East Bay

Although Berkeley and Oakland rarely top most travelers’ lists, many San Francisco visitors find some reason (politically charged history, an internationally renowned university, Gold Rush relics, a less-touristy Chinatown) to cross the bay. Music enthusiasts, in particular, will probably head straight for two record emporiums on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, while punk devotees might make a pilgrimage to 924 Gilman Street, the early Berkeley home of East Bay bands such as Rancid, AFI, Green Day, Operation Ivy, and the Mr. T Experience (whose lead singer/guitarist Frank Portman penned critically acclaimed King Dork in 2006). (To read about Gilman’s colorful past, check out the book 924 Gilman: The Story So Far.)

A decade before Green Day’s mainstream success in the mid-1990s catapulted the East Bay punk scene into the international spotlight, and several years before Lookout! Records began releasing poppy punk platters, hardcore acts from Berkeley (Fang, Special Forces), Emeryville (Christ on Parade), and other East Bay enclaves ravaged venues such as Ruthie’s Inn, Berkeley Square, the Stone, and even UC Berkeley co-ops (Barrington Hall, Chateau). Labels such as Boner Records pressed vinyl goods by Verbal Abuse, Fang, Melvins, and MDC. Cometbus, Absolutely Zippo, and other ’zines chronicled the action. Maximum Rocknroll, in fact, was born in Berkeley, a newsprint offshoot of the punk radio show broadcast from non-commercial station KPFA; its first issue appeared as a booklet in the compilation Not So Quiet on the Western Front put out by Alternative Tentacles.

But the East Bay had been complementing, if not supporting, San Francisco’s burgeoning scene since the mid-’70s. Rather than compete for bands and venues, the East and West bays conspired and grew together. Berkeley’s Rather Ripped Records, which predated Aquarius Records in San Francisco by several years, was the Bay Area’s premier outlet for new underground sounds. Berkeley clubs such as the Longbranch, La Salamandra, and Aietos hosted Bay Area bands like Crime, the Avengers, the Seizures, and the Street Punks, and extended their welcome to national and international punk/new wave acts. Deejay Terry Hammer at UC Berkeley’s radio station, KALX, recorded numerous live shows and helped Dirk Dirksen produce The Fab Mab Live for radio syndication. In the late ’70s, Subterranean Records released records by Flipper, No Alternative, Society Dog, and the Tools.


The Rockin' Modern Neon Sound
In the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s, blues, jazz, soul, and R&B artists such as Big Joe Turner, Big Mama Thornton, and Aretha Franklin flocked to lively Seventh Street in West Oakland, where they’d set souls afire at Slim Jenkins’ Place, Esther's Orbit Room, the 49er Club, or one of the dozens of other clubs in the neighborhood. In 1960, Arhoolie Records out of El Cerrito released 250 copies of Mance Lipscomb’s album Texas Sharecropper and Songster. The label was formed by a fan of blues, roots, and rock music of all stripes and carries on to this day.

The notoriety of the Beatles and the Stones in the early to mid-’60s inspired restless East Bay teens to hole up in their parents’ garages, learn a few chords, and even record a few songs. Their earnest efforts can be heard on You Got Yours: East Bay Garage 1965-1967 (Bruce Tahsler's self-published book, Garage Bands From the ’60s Then and Now: The San Francisco East Bay Scene, dishes up additional details). Despite their enthusiasm, the garage bands and their recordings didn’t venture far from home. On the other hand, Creedence Clearwater Revival, formed in sleepy El Cerrito in the late ’60s, cranked out rootsy rock that was hailed by legends such as Ike and Tina Turner. Around the same time, Vallejo’s Sly & the Family Stone were developing their influential brand of soul and funk while Oakland’s Tower of Power began delivering soul hits. Beserkley Records set up shop in 1973, putting out Jonathan Richman’s post–Modern Lovers’ single “Roadrunner” as well as Earth Quake’s rendition of “Friday on My Mind.” The label would eventually be most associated with Berkeley power-pop sensations The Rubinoos.

Despite an explosion of genres in rock music alone over the years, the East Bay still manages to accommodate all of them with its smattering of venues. Oakland relies on a small number of clubs, galleries, and warehouses, and Berkeley has 924 Gilman Street, the Never-Never Land of punk. With a current crop of bands such as the Rock n Roll Adventure Kids, the Pets, the Bobbyteens, and the Phenomenauts, there’s no denying that the East Bay continues to generate a big blast of that rockin’ modern neon sound.




***Thanks to Greg Langston and Barrie Evans for their invaluable input.