SAN FRANCISCO PUNK: Subterranean Postmodern

Carol Detweiler and Judy Gittelsohn

Writing about the Subterranean Records label reignited my obsession with San Francisco punk and post-punk. Now it comes full circle with an imaginative exercise: records by Bay Area artists that could have found a home on Steve Tupper and Mike Fox's label.

This mix includes Pink Section, Noh Mercy, Factrix, Ki Di Me, Ixna, Psyclones, Arsenal,  and more. The download includes liner notes (forgive me) that attempt to connect the dots between the folks involved in these records: people like Dan Houser, Matt Heckert, Jed Speare, Tommy Tadlock, Cole Palme, Monte Cazazza, Jo Jo Planteen, Carol Detweiler and Judy Gittelsohn.

Thanks to my main man Nathan Nothin for Eazy Teeth and the Good Samaritans, and to Stadtführer AJ, who shared a well-worn copy of Earcom 3 on his blog. A kind reader send me the Dada-Pop EP by Dennis C. Lee And The Living Daylights. Thank you, JB! "White Heat" is a tasty jam.

If you grabbed last month's SF Hardcore mix, please replace it with this one. An eagle-eared reader named New York Shitty helpfully pointed out that it was missing two tracks.

Subterranean Miscellanea: Arkansaw Man

Patrick LoVullo and Stephen Clarke (trombonist unknown). Photo: Jeanne Hansen

Arkansaw Man was a trio that was part of the SF scene at Club Foot and The Sound Of Music clubs. Arkansaw Man's discography is limited to a single on Subterranean Records; an EP on Club Foot founder Richard Kelly's Modern Masters label; and two compilation tracks (one of which I can't find: an Epitapes cassette called The Beauty Of The Warning).

Arkansaw Man was led by guitarist Stephen Bartholomew Clarke.  He and bassist Patrick LoVullo also played trumpet. Arkansaw Man drummer Glenn Sorvisto had played in Houston punk band The Hates. In the 90's he was part of the Oakland improv scene and drummed for a trio called Happy New Year. Sorvisto died in 2012.

According to Tom Mallon's recording discography, Stephen Clarke played on a 1983 demo by The American Music Club.  He also played on Phantom Limbs' second album (released in 1986). Clarke was later in the groups Servants Of The Public Wheel, Critical Chip, Pluto, and Can vocalist Malcolm Mooney's Tenth Planet. Here is a video of Clarke and other Pluto members performing with Malcolm Mooney in 2010.

Clarke has released two albums of solo acoustic guitar: 2005's Roots N Hubris and 2012's Tomorrow's Train. He has a Youtube channel with videos of several unreleased Arkansaw Man songs that were recorded with Mallon in 1983.

Ten years ago, a Table Of The Elements offshoot label called Radium reissued Arkansaw Man's 1982 EP. From the sleeve notes: "With a brilliant economy of means and a sparseness reminiscent of dub, the band got an amazing jump start on the whole post-Slint, post-Gastr, post-Rock thing." On the EP's first track, "The Ballroom Song", members of the Club Foot Orchestra and a SF quintet called The Varve guest on saxes, trombone, and clarinet.  

LoVullo, Clarke, and Sorvisto (photo by Jeanne Hansen)

Subterranean Miscellanea: Wounds

Paul Casteel (photo by Rebecca G. Wilson)

Wounds (sometimes spelled Woundz) formed after Paul Casteel and Chris Coon split from the early SF punk band (Impatient) Youth.  Paul played bass in (Impatient) Youth, but became the singer for Wounds.  Chris Coon (drums) also played briefly with SF trio No Alternative. Wounds self-released a 12" EP in 1981 (with now famous producer David Kahne). Wounds also appeared on Let Them Eat Jellybeans, the Eastern Front live LP, and Subterranean's Red Spot comp. 

Another SF band called Tanks made a 1981 single "Bongo Congo" b/w "March Of The Slugs". The b-side was cowritten by Casteel and Wounds flautist Susy Delkman. Casteel and Tanks guitarist Susan Miller were also on the Bruce Lose single. Susan Miller later played with Bad Posture and Frightwig. Tanks' bassist and drummer joined Pop-O-Pies -- more Subterranean connections!

Black Athletes
(photo by Jennifer Patterson)

Paul Casteel later formed SF bands Black Athlete (who appeared on Thrasher Magazine's first Skate Rock tape), House Of Wheels (Skate Rock #6), and Touch Me Hooker (with Jimmy from Crucifix Tony Guerrero from Free Beer). Casteel was one of the first skaters on Jak's Team (along with Johnathan Henrickson from the Toiling Midgets). In 2007, Casteel sang with No Politics at a benefit for Mabuhay Gardens' owner Ness Aquino. No Politics was a one-off SF "supergroup" that included East Bay Ray (DK's), Steve DePace (Negative Trend, Flipper), Dave Chavez (Sick Pleasure, Code Of Honor, Verbal Abuse), and Bruno de Smartass (Red Asphalt, Sluglords, Bad Posture, Flipper). In 2008, Casteel sang with the reunited Negative Trend (DePace, Craig Gray, and Paul Hood). 

In the late 1970's -- while Casteel and Chris Coon were in (Impatient) Youth -- Negative Trend and The Sleepers spawned Flipper and the Toiling Midgets. Steve DePace and Will Shatter (both of Negative Trend) formed Flipper with Ricky Williams (Sleepers) and Ted Falconi (whose band SST made a 1978 EP produced by Tommy Tadlock!) Flipper soon replaced Ricky Williams with Bruce Loose. Tim Mooney (Sleepers) and Craig Gray (Negative Trend) formed Toiling Midgets with Paul Hood and Johnathan Henrickson, and Ricky Williams joined as singer.

Anyway, back to Wounds...  Wounds was Casteel (vocals), Chris Coon (drums), Susy Deikman (flute), Anthony Fisher (guitar), and Jay Lehman (bass). The four song self-titled EP is my rip, and I added the tracks from Red Spot and Eastern Front, plus the Black Athletes song from Thrasher's Skate Rock tape. The latter four songs were recorded by Tom Mallon (bassist in Toiling Midgets, American Music Club and the final lineup of Negative Trend). Tom Mallon recorded many SF punk records for Subterranean and other labels). He died in 2014. You can peruse Mallon's incredible list of recording credits here (which include the first Wounds demo, possibly the source of the Red Spot songs).

Wounds (photo by Chester Simpson)

Subterranean Singles: Third Part Of Three

Will Shatter
(photo by Bruce Conner)

Imagine if Dangerhouse, Slash, and LAFMS had all been one label.  Throw in Happy Squid and Independent Project.  That is essentially what Subterranean Records was for San Francisco in the 1980's and early 90's. 

The definitive history of the SF scene in the 80's is yet to be written. Gimme Something Better is an excellent book, but it's both too much and not enough. By covering two decades, it moves quickly "from the Fab Mab to Gilman Street" and I'd love to read more about the former and less about the latter. If someone like Joe Carducci, Jon Savage or V.Vale would excavate Steve Tupper's Subterranean warehouse and catalog its contents -- that's a book I'd pay good money to read.

Monte Cazazza

In 1982, Subterranean went big with the album Generic Flipper. Flipper was a band that both made money and cost money for the label. Read this MRR interview for details. Another big release from '82 was the Chrome Box.  The duo of Damon Edge and Helios Creed added the rhythm section of John and Hilary Stench (aka John and Hilary Hanes), who were former members of SF's Pearl Harbor And The Explosions.  After Damon split for Europe, Helios released two solo albums on Subterranean. Damon Edge died in 1995. Helios Creed is touring in 2018 with a new lineup of Chrome.

Mike Fox
(photo by Jeanne Hansen)

Subterranean co-founder Mike Fox formed Code Of Honor with members of Sick Pleasure and Society Dog. Code Of Honor made a split LP with Sick Pleasure, and an LP of its own, Beware The Savage Jaw. The nihilistic Sick Pleasure was the flip side of Code Of Honor's worldview, but shared the same rhythm section and guitarist (Fox). Code Of Honor singer Johnithin Christ died in 2009. Sick Pleasure frontman Nicki Sicki is still singing for Texas hardcore band Verbal Abuse.

Tana Emmolo-Smith
(photo by Jim Jocoy)

Monte Cazazza and members of Factrix participated on Tana Emmolo-Smith's "Prescient Dreams" (which features excerpts from the diaries of Exene's late sister Mirielle Cervenka). Joseph T. Jacobs of Factrix performed the b-side, "Zanoni".  (Jacobs also played in Bay Of Pigs. Cazazza cowrote the b-side of The Leather Nun's "Prime Mover" single.) 

Monte Cazazza has recently performed as part of a theremin duo with Mary St. Meri (singer of The Housecoat Project, and mother of two with Bruce Lose of Flipper.) The 1978 debut EP by Negative Trend (with Will Shatter and Steve DePace of Flipper) was reissued in 1983 on Subterranean.

Patrick Miller aka Minimal Man

Minimal Man (aka Patrick Miller) was an early Deaf Club performer, and collaborated with members of Tuxedomoon and Factrix. Subterranean put out the debut Minimal Man album and a single before Miller followed the members of Tuxedomoon by relocating from San Francisco to Belgium. Patrick Miller died in 2003. 

Stephen of Arkansaw Man
(photo by Jeanne Hansen)

Arkansaw Man was a trio that released one single on Subterranean and an EP on Modern Masters, a label run by Richard Kelly. Kelly (who studied with John Cage) co-founded the Club Foot in San Francisco, and produced several early Subterranean releases. Richard Kelly died in 1983, but his brainchild lives on in the music of The Club Foot Orchestra.

Richard Kelly
Club Foot co-founder

After 1983, Subterranean's catalog was all albums (with the exception of two oddities from 1985 and 1987 and a 1990 Flipper single.) Subterranean released LP's by Frightwig, Pop-O-Pies, Longshoremen, Polkacide, Any Three Initials, Controlled Bleeding, Psyclones, Caroliner, and The Housecoat Project. The label got into folk music with The Muskrats, The Terminators of Endearment, Penelope Houston, and Kathleen Yearwood. They reissued records from Japan (Angel'in Heavy Syrup) Switzerland (The Monsters), and England (Low Flying Aircraft) as well as the Dry Lungs series of noise compilations. The label has essentially been dormant since the late 1990's. 

Z'ev in performance

I can't forget to mention Stefan Weisser (aka Z'ev and Uns).  His discography on Subterranean includes an EP (SUB 14), an LP (SUB 30), a cassette box set (SUB 29) and an appearance on the Live At Target compilation. He was also part of the 1980's SF group Rhythm & Noise with Naut Humon and Diamanda Galas. Weisser performed with Glenn Branca, Keiji Haino, KK Null, Stephen O'Malley, Psychic TV, Lydia Lunch, Boyd Rice, Faust, Chris Watson (Cabaret Voltaire) and many others. Stefan Weisser died in December 2017. 

Subterranean Singles: Second Serving

1981 was an amazing year for Subterranean Records.  It started with the first Flipper single (SUB 7) and ended with The Dead Kennedys' "Nazi Punks" single (SUB 24). In between was the Red Spot compilation, the Witch Trials EP and albums by Minimal Man and Nervous Gender. Subterranean co-released records with Alternative Tentacles, Thermidor, and World Imitation Records (Monitor's label).

Subterranean also opened its doors to artists from outside the Bay Area. Tucson was the home of Les Seldoms, the Jr. Chemists, and Pre Fix (as well as the Meat Puppets, who first appeared on Monitor's album).  JFA's guitarist Mike Cornelius played with the Jr. Chemists; Les Seldoms shared members with the band Jacket Weather. The Arizona Disease EP influenced Beat Happening, Some Velvet Sidewalk and their ilk.

Ultrasheen was a SF combo that included members of The Mutants and Romeo Void. This interview details Ultrasheen's links to the Club Foot scene, which included Subterranean artists Bay Of Pigs, The Inflatable Boy Clams, Longshoremen, The Alterboys, Arkansaw Man, and Jed Speare (who appeared on Red Spot with Eazy Teeth and Research Library). Subterranean's website has a a free download of the Club Foot compilation LP!

Carol Detweiler and Judy Gittlesohn (pictured above) were in Pink Section, The Inflatable Boy Clams, and Longshoremen. (Photo by Ruby Ray, from her book From The Edge Of The World.) Tommy Tadlock was a producer as well as a performer. His credits include Tuxedomoon, Pink Section, Noh Mercy and Pre Fix. Wilma was a group led by K.D. Davis and Louise Deidrich; after their 1981 EP, they released a self-titled LP on Subterranean in 1985.

Superior Viaduct has reissued recordings by many San Francisco artists: The Avengers, Black Humor, Crime, Factrix, Flipper, The German Shepherds, Monitor, MX-80 Sound, Negative Trend, Noh Mercy, Pink Section, The Residents, The Sleepers, and Tuxedomoon. Superior Viaduct also published the aforementioned book of Ruby Ray's photographs.  

Subterranean Singles: San Francisco Underground

Subterranean Records was a San Francisco label started in 1979 by Steve Tupper and Michael Fox, who bonded over a shared love for The Screamers and Negative Trend and a mutual desire to document the local music scene.  

SF was known for The Avengers, Nuns, Crime, Mutants, and Dead Kennedys. But there were many lesser known artists performing at clubs like Mabuhay Gardens, the Sound Of Music, the Temple, the Savoy, Club Foot, and the Deaf Club; as well as multimedia performances at Survival Research Laboratories and Target Video.  

Subterranean showcased not only punk bands but also industrial/noise artists like Factrix, Z'ev, and Monte Cazazza; the synthpunk of Nervous Gender and Minimal Man; and the garage rock of The Jars. In interviews, Tupper said that Subterranean wanted to provide a street level alternative to the commercial aspirations of labels like 415.

Mike Fox produced the early Subterranean releases in his home studio. He was a talented guitarist who led The Tools, played with Sick Pleasure, and formed Code Of Honor with Johnithin Christ from Society Dog.