Framework was a garage rock band founded by former members of the Orfuns (Carl Spiron and Jerry McCann) and the Centaurs (Dan Orlando, etc.), whose members attended Coronado High School before becoming the house band at North Island's Downwind Club. McCann's legal troubles reportedly had a hand in the Orfuns splitting.
Framework was part of the same local scene that included groups like the Man-Dells, who basically evolved into the Other Four, and then the Brain Police. "Dan Orlando's band name before Framework was Linda and the Centaurs," recalls David Randle of the Brain Police, "and I dated Linda, so we were all really pretty connected."
While being fronted by singer/guitarist Jerry McCann (previously with National Debt and, while still in high school, the Tridents), Framework was managed by KB Artists, which also handled local contemporaries the Brain Police. The original five-piece version of Framework recorded two songs at Sunset Sound in Los Angeles, “Iron Door” and “Funny Kind Of Sunshine,” that were only released via radio station acetates.
Although only 500 copies were pressed of the 1968 Framework single "I'm Gonna Move," it went on to become considered a garage rock classic. In late 1968, Spiron and McCann formed a new trio version of Framework with singer/bassist Terry Fann. Over the course of its short life, Framework opened for many touring headliners, including the Byrds, Poco, Santana, Frank Zappa, the Moody Blues, the Grateful Dead, Country Joe & the Fish, and the Steve Miller Blues Band, including many events hosted by KGB-FM, which played their music often.
Rick Randle of the Brain Police joined Framework shortly before they broke up, also forming a duo with Framework/Orfuns drummer Carl Spiron that played live but never recorded. That duo was joined in 1969 by Brain Police singer/bassist Norman Lombardo in a group called the Dry Creek Road Band that recorded at least one demo.
Framework released one darkly psychedelic single called “The Direction.” Over thirty years later, Rockadelic Records collected enough unreleased material to release a two-disc vinyl compilation called Skeleton (2001) that included the original radio acetates and other rare recordings dating from 1967 through 1969. A later two-CD edition of Skeleton included two more bonus tracks.
Clark Faville of Rockadelic told the Reader how he tracked down band members, obtaining unissued 45s and other material. “I ran ads looking for the bass player for three years before he finally called me. He’d been kind of a transient, moving around a lot. He only had one tape, but it was an hour long reel-to-reel concert recording. I couldn’t believe it. Perfect sound quality.”
After Framework split on New Year's Eve 1970, Jerry McCann moved to San Francisco in 1971 and recorded an album for Elektra with a band called Show of Hands (aka Formerly Anthrax) with two members of McCann's shortlived pre-Framework band, National Debt. Interestingly, Framework had once been booked on a San Diego bill with Anthrax for New Year's Eve 1968-1969, to open for Fleetwood Mac at the UCSD Gym (locals Penrod were also slated to play). McCann reportedly brought at least two Framework songs to his tenure with Show Of Hands/Anthrax.
Within a few years, by the late '70s, McCann was back in San Diego playing with groups like Nova and his own Jerry McCann Band. Framework drummer Carl Spiron was later in the Descendants. The Centaurs reunited in 2014 (minus the late Rick Thomas) to play the Coronado High School 50th Reunion, Class Of 1964. Dan Orlando moved to Guam in the early 1970s, where his wife worked at a continuing education school.