Tickets for Freedom Song and registration for Yom Limmud are available in advance online at www.ajesd.org or call (619) 697-2045 for more information on tickets.
CHE WEBSITE DOCUMENTS LONG-GONE SAN DIEGO
Founded in 1980 as an all-age vegetarian eatery and gathering place for those interested in radical politics, the Ché Café at UCSD quickly became a haven for San Diego’s underground music scene. Though touring bands eventually became a staple of the venue, early shows mostly featured local groups that played punk, garage, mod, and psychedelic sounds.
More than two decades later, the musicians involved in the Ché Café’s early days are scattered around the world, but a new blog (www.cheunderground.com) is keeping their memories alive. Former Noise 292 guitarist Matthew Rothenberg, who first played the venue in 1983, created the site in February '08.
The Ché scene, says Rothenberg, “…did so much to shape us as people and performers but didn’t leave much of a historical record.”
"I've dubbed the project 'Che Underground,'" says Rothenberg. "Among the other marketing niceties we overlooked back in the day, we never named our scene, but we were instrumental in opening up UCSD's Che Cafe as a rock 'n' roll venue."
"I'm currently in the New York area working in publishing," says Rothenberg (who also played in Three Guys Called Jesus), "and most recently I'm the cheerleader for this reclamation project aimed at salvaging and restoring the work we did in the little scene that centered on the Ché Café in 1983-84 and included the Answers, Hair Theatre, Noise 292, the Rockin' Dogs, and the Wallflowers."
The website’s focus is on those five bands who came together around the Ché Café in the summer of 1983. The site notes the regular performances by Ray Brandes (the Tell-Tale Hearts), Tom Ward (the Nashville Ramblers), and Ted Friedman (the Gravedigger V).
"This is a story I've wanted to tell for a long time; a vibrant SD music scene that brought together punk, mod and art crowds; cross-pollinated North County and downtown; influenced a slew of local musicians; then disappeared without a trace."
"I'm working with the members of the five core gigging bands -- the Answers/Mirrors, Hair Theatre, Noise 292, the Rockin' Dogs and the Wallflowers (not Jakob Dylan's!) -- to reassemble the work we did in the early '80s. We've got a Web presence now, and we have a ton of audio (like, whole lost studio albums!), video, photos and flyers."
Built around reminiscences in postings from the musicians who frequented the venue, the site offers an insiders’ view of the San Diego music scene of the era. Though the emphasis is on bands that performed at the venue, filmed and recorded material done at other venues is included. Highlights include audio of the Morlocks live in San Francisco and a previously unseen video from the Mirrors.
Rothenberg has made attempts to inform the current Ché Café organizers about his website but has thus far been unsuccessful.
“I hope they’re flattered,” he says. “I’ve tried to contact them, but I’m a little confused about who at the co-op might take an interest. We’re thinking of sending an ambassador to their weekly veggie chili dinner.”
The Reader's own San Diego Music Encyclopedia (1,300 bands and still growing - www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search) has been adding entries on Che Underground performers, with help from Rothenberg. "I’ve got our musicians tuning up their biographical notes for submission; they’re all very excited about the prospect of shedding new light on our wonderful old scene."
Below concert flyer is just one of MANY on the site - this 1981 show at the then-booming Adams Avenue Theatre paired hardcore punk bands with local mod groups Manual Scan and the Crawdaddys - note the text "Be there between 9:30 and 10 if you want to miss the mod bands!"
The guy in the photo? “Hahhaa! That’s me in about 10th grade,” posts onetime Wallflowers singer Dave Rinck on the Underground site. "BTW, I lent that t-shirt I’m wearing in that photo to Johnny Thunders, who wore it when he played at the Bacchanal in SD circa 1982.”
Dave Ellison posts his recollection of this show, including singer Lux Interior getting fed up with locals jumping on the stage, especially one guy who tried to steal band equipment. "At the end of the song, he [Lux] took the mic stand, holding it at the top, and put the base of it against the guy’s face. He held it there for several seconds (the guy couldn’t move because of the crowd pushing against the stage), then smashed the guy in the face with it, the heavy metal base of the mic stand."
Ahhhh, good times!
Che Underground site operator Rothenberg, now a resident of Maplewood, N.J., says plans are under way for a reunion concert next summer, though it won’t be held at the Ché Café.
“Everyone’s over 21 and can have a drink now.”
RELATED ARTICLES ON THE READER SITE:
The Wallflowers - Beginning in 1981, the Wallflowers became what has been described as “the most joyfully subversive band in the whole Che Underground circuit”...
Manual Scan - Later evolving into the Shambles, the mod-minded men of Manual Scan have an entire page at the Che Underground site devoted to them, chronicling their Hard Days Night-like exploits and endeavors...
A Little Town South of LA: '80s Underground San Diego - by Keith Boyd
I remember the 1980s in San Diego. It was a period of rapid transition in this town. The city was moving on from its “Navy Town” roots and showing the very first signs of becoming the sprawling monster it is today. While this process had certainly started it wasn’t anywhere near a done deal. San Diego still felt like a true collection of neighborhoods where you could run into the same handful of likeminded folks digging music, art or films. The problem with San Diego was that it lay in the shadow of LA.
In the '80s, the I-5 still felt like a wilderness trip from Sorrento Valley to almost Long Beach and in that space SD seemed to languish culturally. The big bands tended to either not play here or play only on off nights (to a certain extent this is still true). Add in the relatively isolated neighborhoods and the transitory nature of military families and you had a situation in which not a lot of home grown bands had truly sprung up.
The '80s saw the first true cracks in this wall. A smallish group of local youth formed bands and played house parties until there were venues (many available thanks to one Tim Mays). Once this ball was rolling things took on a life of their own and San Diego saw the first of several blossomings of great music.
Several names come to my mind; the majestic, flute driven, psych-epics of Hair Theatre, the driving hypnosis of Wei Wei T’nango and the feral tribalism of Crash Worship.
Amongst the better venues was UCSD’s Che Café. The Che always had the feeling of being for and by the kids and this combined with their left-centric ethos inspired a fierce loyalty amongst patrons. They also brought in some great touring acts from the then burgeoning Post-Punk Underground. I saw an excellent show with Spot 1019 and Camper Van Beethoven there once and it blew my mind! In order to document and reconnect this scene there is a newish website called Che Underground and it’s a great living piece of our local music heritage.
While the site primarily focuses on the specific bands who played (and the scene) at the Che, there has been a natural expansion including other related SD music acts... (CONTINUED AT www.blogsandiego.com/80's_san_diego_music.html )
ELLIOTT MURPHY & JANN KLOSE AT ACOUSTIC MUSIC SAN DIEGO TONIGHT, JAN. 13
(Hideyo Moriya)
The old church hosting the Acoustic Music San Diego series seems the perfect setting for the Euro-New York poetical songs of veteran folk-rocker Elliott Murphy and newly acclaimed singer-songwriter Jann Klose.
Elliott, who hasn't played the States in eight years, is celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the release of his now-more-relevant-than-ever album AQUASHOW. His 30th and latest album is NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND. Elliott was born and raised in Garden City, New York, and has been living in France, touring internationally in Europe for the past 18 years. Artists including Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Phil Collins have worked on his albums.
Jann Klose, who was born in Germany, raised in Kenya and South Africa, has been living in the Bronx the past eight years, and touring domestically, and in the UK and Germany. He released his first album 10 years ago in Cleveland, where he was also an exchange student. His latest album is called REVERIE, which is being played on over 80 radio stations. In September he collaborated locally with Renaissance's lead singer Annie Haslam and keyboardist John Tout for a sold out show at the Sellersville Theater.
“Elliott and Jann have so many parallels and quite a bit in common, even though they're from different generations,” emails Anne Leighton from Murphy HQ (who I’ve known to be BS-free since the old Hit Parader dayz, so I’m all ears!)
“Their music also compliments one another. Whereas Jann has more of a Joni Mitchell/Paul Simon/Van Morrison (jazz through folk and everything in between) vibe, Elliott's got the Dylan vibe with a touch of blues and rock. And they are actually the best (or among the best) in their genres. Both can play with a full band or stripped down.”
“Both are melodic, poetic, philosophical. Elliott's got more topical style, and Jann has more of a celestial thing going.”
Elliott Murphy moved to Europe in the early '90s. Jann Klose first came to the states as an exchange student in the early '90s. “Jann moved to New York City in 2000, and that's the last year Elliott played his last gig in the States,” says Leighton, “until now.”
“It looks as though it's been 30 years since Elliott's played San Diego,” says Leighton. “Despite the fact that he's getting airplay on Mexican radio, as is Jann, he's really not been in the market. Jann is sort of in a similar boat. In 2001, he was with the touring company of Broadway's JEKYLL AND HYDE, and they totally missed Los Angeles. The furthest south he got was in Bakersfield. Last year, when he played the NAMM show, he did a gig in Dana Point -- a jam night.”
SHOWTIME: - Tuesday, January 13: Acoustic Music San Diego, 4650 Mansfield Street, at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $20 and $15. There is also dinner seating for $45. 619-303-8176
http://www.acousticmusicsandiego.com
http://www.elliottmurphy.com
http://www.jannklose.com
CANDYE KANE’S BRAS-4-SALE
A new musical based on Candye Kane's early life story, the Toughest Girl in the World, will debut in workshops at the Diversionary Theatre January 29th thru February 1st. The production includes many of her songs, with guest pianist Sue Palmer, a longtime Kane associate.
The well-endowed blues chanteuse seems comfortable with public fixation on her 44GGG size breasts (though she no longer plays piano by slapping them on the keys). On her website candyekane.com, she sells pillows made from her own bras.
"They are each guaranteed to be worn by me and no two are alike,” she says. The price? Around $300 each (per bra, not per cup), plus $20 shipping, She says she was inspired to create boob-art by fans who constantly ask to purchase her used bras and panties.
"If the fans want to take them apart to masturbate on, that's okay. But I make the pillows so beautiful that they would never want to take them apart." According to the website sales pitch, “Custom designs and lettering will also be considered. Color choices may not always be possible. It depends which bra will be leaving my underwear drawer!”
Kane says she’s gotten interest from retail stores, but that she currently recycles her undergarments on a per-order basis. A 50% deposit is required upon ordering and it takes 8 – 10 weeks to get your custom Candye Kane Therapeutic Bra Pillow.
“They are beautiful, one of a kind, conversation pieces and they are the next best thing to resting your head on my own 44GGs…they really are fun, soft, comfortable and add to the decor of any home!" She’s talking about the bras, guys - the breasts aren’t for sale or rent.
NEW VENUE DEBUTING IN SAN DIEGO....
Cathryn Beeks of Listen Local emails to say "There is an AMAZING new listening room in San Diego that you'll be hearing about soon. go here for all the info you'll need for a night you won't soon forget. "
Cathryn also provides her choice for Link of the Week: "She's our scene's exposure queen, not only helping solo artists and bands get their music on t.v. every week, but actually attending our shows and becoming a fan of the music. She's high profile but down to earth and that's why we love her so. Kristen Cusato: you're the good news, baby."
As for Cathryn's own current events, she says "I'm going to be more proactive about promoting my own band, The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal. Next weekend we begin work on the new album at Berkley Sound and we have some great shows coming up. Don't miss this Friday at The Cottonwood Golf Club with Christopher Dale, Barbara Nesbitt and Citizen Band! Pretty exciting stuff happening... join The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal's mailing list and be part of the family!"
UPCOMING EVENTS WORTH A LOOK-SEE:
1/19 - New Venue! Little Italy Spaghetteria - The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal, The Jon Garner Trio and more!
1/25 - The Game at Backstage at The Bitter End. Local songwriters gather to share compositions based on a single song title. This month, the title will be "LAST PLACE." All styles and abilities (21+) welcomed. Also sets from Joe Rathburn, Barbara Nesbitt, Sven-Erik Seaholm and Citizen Band. No cover!
ListenLocalSD.com | The Calendar | FAQs | Venues and Partners |Contact
MORE CATHRYN BEEKS ON THE READER SITE: Musician Interviews (Dec. 30, 2004), Musician Interviews (April 5, 2007), Blurt (March 26, 2008), Hometown CD Review (Oct. 15, 2008)
CATHRYN BEEKS MP3S:
www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/cathryn-beeks-ordeal
*************************************************RIP HAPPY HARE, LEGENDARY LONGTIME LOCAL DJ
“Happy Hare is off the air...”
Longtime local legend Happy Hare passed away on Monday, January 5. Mainly remembered for his morning DJ stint on KCBQ, he was 81. Beginning in 1955, he was an almost constant local presence, alongside such other fondly remembered characters from the Silver Age of Radio like Jim McInnes ("JM in the PM"), Shadoe Stevens, Gabriel Wisdom, Gary Allyn, etc.
“The last couple of years, we would talk radio and family over coffee/bagel at the Pt. Loma Einstein Bros,” posts DJ Chris Cantore at http://www.chriscantore.com . “Truth be told, in a weird way, Hare reminded me of my (hero) Grandpa Joe.”
“With his amazing positivity, Hare would often call my house to ‘check in,’ and share a story or two, or three, or four. My favorite, how he saved a Beatles concert in Cleveland.”
Here are a couple of wonderful rock tales Happy Hare shared with the Reader ---
4-4-56 and 4-5-56 – Elvis Presley: "This is the first time that the Hancock is going to rock and roll, while still in anchor!" The titular host of NBC's Milton Berle Show [aka Texaco Star Theater] introduced Elvis Presley to a live audience on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock, docked at the Naval Station in San Diego bay. Presley's first-ever California performance included "Heartbreak Hotel" (on its way to becoming his first #1 hit) and a few others. The singer gamely acknowledged the raging controversy about his "shocking" onstage pelvic gyrations by taking part in a comedy sketch. Presley introduced Berle, dressed as Elvis (world's first Elvis impersonator?), saying "Mah twin brother, Melvin Presley." Berle/Melvin then takes credit for all the hip-wiggling, saying "I gave him his singing style - I used to drop grasshoppers down his pants."
Elvis' sexually-charged "singing style" was no joke to San Diego police, however. The next two nights, both of Presley's concerts at the San Diego Arena on 8th and Harbor Drive (aka Glacier Garden ) were sold out and police presence was heavy. Over both evenings, several young women were removed from the Arena, reportedly for "hysterical and lewd behavior." The Shore Patrol had to set up a floating blockade behind the venue, after two teen girls in their underwear and carrying soaked dresses emerged from the water to make a run for Presley's dressing room (they were caught by police and released, presumably after their garments dried). Three people were arrested.
"Some girls broke into the bathroom of Elvis's dressing room and stole the toilet seat," recalled KCBQ disc jockey Don Howard in a 1979 interview with localKicks Magazine. "His Cadillac was covered with obscene messages, and two sailors were arrested for masturbating during the show from watching the antics.... After the concert, the police arrested 12 girls running nude through the halls of the El Cortez Hotel, looking for Elvis.”
“I introduced him [to the stage],” says longtime local DJ Happy Hare Martin, “and he rushed out and sang the first chorus of Hound Dog, which I could not hear above their primal screams. Then…he began wiggling and rotating his pelvis. This is when half the girls lost control of their bladders.”
Martin had been with Elvis backstage in the hours leading up to the show. “Elvis was a blonde,” he says. “I kept his secret for many years, until I learned that he had been outed…When I entered the dressing room, I was flustered to see that the King had no clothes. He was pacing buck naked in the dressing room…Seeing me, he grabbed his gold Lamé suit and covered himself. Too late. I had caught him.”
“In contrast to his black head of hair was a golden wheat-colored tuft [down below]. Yep, he was a natural blonde, alright. ‘You ain’t gonna tell nobody, are ya?’ he asked, almost pleading. I nodded a firm no, and that was that. I later learned that Tony Curtis was his idol. He regarded Tony as the ultimate babe magnet, so he dyed his hair raven black, just like Tony's…the kid obviously did not realize that his hair could have been [turd brown], and it would not have mattered.”
Ticket sales for the two 1956 concerts (with his new backing band the Jordanaires) reportedly totaled $17,250, with 11,250 fans attending. The day after the second San Diego date -- April 6 -- Presley signed a seven-year movie deal with Paramount. Three weeks later, "Heartbreak Hotel" hit number one.
When Presley was scheduled to return to the Arena June 6, Police Chief Adam Elmer Jansen (the city's longest-serving Chief, at 14 years) had had enough. "If he puts on the same kind of show that he did last April, I'll arrest him for disorderly conduct," he was quoted saying in the Union (repeated nationwide after newswires picked up the story). "I've had enough complaints from parents to assure me that twerp is not doing the kids any good." Late in the year, the city Social Services Department held a series of hearings, to discuss whether Presley should be banned from playing in San Diego .
Presley escaped town without being arrested or banned and in fact returned years later to pack them in for three more sold-out performances, after Police Chief Jansen retired - November 15, 1970 (ticket sales 14,659), April 26, 1973 (15,050 attendees) and April 24, 1976 (17,500 attendees).
**************************************************
9-58: Ritchie Valens had two hits on the charts -- "La Bamba" and "Donna" -- when longtime local DJ Harry "Happy Hare" Martin persuaded him to perform at the 1958 opening of Clairemont High School.
“The Principal called and asked me to do something for the new kids,” Martin told me in March 2008. “I was full of myself in those days. I said ‘Sure’ and got on the phone…I took it for granted that he [Valens] knew me, and I asked him about coming down to San Diego to sing for the new school. No mention of money. He immediately said yes, no doubt thinking that anyone this audacious must be important.”
“There was no opposition from the school, all were thrilled that I could get someone with two or three songs on the Hit Parade.” When Hare picked up Valens at the airport, the rising rock star emerged from the plane with his guitar slung around his neck and carrying a small amp. “At the school, all of the students were in the yard, because they were still painting the new auditorium. Ritchie didn’t seem to mind. He sang two songs that I recall, ‘Donna’ and ‘La Bamba,’ and some other newer songs, all on the red clay, in the broiling sun, for the better part of an hour.”
“Many kids broke into impromptu dancing and that egged Ritchie on. Him playing, and them dancing and celebrating, [it was] a musical fiesta. A South L.A. Latino kid, connecting with 2,000 young Anglos…it was historic. No autographs or pictures…things were more structured in those days.”
Valens was literally on the brink of superstardom as he flew back to L.A. that evening. “If it had been a couple of months later,” says Hare, “I would have had to put him up in an expensive hotel and paid him a lot of bucks. But, that day, he was just a simple kid wanting to help.” Valens perished in the same February 1959 plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
**********************************************
****************************************
LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 1: JIM McINNES - THE LAST DJ - DJ Jim McInnes spent 28 years in radio before being fired for the first time a few years ago by Clear Channel/101.5 KGB FM. McInnes had spent most of disc jockey career ["And over half my life!"] at KGB, where he helped launch the Homegrown local album series....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/01/jim-mcinnes-the-last-dj
********************************************LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 2: THE O.B. RANGER RIDES AGAIN - RETURN OF A ‘70S COUNTERCULTURE HERO - “We were going after the progressive rock or the album rock crowd,” says radio DJ and programming vet Gary Allyn about his early seventies on-air gig in San Diego. “Of course O.B. was the center of the hippie movement in that period, flower power and the drug culture and all that”....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/the-ob-ranger-return-of-a-70s-counterculture-hero
LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 3: LOCAL JOCK SAYS HE WAS STALKED - A REAL LIFE PLAY MISTY FOR ME? - The dark side of audiological obsession formed the basis of the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller Play Misty For Me (the actor's directorial debut). Portraying a jazz radio DJ for station KRML in Carmel California, Eastwood's character finds his life upended by a high-strung female fan who repeatedly calls his show, to request her favorite song....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/local-jock-says-he-was-stalked-a-real-life-play-me
********************************************
THE CASBAH’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY – CELEBRATE IN THE ATARI LOUNGE
The Casbah’s 20th Anniversary celebration continues – Rosey at http://www.sddialedin.com is selling merch at most shows, and she says the Anniversary shirts are selling out fast, so make sure you get there to get one, or order direct from Rosey ----
Among the many bands reuniting to play the Casbah this month are Lucy’s Fur Coat, the Dragons, Radio Wendy, Furious IV, the Answers, the Penetrators (which saw many of its members later become Beat Farmers) on Saturday January 24, Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver and Creedle (Friday January 23), and Stairway to Charo (Thursday 1-15).
The Penetrators are also rumored to be planning another reunion gig on Saturday night at a private party near Ocean Beach, on Lotus Street…..
Also worth celebrating is the oft-overlooked back room at the Casbah………
“The Atari Lounge is there so you can take a break from the band or get away from someone you don't want to talk to," says Casbah owner Tim Mays of the club's roomful of vintage video games, pinball machines, and pool tables.
"We've had games here since we first moved to this location in early 1994. The Jurassic Park and Guns N' Roses pinball machines were pretty popular for a long time. We also had a sit-down Pac-Man that was hugely popular. Someone [a Casbah customer] actually bought it from the guys who own and maintain our machines."
(brettbanducci.com)
Sandy Thomas, bassist for O.B.-based Xlent, says, "I spent a year in the Atari Lounge living in a total '80s time warp, going for the 'perfect Pac-Man.' That's surviving through 255 screens and eating every single dot, every ghost, every fruit and energizer, and never missing a single one. I reached the million-point mark five different times, but I only broke two million once. Believe it or not, that actually got me laid, and that score should add a million to my Pac-Man points." A perfect Pac-Man score is 3,333,360.
"For ten years I'd been telling people about a video game I loved as a kid called Star Castle," says Rookie Card singer/guitarist Adam Gimbel. "It was actually black and white, with colored plastic on the monitor to make the center rings red and yellow. No one believed me. When I moved back to San Diego ten years ago, there it was in the Atari Lounge."
As of this writing, the club's arcade games include Galaga, Off Road, Centipede, a Donkey Kong console that only works sporadically, and a tabletop Ms. Pac-Man nearly always stacked with the quarters of waiting players.
"I'm a Ms. Pac-Man snob," says singer-songwriter Marie Haddad. "Not just any machine will do. It has to be a sit-down table version, and it has to be fast. Sure, there are other Ms. Pac-Man's around town, but the joystick doesn't respond like the Casbah's, or it's a stand-up machine, or it's geriatric slow." She says her high score is "somewhere in the 95,000s," and her dot-gobbling prowess earns her occasional perks. "I was back there playing between sets, and a guy who'd been playing Galaga turned around to watch me...before I finished my game, he bought me a vodka tonic and called me 'the Eddie Van Halen of Ms. Pac-Man. '"
Grant Reinero of the Focus Group likes how the tabletop Ms. Pac-Man allows players to battle head-to-head. "One time I was in the Atari Lounge by myself, and I was sitting at the Ms. Pac-Man and searching my pockets for a quarter. Nothing. No change at all. In defeat, I resigned myself to just sitting there and watching the game's demo screen over and over."
"Just then, a girl's voice cut through the sludgy tones bellowing out of the main room. 'Are you gonna play?' I looked up to see a raven-like beauty in an antique dress. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and sat down at the other end of the game."
"'I don't have a quarter,' I said. She reached into the pocket of her dress and produced two quarters. 'Wanna play me?'"
"We took turns jamming the joystick in a mad frenzy. The flashing screen lit up her perfect pale features as we played. What began as a friendly game soon gave way to a ruthless power-pellet--eating contest. With my last turn I lost myself in the maze, becoming the insatiable yellow creature on the screen. The ghosts finally cornered and killed me, and I screamed out loud."
"I looked up to see her staring back at me, her chest heaving with excitement, her eyes wide with adrenaline. I told her, 'That's the best I've ever played,' and in one motion she grabbed the back of my neck, pulled my cheek to her lips, and whispered in my ear, 'Thanks for the game.' "
Two other Atari Lounge consoles are currently down, with the busted skateboarding game rumored to be replaced soon with either Space Invaders or Tempest. The Casbah's pool tables are always in good repair, and one cue-ball clash has become the stuff of local legend.
"Eddie Vedder and I played a game of pool many, many years ago," owner Mays told Bart Mendoza. "He came down one night to see Jonathan Richman…He came in incognito with a floppy brim hat and a jacket , we got to talking to him, he was a really great friendly guy, very straight forward. And there were some people hanging out in the back playing pool."
"So anyway, Eddie and I are playing pool, and I don't know how it came up, but he said 'If I win, I get your bar, if you win, you get my publishing deal.' So I thought, Okay. And he beat me pretty handily. He actually beat everybody he played that night."
"Anyway, six or eight months later I get a call from someone who said they heard on the radio that Eddie Veddar had bought the Casbah. Then I got more phone calls. Apparently, and I just found this out recently, Mike Halloran told Marco Collins [ex 91X DJ, then at Seattle radio] the story, so Marco Collins put the story out there and it got picked up. Needless to say, when Eddie comes in, we take care of him, just so he doesn't call in his note."
************************************
BEATLES ROOFTOP CONCERT RECREATED IN
On November 22, 40 years to the date since the release of the Beatles' White Album, a surprise rooftop celebration was held in Normal Heights. Announced through radio mentions on the Walrus and a few online postings, an appreciative crowd watched from the street below, as well as the parking lot across the street. Doubtless, hundreds more listened throughout the community.
This was a true guerilla show, with no permits, ads, flyers or posters. With the rooftop of Mariposa Ice Cream on Adams Avenue doubling as the Saville Row offices of Apple Records, and DJ Dave Mason making introductions, the Baja Bugs recreated the Beatles infamous rooftop concert, throwing in an extra set's worth of their tunes, while the Dave Humphries Band entertained played material from their various albums, as well as some choice covers from the Beatles' solo years.
(DJ Dave Mason popping in; and a visit from the Blue Meanies)
The crowd on the rooftop grew exponentially as the afternoon wore on – consider that the day's equipment had to be hauled up to the roof by ropes and you can see it was an effort to reach that summit, but smiles were the order of the day. Smiles were visible even on the faces of drivers on Adams Avenue who slowed or stopped to watch. Ironically while The Beatles were shut down fairly quickly by the police during their rooftop performance, in this case it took authorities several hours to arrive. However, under threat of fines and equipment confiscation, the afternoon ended, though not before a final rendition of “Get Back.” The best part about the day? Take your pick. The camaraderie of the crowd, the sing-a-longs, or maybe the neighborhood introductions made amongst those who came out to take in the music. From the mother who brought out a table and chairs from her shop to have her kids watch the bands to the elderly couple that rode up on bicycles, there was a wonderful cross section of area residents and visitors. (courtesy http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/1125upontheroof.html) *************************************
DAVE HUMPHRIES: 4-TIME APPLE REJECT!
February 1964: the Beatles taught the world to play. “Do You Wanna Know A Secret” and “Love Me Do” dominated the U.S. charts in the wake of the group’s U.S. landing. British songwriter Dave Humphries remembers it well – he was there. Humphries moved to San Diego in 1996, but at one time the native of Durham City in northeast England was known as someone on the periphery of the Beatles story and as “the man rejected by Apple Records [four times] more than anyone else alive.” Humphries’ appearance at the 2003 Beatlefair allowed him to meet and play with another figure from the Beatles’ past, Tony Sheridan, for whom the fab four played on their first-ever recording “My Bonnie,” credited to Tony Sheridan And the Silver Beetles. While Sheridan was at BeatleFair, Humphries talked him into co-writing and recording a song in Mission Hills, “38 Days,” which appears on a CD self-released by Humphries. This recording was made easier due to Sheridan’s longtime keyboard player Wolfgang Grasekamp living in La Mesa, another recent transplant to San Diego.
(Humphries with the Beatles' original recording frontman, Tony Sheridan)
Humphries also tried to get one-time Beatles drummer Pete Best to participate in the “38 Days” recording, since Best was in town at the same time for a BeatleFair. Local rumor has reported Best’s reaction to the invitation to be “Show me the money.” Pete Best’s agent reports that he’s paid $4,000 to appear anywhere and upwards of $6,000 to $10,000 if he’s to actually perform. Being booted from the Beatles seems to finally be paying off. Dave Humphries' album 38 Days earned him a nomination at the 2006 San Diego Music Awards. The disc includes two tracks featuring Tony Sheridan on guitar. His newest record, And So It Goes..., from Blindspot Records, was produced by Mike Kamoo (the Stereotypes) and Wolfgang Grasekamp at Kamoo's Earthling Studios. Kamoo makes a guest appearance on the album, as do Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Todd Hidden (ex-Rockola member), and Tony Sheridan on 5 of the 11 tracks. The album received airplay on BBC Radio Merseyside's Juke Box Jury on March 29, 2008, in a show hosted by Spencer Leigh, documentary writer and author of the Merseybeat book Let's Go Down to the Cellar. Humphries' shares his recollection of the night John Lennon died, 28 years ago next week, on December 8, 1980: "It was just like another normal December morning in Durham, northeast England, cloudy and a little cold. I heard my dad go off to work and before long would hear my mother shout up the stairs, 'Are you getting up?' But today she didn't do that, today it was 'John Lennon has been shot.'" "A sick feeling consumed me. I didn't know how to handle this. Of course we'd had deaths in the family, but this was different, it felt as if my youth had been torn away. My hero was gone, a man whom I felt I had known personally since 1963, a man I admired, a man who together with his three mates inspired me, made me laugh out loud, made me pick up the guitar, a man murdered by a bastard with a gun. I recall the BBC showed Help! that night. I didn't watch, didn't see any of the news reports, couldn't; I don't know now how I got through the days or nights. I tried to avoid friends, couldn't discuss it -- just felt raw. It was months before I could listen to John's voice without filling up and breaking down. John, who gave so much to the world, murdered for what?" ***********************************************
How I Snuck Into Around 100 Local Concerts -- Not that we advocate breaking the law, mind you -- most of these venues are long gone, and the statutes of limitations have passed, so here's what I did and how I did it. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
***********************************************
***********************************************
Turn On, Tunes In, Drop Out -- A History of Personal Music Players http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
*********************************************
*********************************************
Soundmen Sound Off -- Locals talk about the perks and perils of running the soundboard. Includes former Grateful Dead/Owsley sound guy Jimbo James, Jeff Kelley of Price of Dope and more. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
*************************************************
*************************************************
Concerts Are Making You Deaf -- The research is done and the results are in - your ears are f-ucked! An audiological overview, including interviews with locals who know a bit about ear damage. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
**************************************************
**************************************************
Horn If You're Honky -- Musical car horns, and the honkies who love them. Can your car horn really help you pick up women? Who's buying car horns that sound like machine gun fire? Do women need No Honking Zones to feel safe on the sidewalk? http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
****************************************
UNDERAGE SWING DANCERS
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/underage-swing-dancers-battle-local-law
**************************************
DARK METAL IN SAN DIEGO - Glorifying Satan (portrayed as an actual anthropomorphic being) is a popular motif and marketing axis for many groups, amusing rock critics as much as it horrifies the PMRC. Most of these local bands have one thing in common; using morbid narrative, death-centered ideals, and grotesque imagery as their greatest focus and priority, often (IMO) at the expense of musical form...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
**************************************
A HISTORY OF DEATH METAL - Comic strip by JAS and Kiss Comics artist Scott Pentzer...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
****************************************
GOTHS FOR JESUS: PASTOR DAVE'S CHRISTIAN GOTHS - From the start, Pastor Dave was interested in starting a ministry for goth kids. He saw in them a fondness for the iconography and rituals endemic to church tradition (crosses, candles, incantations, etc.), as well as great intellectual capacity, emotional depth, and spiritual yearning....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/29/goths-for-jesus-pastor-daves-christian-goths
****************************************
RACIST ROCK: DO THE WHITE THING - a History of SoCal Racist Rock - White power rock music provides the rallying call which unites racists and Nazi-inclined Skinheads who hope to develop a common culture - or at least present the appearance of one. Racist rock expouses hostile ideology, directed against non-whites, particularly anyone of Negro or Jewish descent; the lyrics are angry, nihilistic, and all about advocating intolerance, if not actual violence, against minorities....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
***************************************
CREEPY OLD GUY GOES TO A RAVE - For a tutorial in rave culture, I first read the message board archives at socal-raves. The group philosophy stresses individualism and a come-as-you-are acceptance of all who enter. However, at the parties attended by your humble-and-humbled forty-something narrator, an unmistakable dress code was evident, with certain constants seeming to be at least preferred, if not required.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
***************************************
WHERE IS THE READER'S HIP-HOP COVERAGE? - “Rap isn’t synonymous with hip-hop,” I’m told by DJ EVS (real name Evan McGinnis), of the three-piece Mission Infinite. “I think KRS-One [a social/political rapper, co-founder of Boogie Down Productions] defined it best: ‘Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.’ Rap is the style of how you compose your words, the rhyming and rhythm. Kind of like scat. Hip-hop is how you talk, how you wear your clothes, more of the lifestyle”.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/where-is-the-readers-hip-hop-coverage
********************************************STAR TREK: THE CONTINUING MISSION - INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK McCRAY - Star Trek: The Continuing Mission is a fan-made noncommercial, nonprofit enterprise, not necessarily authorized by Trek owners at Paramount, but not discouraged either. Since the demise of TV’s Star Trek: Enterprise, productions like The Continuing Mission are helping to keep the franchise alive with fresh, new stories....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/star-trek-the-continuing-mission-interview
Like this blog? Here are some related links:
OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/
FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/
SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic
JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford
Here's something you might be interested in.
Previous article
P.O.D.’s podcast inspiration yields surprise San Diego show
Harley parking lot charity gig may become an annual event
Freedom Song Local Debut 1-25, Candye Kane Musical Bio, Big Bopper’s Used Coffin, Che Underground, Casbah Anniversary Events, more
Reunions at the Casbah continue all month
WANNA BUY THE BIG BOPPER’S USED COFFIN?
NME REPORTS: Fancy owning a unique piece of rock 'n' roll memorabilia?
The son of iconic '50s rock n' roller The Big Bopper has said he plans to sell his late father's casket - which he was buried in for 48 years - on eBay in the next few weeks.
The Big Bopper, real name JP Richardson, died along with Buddy Holly and Richie Valens in a plane crash in 1959. The accident has since become known as "the day the music died" after Don McLean recalled the incident in his massive-selling 1972 US Number One 'American Pie'.
The 16-gauge steel casket was exhumed from its original resting place in 2007, because Richardson's son wanted to move his father to a more visible location, reports The Beaumont Enterprise.
"I have no personal use for the casket," Richardson said. "When you get down to it, it is just a metal box. More important is what this particular metal box represents.
"In another 200 years, will people care about rock 'n' roll?" he continued. "Who knows? But why would I want to destroy it? Even though it was dad's resting place for 48 years, it's also a unique opportunity to learn more about the early years of rock 'n' roll."
Richardson, who was born three months after his father's death, said he saw his body for the first time in person after it was exhumed. Buried in a black suit with a blue-and-grey striped tie and socks, the Big Bopper's thick, brown hair was reportedly still in perfect condition.
He has since been reburied in a new casket.
Richardson says he plans to use the money raised from the eBay auction to fund a musical show about his father.
FREEDOM SONG TO DEBUT IN
Produced at Beit T'Shuvah, the only Jewish faith-based addiction recovery center in the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
The Agency for Jewish Education of San Diego proudly presents the fourth annual “Yom Limmud: San Diego’s Community Day of Learning” on January 25, 2009. This year’s program will feature the San Diego area debut of the powerful original musical, Freedom Song, a story that highlights the historic universality of the struggle to free oneself from external oppression and internal bondage.
The musical, appropriate for ages 13 and up, was written at Beit T'Shuvah the only Jewish faith-based addiction recovery center in the U.S. It mixes the story of Passover and a twelve-step meeting with original modern music as the vehicle to expose the pervasiveness of the disease of addiction and its effect on everyone in the family.
Freedom Song is an extension of Beit T'Shuvah's Prevention Program and Music in Recovery. It highlights the historic universality of the struggle to free oneself from external oppression and internal bondage. Using contemporary music, Freedom Song juxtaposes personal stories of internal conflict and family dysfunction with the story of Passover.
The play not only draws parallels between being a slave in Egypt and being a slave to your addiction, but forces audience members of all ages to take a look at themselves instead of pointing the finger at everyone else. In the end, we are all enslaved to something.
Freedom Song is performed by residents and alumni of Beit T'Shuvah. This original production was written by Stu Robinson, Cantor Rebekah Mirsky, and James Fuchs and produced by Craig Taubman, Rabbi Mark Borovitz, and Harriet Rossetto.
The Agency for Jewish Education of San Diego will present two performances of Freedom Song in conjunction with the 2009 Yom Limmud on Saturday, January 24th at 8:00 pm and Sunday, January 25th at 11:30 am at the Lawrence Family Jewish Community Center JACOBS FAMILY CAMPUS in La Jolla. Tickets for Freedom Song and registration for Yom Limmud are available in advance online at www.ajesd.org or call (619) 697-2045 for more information on tickets.
CHE WEBSITE DOCUMENTS LONG-GONE SAN DIEGO
Founded in 1980 as an all-age vegetarian eatery and gathering place for those interested in radical politics, the Ché Café at UCSD quickly became a haven for San Diego’s underground music scene. Though touring bands eventually became a staple of the venue, early shows mostly featured local groups that played punk, garage, mod, and psychedelic sounds.
More than two decades later, the musicians involved in the Ché Café’s early days are scattered around the world, but a new blog (www.cheunderground.com) is keeping their memories alive. Former Noise 292 guitarist Matthew Rothenberg, who first played the venue in 1983, created the site in February '08.
The Ché scene, says Rothenberg, “…did so much to shape us as people and performers but didn’t leave much of a historical record.”
"I've dubbed the project 'Che Underground,'" says Rothenberg. "Among the other marketing niceties we overlooked back in the day, we never named our scene, but we were instrumental in opening up UCSD's Che Cafe as a rock 'n' roll venue."
"I'm currently in the New York area working in publishing," says Rothenberg (who also played in Three Guys Called Jesus), "and most recently I'm the cheerleader for this reclamation project aimed at salvaging and restoring the work we did in the little scene that centered on the Ché Café in 1983-84 and included the Answers, Hair Theatre, Noise 292, the Rockin' Dogs, and the Wallflowers."
The website’s focus is on those five bands who came together around the Ché Café in the summer of 1983. The site notes the regular performances by Ray Brandes (the Tell-Tale Hearts), Tom Ward (the Nashville Ramblers), and Ted Friedman (the Gravedigger V).
"This is a story I've wanted to tell for a long time; a vibrant SD music scene that brought together punk, mod and art crowds; cross-pollinated North County and downtown; influenced a slew of local musicians; then disappeared without a trace."
"I'm working with the members of the five core gigging bands -- the Answers/Mirrors, Hair Theatre, Noise 292, the Rockin' Dogs and the Wallflowers (not Jakob Dylan's!) -- to reassemble the work we did in the early '80s. We've got a Web presence now, and we have a ton of audio (like, whole lost studio albums!), video, photos and flyers."
Built around reminiscences in postings from the musicians who frequented the venue, the site offers an insiders’ view of the San Diego music scene of the era. Though the emphasis is on bands that performed at the venue, filmed and recorded material done at other venues is included. Highlights include audio of the Morlocks live in San Francisco and a previously unseen video from the Mirrors.
Rothenberg has made attempts to inform the current Ché Café organizers about his website but has thus far been unsuccessful.
“I hope they’re flattered,” he says. “I’ve tried to contact them, but I’m a little confused about who at the co-op might take an interest. We’re thinking of sending an ambassador to their weekly veggie chili dinner.”
The Reader's own San Diego Music Encyclopedia (1,300 bands and still growing - www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/search) has been adding entries on Che Underground performers, with help from Rothenberg. "I’ve got our musicians tuning up their biographical notes for submission; they’re all very excited about the prospect of shedding new light on our wonderful old scene."
Below concert flyer is just one of MANY on the site - this 1981 show at the then-booming Adams Avenue Theatre paired hardcore punk bands with local mod groups Manual Scan and the Crawdaddys - note the text "Be there between 9:30 and 10 if you want to miss the mod bands!"
The guy in the photo? “Hahhaa! That’s me in about 10th grade,” posts onetime Wallflowers singer Dave Rinck on the Underground site. "BTW, I lent that t-shirt I’m wearing in that photo to Johnny Thunders, who wore it when he played at the Bacchanal in SD circa 1982.”
Dave Ellison posts his recollection of this show, including singer Lux Interior getting fed up with locals jumping on the stage, especially one guy who tried to steal band equipment. "At the end of the song, he [Lux] took the mic stand, holding it at the top, and put the base of it against the guy’s face. He held it there for several seconds (the guy couldn’t move because of the crowd pushing against the stage), then smashed the guy in the face with it, the heavy metal base of the mic stand."
Ahhhh, good times!
Che Underground site operator Rothenberg, now a resident of Maplewood, N.J., says plans are under way for a reunion concert next summer, though it won’t be held at the Ché Café.
“Everyone’s over 21 and can have a drink now.”
RELATED ARTICLES ON THE READER SITE:
The Wallflowers - Beginning in 1981, the Wallflowers became what has been described as “the most joyfully subversive band in the whole Che Underground circuit”...
Manual Scan - Later evolving into the Shambles, the mod-minded men of Manual Scan have an entire page at the Che Underground site devoted to them, chronicling their Hard Days Night-like exploits and endeavors...
A Little Town South of LA: '80s Underground San Diego - by Keith BoydI remember the 1980s in San Diego. It was a period of rapid transition in this town. The city was moving on from its “Navy Town” roots and showing the very first signs of becoming the sprawling monster it is today. While this process had certainly started it wasn’t anywhere near a done deal. San Diego still felt like a true collection of neighborhoods where you could run into the same handful of likeminded folks digging music, art or films. The problem with San Diego was that it lay in the shadow of LA.
In the '80s, the I-5 still felt like a wilderness trip from Sorrento Valley to almost Long Beach and in that space SD seemed to languish culturally. The big bands tended to either not play here or play only on off nights (to a certain extent this is still true). Add in the relatively isolated neighborhoods and the transitory nature of military families and you had a situation in which not a lot of home grown bands had truly sprung up.
The '80s saw the first true cracks in this wall. A smallish group of local youth formed bands and played house parties until there were venues (many available thanks to one Tim Mays). Once this ball was rolling things took on a life of their own and San Diego saw the first of several blossomings of great music.
Several names come to my mind; the majestic, flute driven, psych-epics of Hair Theatre, the driving hypnosis of Wei Wei T’nango and the feral tribalism of Crash Worship.
Amongst the better venues was UCSD’s Che Café. The Che always had the feeling of being for and by the kids and this combined with their left-centric ethos inspired a fierce loyalty amongst patrons. They also brought in some great touring acts from the then burgeoning Post-Punk Underground. I saw an excellent show with Spot 1019 and Camper Van Beethoven there once and it blew my mind! In order to document and reconnect this scene there is a newish website called Che Underground and it’s a great living piece of our local music heritage.
While the site primarily focuses on the specific bands who played (and the scene) at the Che, there has been a natural expansion including other related SD music acts... (CONTINUED AT www.blogsandiego.com/80's_san_diego_music.html )
ELLIOTT MURPHY & JANN KLOSE AT ACOUSTIC MUSIC SAN DIEGO TONIGHT, JAN. 13
(Hideyo Moriya) The old church hosting the Acoustic Music San Diego series seems the perfect setting for the Euro-New York poetical songs of veteran folk-rocker Elliott Murphy and newly acclaimed singer-songwriter Jann Klose.
Elliott, who hasn't played the States in eight years, is celebrating the 35th Anniversary of the release of his now-more-relevant-than-ever album AQUASHOW. His 30th and latest album is NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND. Elliott was born and raised in Garden City, New York, and has been living in France, touring internationally in Europe for the past 18 years. Artists including Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel and Phil Collins have worked on his albums.
Jann Klose, who was born in Germany, raised in Kenya and South Africa, has been living in the Bronx the past eight years, and touring domestically, and in the UK and Germany. He released his first album 10 years ago in Cleveland, where he was also an exchange student. His latest album is called REVERIE, which is being played on over 80 radio stations. In September he collaborated locally with Renaissance's lead singer Annie Haslam and keyboardist John Tout for a sold out show at the Sellersville Theater.
“Elliott and Jann have so many parallels and quite a bit in common, even though they're from different generations,” emails Anne Leighton from Murphy HQ (who I’ve known to be BS-free since the old Hit Parader dayz, so I’m all ears!)
“Their music also compliments one another. Whereas Jann has more of a Joni Mitchell/Paul Simon/Van Morrison (jazz through folk and everything in between) vibe, Elliott's got the Dylan vibe with a touch of blues and rock. And they are actually the best (or among the best) in their genres. Both can play with a full band or stripped down.”
“Both are melodic, poetic, philosophical. Elliott's got more topical style, and Jann has more of a celestial thing going.”
Elliott Murphy moved to Europe in the early '90s. Jann Klose first came to the states as an exchange student in the early '90s. “Jann moved to New York City in 2000, and that's the last year Elliott played his last gig in the States,” says Leighton, “until now.”
“It looks as though it's been 30 years since Elliott's played San Diego,” says Leighton. “Despite the fact that he's getting airplay on Mexican radio, as is Jann, he's really not been in the market. Jann is sort of in a similar boat. In 2001, he was with the touring company of Broadway's JEKYLL AND HYDE, and they totally missed Los Angeles. The furthest south he got was in Bakersfield. Last year, when he played the NAMM show, he did a gig in Dana Point -- a jam night.”
SHOWTIME: - Tuesday, January 13: Acoustic Music San Diego, 4650 Mansfield Street, at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $20 and $15. There is also dinner seating for $45. 619-303-8176
http://www.acousticmusicsandiego.com
http://www.elliottmurphy.com
http://www.jannklose.com
CANDYE KANE’S BRAS-4-SALE
A new musical based on Candye Kane's early life story, the Toughest Girl in the World, will debut in workshops at the Diversionary Theatre January 29th thru February 1st. The production includes many of her songs, with guest pianist Sue Palmer, a longtime Kane associate.
The well-endowed blues chanteuse seems comfortable with public fixation on her 44GGG size breasts (though she no longer plays piano by slapping them on the keys). On her website candyekane.com, she sells pillows made from her own bras.
"They are each guaranteed to be worn by me and no two are alike,” she says. The price? Around $300 each (per bra, not per cup), plus $20 shipping, She says she was inspired to create boob-art by fans who constantly ask to purchase her used bras and panties.
"If the fans want to take them apart to masturbate on, that's okay. But I make the pillows so beautiful that they would never want to take them apart." According to the website sales pitch, “Custom designs and lettering will also be considered. Color choices may not always be possible. It depends which bra will be leaving my underwear drawer!”
Kane says she’s gotten interest from retail stores, but that she currently recycles her undergarments on a per-order basis. A 50% deposit is required upon ordering and it takes 8 – 10 weeks to get your custom Candye Kane Therapeutic Bra Pillow.
“They are beautiful, one of a kind, conversation pieces and they are the next best thing to resting your head on my own 44GGs…they really are fun, soft, comfortable and add to the decor of any home!" She’s talking about the bras, guys - the breasts aren’t for sale or rent.
NEW VENUE DEBUTING IN SAN DIEGO....Cathryn Beeks of Listen Local emails to say "There is an AMAZING new listening room in San Diego that you'll be hearing about soon. go here for all the info you'll need for a night you won't soon forget. "
Cathryn also provides her choice for Link of the Week: "She's our scene's exposure queen, not only helping solo artists and bands get their music on t.v. every week, but actually attending our shows and becoming a fan of the music. She's high profile but down to earth and that's why we love her so. Kristen Cusato: you're the good news, baby."
As for Cathryn's own current events, she says "I'm going to be more proactive about promoting my own band, The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal. Next weekend we begin work on the new album at Berkley Sound and we have some great shows coming up. Don't miss this Friday at The Cottonwood Golf Club with Christopher Dale, Barbara Nesbitt and Citizen Band! Pretty exciting stuff happening... join The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal's mailing list and be part of the family!"
UPCOMING EVENTS WORTH A LOOK-SEE:
1/19 - New Venue! Little Italy Spaghetteria - The Cathryn Beeks Ordeal, The Jon Garner Trio and more!
1/25 - The Game at Backstage at The Bitter End. Local songwriters gather to share compositions based on a single song title. This month, the title will be "LAST PLACE." All styles and abilities (21+) welcomed. Also sets from Joe Rathburn, Barbara Nesbitt, Sven-Erik Seaholm and Citizen Band. No cover!
ListenLocalSD.com | The Calendar | FAQs | Venues and Partners |Contact
MORE CATHRYN BEEKS ON THE READER SITE: Musician Interviews (Dec. 30, 2004), Musician Interviews (April 5, 2007), Blurt (March 26, 2008), Hometown CD Review (Oct. 15, 2008)
CATHRYN BEEKS MP3S:
www.sandiegoreader.com/bands/cathryn-beeks-ordeal
*************************************************RIP HAPPY HARE, LEGENDARY LONGTIME LOCAL DJ
“Happy Hare is off the air...” Longtime local legend Happy Hare passed away on Monday, January 5. Mainly remembered for his morning DJ stint on KCBQ, he was 81. Beginning in 1955, he was an almost constant local presence, alongside such other fondly remembered characters from the Silver Age of Radio like Jim McInnes ("JM in the PM"), Shadoe Stevens, Gabriel Wisdom, Gary Allyn, etc.
“The last couple of years, we would talk radio and family over coffee/bagel at the Pt. Loma Einstein Bros,” posts DJ Chris Cantore at http://www.chriscantore.com . “Truth be told, in a weird way, Hare reminded me of my (hero) Grandpa Joe.”
“With his amazing positivity, Hare would often call my house to ‘check in,’ and share a story or two, or three, or four. My favorite, how he saved a Beatles concert in Cleveland.”
Here are a couple of wonderful rock tales Happy Hare shared with the Reader ---
4-4-56 and 4-5-56 – Elvis Presley: "This is the first time that the Hancock is going to rock and roll, while still in anchor!" The titular host of NBC's Milton Berle Show [aka Texaco Star Theater] introduced Elvis Presley to a live audience on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Hancock, docked at the Naval Station in San Diego bay. Presley's first-ever California performance included "Heartbreak Hotel" (on its way to becoming his first #1 hit) and a few others. The singer gamely acknowledged the raging controversy about his "shocking" onstage pelvic gyrations by taking part in a comedy sketch. Presley introduced Berle, dressed as Elvis (world's first Elvis impersonator?), saying "Mah twin brother, Melvin Presley." Berle/Melvin then takes credit for all the hip-wiggling, saying "I gave him his singing style - I used to drop grasshoppers down his pants."
Elvis' sexually-charged "singing style" was no joke to San Diego police, however. The next two nights, both of Presley's concerts at the San Diego Arena on 8th and Harbor Drive (aka Glacier Garden ) were sold out and police presence was heavy. Over both evenings, several young women were removed from the Arena, reportedly for "hysterical and lewd behavior." The Shore Patrol had to set up a floating blockade behind the venue, after two teen girls in their underwear and carrying soaked dresses emerged from the water to make a run for Presley's dressing room (they were caught by police and released, presumably after their garments dried). Three people were arrested.
"Some girls broke into the bathroom of Elvis's dressing room and stole the toilet seat," recalled KCBQ disc jockey Don Howard in a 1979 interview with localKicks Magazine. "His Cadillac was covered with obscene messages, and two sailors were arrested for masturbating during the show from watching the antics.... After the concert, the police arrested 12 girls running nude through the halls of the El Cortez Hotel, looking for Elvis.”
“I introduced him [to the stage],” says longtime local DJ Happy Hare Martin, “and he rushed out and sang the first chorus of Hound Dog, which I could not hear above their primal screams. Then…he began wiggling and rotating his pelvis. This is when half the girls lost control of their bladders.”
Martin had been with Elvis backstage in the hours leading up to the show. “Elvis was a blonde,” he says. “I kept his secret for many years, until I learned that he had been outed…When I entered the dressing room, I was flustered to see that the King had no clothes. He was pacing buck naked in the dressing room…Seeing me, he grabbed his gold Lamé suit and covered himself. Too late. I had caught him.”
“In contrast to his black head of hair was a golden wheat-colored tuft [down below]. Yep, he was a natural blonde, alright. ‘You ain’t gonna tell nobody, are ya?’ he asked, almost pleading. I nodded a firm no, and that was that. I later learned that Tony Curtis was his idol. He regarded Tony as the ultimate babe magnet, so he dyed his hair raven black, just like Tony's…the kid obviously did not realize that his hair could have been [turd brown], and it would not have mattered.”
Ticket sales for the two 1956 concerts (with his new backing band the Jordanaires) reportedly totaled $17,250, with 11,250 fans attending. The day after the second San Diego date -- April 6 -- Presley signed a seven-year movie deal with Paramount. Three weeks later, "Heartbreak Hotel" hit number one.
When Presley was scheduled to return to the Arena June 6, Police Chief Adam Elmer Jansen (the city's longest-serving Chief, at 14 years) had had enough. "If he puts on the same kind of show that he did last April, I'll arrest him for disorderly conduct," he was quoted saying in the Union (repeated nationwide after newswires picked up the story). "I've had enough complaints from parents to assure me that twerp is not doing the kids any good." Late in the year, the city Social Services Department held a series of hearings, to discuss whether Presley should be banned from playing in San Diego .
Presley escaped town without being arrested or banned and in fact returned years later to pack them in for three more sold-out performances, after Police Chief Jansen retired - November 15, 1970 (ticket sales 14,659), April 26, 1973 (15,050 attendees) and April 24, 1976 (17,500 attendees).
**************************************************
9-58: Ritchie Valens had two hits on the charts -- "La Bamba" and "Donna" -- when longtime local DJ Harry "Happy Hare" Martin persuaded him to perform at the 1958 opening of Clairemont High School.
“The Principal called and asked me to do something for the new kids,” Martin told me in March 2008. “I was full of myself in those days. I said ‘Sure’ and got on the phone…I took it for granted that he [Valens] knew me, and I asked him about coming down to San Diego to sing for the new school. No mention of money. He immediately said yes, no doubt thinking that anyone this audacious must be important.”
“There was no opposition from the school, all were thrilled that I could get someone with two or three songs on the Hit Parade.” When Hare picked up Valens at the airport, the rising rock star emerged from the plane with his guitar slung around his neck and carrying a small amp. “At the school, all of the students were in the yard, because they were still painting the new auditorium. Ritchie didn’t seem to mind. He sang two songs that I recall, ‘Donna’ and ‘La Bamba,’ and some other newer songs, all on the red clay, in the broiling sun, for the better part of an hour.”
“Many kids broke into impromptu dancing and that egged Ritchie on. Him playing, and them dancing and celebrating, [it was] a musical fiesta. A South L.A. Latino kid, connecting with 2,000 young Anglos…it was historic. No autographs or pictures…things were more structured in those days.”
Valens was literally on the brink of superstardom as he flew back to L.A. that evening. “If it had been a couple of months later,” says Hare, “I would have had to put him up in an expensive hotel and paid him a lot of bucks. But, that day, he was just a simple kid wanting to help.” Valens perished in the same February 1959 plane crash that also killed Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper.
**********************************************
****************************************
LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 1: JIM McINNES - THE LAST DJ - DJ Jim McInnes spent 28 years in radio before being fired for the first time a few years ago by Clear Channel/101.5 KGB FM. McInnes had spent most of disc jockey career ["And over half my life!"] at KGB, where he helped launch the Homegrown local album series....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/01/jim-mcinnes-the-last-dj
********************************************LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 2: THE O.B. RANGER RIDES AGAIN - RETURN OF A ‘70S COUNTERCULTURE HERO - “We were going after the progressive rock or the album rock crowd,” says radio DJ and programming vet Gary Allyn about his early seventies on-air gig in San Diego. “Of course O.B. was the center of the hippie movement in that period, flower power and the drug culture and all that”....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/the-ob-ranger-return-of-a-70s-counterculture-hero
LOCAL RADIO HISTORY PART 3: LOCAL JOCK SAYS HE WAS STALKED - A REAL LIFE PLAY MISTY FOR ME? - The dark side of audiological obsession formed the basis of the 1971 Clint Eastwood thriller Play Misty For Me (the actor's directorial debut). Portraying a jazz radio DJ for station KRML in Carmel California, Eastwood's character finds his life upended by a high-strung female fan who repeatedly calls his show, to request her favorite song....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/local-jock-says-he-was-stalked-a-real-life-play-me
********************************************
THE CASBAH’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY – CELEBRATE IN THE ATARI LOUNGE
The Casbah’s 20th Anniversary celebration continues – Rosey at http://www.sddialedin.com is selling merch at most shows, and she says the Anniversary shirts are selling out fast, so make sure you get there to get one, or order direct from Rosey ----
Among the many bands reuniting to play the Casbah this month are Lucy’s Fur Coat, the Dragons, Radio Wendy, Furious IV, the Answers, the Penetrators (which saw many of its members later become Beat Farmers) on Saturday January 24, Uncle Joe’s Big Ol’ Driver and Creedle (Friday January 23), and Stairway to Charo (Thursday 1-15).
The Penetrators are also rumored to be planning another reunion gig on Saturday night at a private party near Ocean Beach, on Lotus Street…..
Also worth celebrating is the oft-overlooked back room at the Casbah………
“The Atari Lounge is there so you can take a break from the band or get away from someone you don't want to talk to," says Casbah owner Tim Mays of the club's roomful of vintage video games, pinball machines, and pool tables.
"We've had games here since we first moved to this location in early 1994. The Jurassic Park and Guns N' Roses pinball machines were pretty popular for a long time. We also had a sit-down Pac-Man that was hugely popular. Someone [a Casbah customer] actually bought it from the guys who own and maintain our machines."
(brettbanducci.com)
Sandy Thomas, bassist for O.B.-based Xlent, says, "I spent a year in the Atari Lounge living in a total '80s time warp, going for the 'perfect Pac-Man.' That's surviving through 255 screens and eating every single dot, every ghost, every fruit and energizer, and never missing a single one. I reached the million-point mark five different times, but I only broke two million once. Believe it or not, that actually got me laid, and that score should add a million to my Pac-Man points." A perfect Pac-Man score is 3,333,360.
"For ten years I'd been telling people about a video game I loved as a kid called Star Castle," says Rookie Card singer/guitarist Adam Gimbel. "It was actually black and white, with colored plastic on the monitor to make the center rings red and yellow. No one believed me. When I moved back to San Diego ten years ago, there it was in the Atari Lounge."
As of this writing, the club's arcade games include Galaga, Off Road, Centipede, a Donkey Kong console that only works sporadically, and a tabletop Ms. Pac-Man nearly always stacked with the quarters of waiting players.
"I'm a Ms. Pac-Man snob," says singer-songwriter Marie Haddad. "Not just any machine will do. It has to be a sit-down table version, and it has to be fast. Sure, there are other Ms. Pac-Man's around town, but the joystick doesn't respond like the Casbah's, or it's a stand-up machine, or it's geriatric slow." She says her high score is "somewhere in the 95,000s," and her dot-gobbling prowess earns her occasional perks. "I was back there playing between sets, and a guy who'd been playing Galaga turned around to watch me...before I finished my game, he bought me a vodka tonic and called me 'the Eddie Van Halen of Ms. Pac-Man. '"
Grant Reinero of the Focus Group likes how the tabletop Ms. Pac-Man allows players to battle head-to-head. "One time I was in the Atari Lounge by myself, and I was sitting at the Ms. Pac-Man and searching my pockets for a quarter. Nothing. No change at all. In defeat, I resigned myself to just sitting there and watching the game's demo screen over and over."
"Just then, a girl's voice cut through the sludgy tones bellowing out of the main room. 'Are you gonna play?' I looked up to see a raven-like beauty in an antique dress. She pushed her hair back behind her ears and sat down at the other end of the game."
"'I don't have a quarter,' I said. She reached into the pocket of her dress and produced two quarters. 'Wanna play me?'"
"We took turns jamming the joystick in a mad frenzy. The flashing screen lit up her perfect pale features as we played. What began as a friendly game soon gave way to a ruthless power-pellet--eating contest. With my last turn I lost myself in the maze, becoming the insatiable yellow creature on the screen. The ghosts finally cornered and killed me, and I screamed out loud."
"I looked up to see her staring back at me, her chest heaving with excitement, her eyes wide with adrenaline. I told her, 'That's the best I've ever played,' and in one motion she grabbed the back of my neck, pulled my cheek to her lips, and whispered in my ear, 'Thanks for the game.' "
Two other Atari Lounge consoles are currently down, with the busted skateboarding game rumored to be replaced soon with either Space Invaders or Tempest. The Casbah's pool tables are always in good repair, and one cue-ball clash has become the stuff of local legend.
"Eddie Vedder and I played a game of pool many, many years ago," owner Mays told Bart Mendoza. "He came down one night to see Jonathan Richman…He came in incognito with a floppy brim hat and a jacket , we got to talking to him, he was a really great friendly guy, very straight forward. And there were some people hanging out in the back playing pool."
"So anyway, Eddie and I are playing pool, and I don't know how it came up, but he said 'If I win, I get your bar, if you win, you get my publishing deal.' So I thought, Okay. And he beat me pretty handily. He actually beat everybody he played that night."
"Anyway, six or eight months later I get a call from someone who said they heard on the radio that Eddie Veddar had bought the Casbah. Then I got more phone calls. Apparently, and I just found this out recently, Mike Halloran told Marco Collins [ex 91X DJ, then at Seattle radio] the story, so Marco Collins put the story out there and it got picked up. Needless to say, when Eddie comes in, we take care of him, just so he doesn't call in his note."
************************************
BEATLES ROOFTOP CONCERT RECREATED IN
On November 22, 40 years to the date since the release of the Beatles' White Album, a surprise rooftop celebration was held in Normal Heights. Announced through radio mentions on the Walrus and a few online postings, an appreciative crowd watched from the street below, as well as the parking lot across the street. Doubtless, hundreds more listened throughout the community.
This was a true guerilla show, with no permits, ads, flyers or posters. With the rooftop of Mariposa Ice Cream on Adams Avenue doubling as the Saville Row offices of Apple Records, and DJ Dave Mason making introductions, the Baja Bugs recreated the Beatles infamous rooftop concert, throwing in an extra set's worth of their tunes, while the Dave Humphries Band entertained played material from their various albums, as well as some choice covers from the Beatles' solo years.
(DJ Dave Mason popping in; and a visit from the Blue Meanies)
The crowd on the rooftop grew exponentially as the afternoon wore on – consider that the day's equipment had to be hauled up to the roof by ropes and you can see it was an effort to reach that summit, but smiles were the order of the day. Smiles were visible even on the faces of drivers on Adams Avenue who slowed or stopped to watch. Ironically while The Beatles were shut down fairly quickly by the police during their rooftop performance, in this case it took authorities several hours to arrive. However, under threat of fines and equipment confiscation, the afternoon ended, though not before a final rendition of “Get Back.” The best part about the day? Take your pick. The camaraderie of the crowd, the sing-a-longs, or maybe the neighborhood introductions made amongst those who came out to take in the music. From the mother who brought out a table and chairs from her shop to have her kids watch the bands to the elderly couple that rode up on bicycles, there was a wonderful cross section of area residents and visitors. (courtesy http://abbeyrd.best.vwh.net/news/1125upontheroof.html) *************************************
DAVE HUMPHRIES: 4-TIME APPLE REJECT!
February 1964: the Beatles taught the world to play. “Do You Wanna Know A Secret” and “Love Me Do” dominated the U.S. charts in the wake of the group’s U.S. landing. British songwriter Dave Humphries remembers it well – he was there. Humphries moved to San Diego in 1996, but at one time the native of Durham City in northeast England was known as someone on the periphery of the Beatles story and as “the man rejected by Apple Records [four times] more than anyone else alive.” Humphries’ appearance at the 2003 Beatlefair allowed him to meet and play with another figure from the Beatles’ past, Tony Sheridan, for whom the fab four played on their first-ever recording “My Bonnie,” credited to Tony Sheridan And the Silver Beetles. While Sheridan was at BeatleFair, Humphries talked him into co-writing and recording a song in Mission Hills, “38 Days,” which appears on a CD self-released by Humphries. This recording was made easier due to Sheridan’s longtime keyboard player Wolfgang Grasekamp living in La Mesa, another recent transplant to San Diego.
(Humphries with the Beatles' original recording frontman, Tony Sheridan)
Humphries also tried to get one-time Beatles drummer Pete Best to participate in the “38 Days” recording, since Best was in town at the same time for a BeatleFair. Local rumor has reported Best’s reaction to the invitation to be “Show me the money.” Pete Best’s agent reports that he’s paid $4,000 to appear anywhere and upwards of $6,000 to $10,000 if he’s to actually perform. Being booted from the Beatles seems to finally be paying off. Dave Humphries' album 38 Days earned him a nomination at the 2006 San Diego Music Awards. The disc includes two tracks featuring Tony Sheridan on guitar. His newest record, And So It Goes..., from Blindspot Records, was produced by Mike Kamoo (the Stereotypes) and Wolfgang Grasekamp at Kamoo's Earthling Studios. Kamoo makes a guest appearance on the album, as do Bart Mendoza (the Shambles), Todd Hidden (ex-Rockola member), and Tony Sheridan on 5 of the 11 tracks. The album received airplay on BBC Radio Merseyside's Juke Box Jury on March 29, 2008, in a show hosted by Spencer Leigh, documentary writer and author of the Merseybeat book Let's Go Down to the Cellar. Humphries' shares his recollection of the night John Lennon died, 28 years ago next week, on December 8, 1980: "It was just like another normal December morning in Durham, northeast England, cloudy and a little cold. I heard my dad go off to work and before long would hear my mother shout up the stairs, 'Are you getting up?' But today she didn't do that, today it was 'John Lennon has been shot.'" "A sick feeling consumed me. I didn't know how to handle this. Of course we'd had deaths in the family, but this was different, it felt as if my youth had been torn away. My hero was gone, a man whom I felt I had known personally since 1963, a man I admired, a man who together with his three mates inspired me, made me laugh out loud, made me pick up the guitar, a man murdered by a bastard with a gun. I recall the BBC showed Help! that night. I didn't watch, didn't see any of the news reports, couldn't; I don't know now how I got through the days or nights. I tried to avoid friends, couldn't discuss it -- just felt raw. It was months before I could listen to John's voice without filling up and breaking down. John, who gave so much to the world, murdered for what?" *********************************************** How I Snuck Into Around 100 Local Concerts -- Not that we advocate breaking the law, mind you -- most of these venues are long gone, and the statutes of limitations have passed, so here's what I did and how I did it. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
***********************************************
***********************************************
Turn On, Tunes In, Drop Out -- A History of Personal Music Players http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
*********************************************
*********************************************
Soundmen Sound Off -- Locals talk about the perks and perils of running the soundboard. Includes former Grateful Dead/Owsley sound guy Jimbo James, Jeff Kelley of Price of Dope and more. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
*************************************************
*************************************************
Concerts Are Making You Deaf -- The research is done and the results are in - your ears are f-ucked! An audiological overview, including interviews with locals who know a bit about ear damage. http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
**************************************************
**************************************************
Horn If You're Honky -- Musical car horns, and the honkies who love them. Can your car horn really help you pick up women? Who's buying car horns that sound like machine gun fire? Do women need No Honking Zones to feel safe on the sidewalk? http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2008/aug/21/viejas-pays-20k-to-local-cover-band-plus-casb74f5f/
****************************************
UNDERAGE SWING DANCERS
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/underage-swing-dancers-battle-local-law
**************************************
DARK METAL IN SAN DIEGO - Glorifying Satan (portrayed as an actual anthropomorphic being) is a popular motif and marketing axis for many groups, amusing rock critics as much as it horrifies the PMRC. Most of these local bands have one thing in common; using morbid narrative, death-centered ideals, and grotesque imagery as their greatest focus and priority, often (IMO) at the expense of musical form...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
**************************************
A HISTORY OF DEATH METAL - Comic strip by JAS and Kiss Comics artist Scott Pentzer...
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/28/hello-satan-dark-metal-in-san-diego
****************************************
GOTHS FOR JESUS: PASTOR DAVE'S CHRISTIAN GOTHS - From the start, Pastor Dave was interested in starting a ministry for goth kids. He saw in them a fondness for the iconography and rituals endemic to church tradition (crosses, candles, incantations, etc.), as well as great intellectual capacity, emotional depth, and spiritual yearning....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/29/goths-for-jesus-pastor-daves-christian-goths
****************************************
RACIST ROCK: DO THE WHITE THING - a History of SoCal Racist Rock - White power rock music provides the rallying call which unites racists and Nazi-inclined Skinheads who hope to develop a common culture - or at least present the appearance of one. Racist rock expouses hostile ideology, directed against non-whites, particularly anyone of Negro or Jewish descent; the lyrics are angry, nihilistic, and all about advocating intolerance, if not actual violence, against minorities....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
***************************************
CREEPY OLD GUY GOES TO A RAVE - For a tutorial in rave culture, I first read the message board archives at socal-raves. The group philosophy stresses individualism and a come-as-you-are acceptance of all who enter. However, at the parties attended by your humble-and-humbled forty-something narrator, an unmistakable dress code was evident, with certain constants seeming to be at least preferred, if not required.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/racist-rock-do-the-white-thing
***************************************
WHERE IS THE READER'S HIP-HOP COVERAGE? - “Rap isn’t synonymous with hip-hop,” I’m told by DJ EVS (real name Evan McGinnis), of the three-piece Mission Infinite. “I think KRS-One [a social/political rapper, co-founder of Boogie Down Productions] defined it best: ‘Rap is something you do, hip-hop is something you live.’ Rap is the style of how you compose your words, the rhyming and rhythm. Kind of like scat. Hip-hop is how you talk, how you wear your clothes, more of the lifestyle”.....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/aug/30/where-is-the-readers-hip-hop-coverage
********************************************STAR TREK: THE CONTINUING MISSION - INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK McCRAY - Star Trek: The Continuing Mission is a fan-made noncommercial, nonprofit enterprise, not necessarily authorized by Trek owners at Paramount, but not discouraged either. Since the demise of TV’s Star Trek: Enterprise, productions like The Continuing Mission are helping to keep the franchise alive with fresh, new stories....
http://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/bands/2007/sep/02/star-trek-the-continuing-mission-interview
Like this blog? Here are some related links:
OVERHEARD IN SAN DIEGO - Several years' worth of this comic strip, which debuted in the Reader in 1996: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/overheard-san-diego/
FAMOUS FORMER NEIGHBORS - Over 100 comic strips online, with mini-bios of famous San Diegans: http://www.sandiegoreader.com/photos/galleries/famous-former-neighbors/
SAN DIEGO READER MUSIC MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/sandiegoreadermusic
JAY ALLEN SANFORD MySpace page: http://www.myspace.com/jayallensanford
Sponsored