Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Capitol of cool

Bill Perrine wishes he had gotten out more: “Perhaps...this film is penance.” - Image by Jonathan Bewley
Bill Perrine wishes he had gotten out more: “Perhaps...this film is penance.”

Once upon a time, San Diego was poised to conquer its supposed inferiority complex (thanks, L.A.) via an explosive music scene that had onlookers proclaiming America’s Finest City as “the next Seattle.”

Nothing ever really came of that, or — if it did — it didn’t look the way the next Seattle was supposed to: spackled on the cover of Rolling Stone, selling out arenas across the country, and going multiplatinum on major labels.

Now, local filmmaker Bill Perrine of Billingsgate Media is collaborating with musicians, promoters, and club owners to explore the soul of the San Diego sound.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“I’m pretty suspicious of nostalgia, but cultural history is something I can get behind,” says Perrine, producer of It’s Gonna Blow!!! — San Diego’s Music Underground 1986–1996.

Rock doc features interviews with artists of the “next Seattle” era.

“The early ’90s was a very specific and pivotal time for ‘underground’ music and for San Diego, a provincial town slowly becoming a city. There were some extraordinarily weird and innovative bands operating in a kind of cultural dead zone, but, because of that, all these really diverse musicians and artists had to band together to create and support each other. There weren’t a lot of options. That fostered a really creative scene that was almost completely untainted by commercial considerations. So, when the record labels came to town and San Diego was pegged as the next ‘capital of cool’ and ‘the next Seattle,’ most musicians were pretty unprepared for it.”

Perrine cites bands such as Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt, Tanner, Crash Worship, Heroin, Trumans Water, and Three Mile Pilot as key acts from this era.

“I loved a lot of these bands when they were active — bought their records, saw them live — but if I could go back in time, I would go to ten times the number of shows. It was a pretty astonishing confluence of creative energy. I go to shows quite a bit now, but back then I was far lazier and hermetic than I had any right to be. Perhaps making this film is penance for all the stuff I missed the first time around.”

Set to be released next spring, the documentary features archival footage and interviews with members of No Knife, the Locust, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, and many others.

“If anything surprised me in making this documentary,” Perrine concludes, “it’s how nice and supportive everybody is. There’s not a lot of bitterness or regret. They just love their friends and love playing music.”

Visit facebook.com/sdmusicdoc to follow the project or contribute footage.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Seals hook up with Beaver

Salty’s Escape is a Mexican-Style cerveza brewed with corn and puffed Jasmine rice
Bill Perrine wishes he had gotten out more: “Perhaps...this film is penance.” - Image by Jonathan Bewley
Bill Perrine wishes he had gotten out more: “Perhaps...this film is penance.”

Once upon a time, San Diego was poised to conquer its supposed inferiority complex (thanks, L.A.) via an explosive music scene that had onlookers proclaiming America’s Finest City as “the next Seattle.”

Nothing ever really came of that, or — if it did — it didn’t look the way the next Seattle was supposed to: spackled on the cover of Rolling Stone, selling out arenas across the country, and going multiplatinum on major labels.

Now, local filmmaker Bill Perrine of Billingsgate Media is collaborating with musicians, promoters, and club owners to explore the soul of the San Diego sound.

Sponsored
Sponsored

“I’m pretty suspicious of nostalgia, but cultural history is something I can get behind,” says Perrine, producer of It’s Gonna Blow!!! — San Diego’s Music Underground 1986–1996.

Rock doc features interviews with artists of the “next Seattle” era.

“The early ’90s was a very specific and pivotal time for ‘underground’ music and for San Diego, a provincial town slowly becoming a city. There were some extraordinarily weird and innovative bands operating in a kind of cultural dead zone, but, because of that, all these really diverse musicians and artists had to band together to create and support each other. There weren’t a lot of options. That fostered a really creative scene that was almost completely untainted by commercial considerations. So, when the record labels came to town and San Diego was pegged as the next ‘capital of cool’ and ‘the next Seattle,’ most musicians were pretty unprepared for it.”

Perrine cites bands such as Drive Like Jehu, Rocket from the Crypt, Tanner, Crash Worship, Heroin, Trumans Water, and Three Mile Pilot as key acts from this era.

“I loved a lot of these bands when they were active — bought their records, saw them live — but if I could go back in time, I would go to ten times the number of shows. It was a pretty astonishing confluence of creative energy. I go to shows quite a bit now, but back then I was far lazier and hermetic than I had any right to be. Perhaps making this film is penance for all the stuff I missed the first time around.”

Set to be released next spring, the documentary features archival footage and interviews with members of No Knife, the Locust, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, and many others.

“If anything surprised me in making this documentary,” Perrine concludes, “it’s how nice and supportive everybody is. There’s not a lot of bitterness or regret. They just love their friends and love playing music.”

Visit facebook.com/sdmusicdoc to follow the project or contribute footage.

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Navy solves San Diego homeless crisis by retiring four locally moored ships

Decommision Accomplished
Next Article

March is typically windy, Sage scents in the foothills

Butterflies may cross the county
Comments
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 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
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.