Erik Bluhm: The Champion of California

It was by chance that I first met Erik Bluhm. It was my first year at San Francisco State University and we both happened to be taking a stone lithography class taught by Glenn Brill.  I saw this tall, lanky, stylish guy sitting intently listening to our instructor. As soon as he drew Kiss on his stone, I knew we would become friends fast.

Erik is a warm and engaging fellow, with a smooth and sweet temperament that is nonjudgemental, gentle and kind, a rarity these days. It has been a delight and an honor to have known him for many moons. I thought I would interview Erik to accompany photographs I had taken of him on his rooftop in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco back in 1989, which have never been seen before.

To the Champion of California,

Julie Pavlowski Green
April 5, 2014

What was the first record you ever bought?

My grandpa bought me 8-tracks at Two Guys department store as a preteen-Aerosmith, Kiss, then B52s, Devo... The first vinyl record I can remember buying myself with my allowance was Rodney on the Roq Vol. 1

What was the psych scene like in Southern California in the 80’s?

It seemed like 30-40 people that went to the Rave Up and then the Cavern club on Saturday nights to get drunk in the alley and see bands upstairs. They came from all over L.A. Most were in high school it seemed or just out. Before we found that we would go and see the Rain Parade or Wednesday Week or the Leaving Trains play at the Music Machine or somewhere. Those people seemed way older than us though.

Were The Primates the first band you were ever in?

         

Pretty much. We went through a couple incarnations, a kind of wannabe Paisley Underground band called the Melancholy Carrys in like '83. We weren't good enough to be like the Dream Syndicate so we did mostly covers, Stooges, Flamin' Groovies, Blues Magoos, Seeds... stuff we could learn easily. We got focused and learned songs off garage comps then became the Untamed, and then The Primates in 1984. Brett Miller and Ted Edlefsen got Vox guitars and Jeff McDonald gave Ted his old Twin Reverb. The three of us have been the consistent members more or less with different drummers, mostly Brian Corrigan but then later Eric from Threw the Looking Glass and Gene from The Miracle Workers.

You were born and raised in Manhattan Beach. Did you ever surf?

Not really. I went bodysurfing and boogieing tons when I was younger, junior lifeguards and all that,  but I by the time I was a teenager I was more into music than surfing. I started in earnest when I was 30!

You moved from Manhattan Beach to go to school at San Francisco State. What prompted you to move to Northern California?

The Primates went and played at The Mab and On Broadway in 86 and I met Christof Certik, winemaker Carl Sutton, and Jefferson Parker and his then girlfriend Fern. We really hit it off and SF seemed so free and loose. It was really really cheap back then too. I'd also met Russell Quan, Bart Davenport, etc.from the Horseless Headmen at the Cavern and Blag from The Dwarves so I knew a few people up there. The Primates had sort of run their course. I wanted to be in a Jefferson Airplane style band and wear my fringe suede coat! So I transferred from LMU to SFSU in 1987.

San Francisco in the late 80's early 90’s, you were in two bands, the seminal rock band Dope and mystical Broom. Tell us about the music and the players, and how they reflected both sides of your personality

It was mostly the 80's, I moved back to LA in 93, so I moved up to SF and lived in the dorms at State. The Airplane idea faded when my fringe jacket and all my clothes got stolen out of my parent's car when they moved me up there. Jefferson was jamming with Tod Preuss who was also in Helios Creed and this guy Andrew and sometimes Margaret on bass. I started singing with them and we did like Radio Birdman kind of stuff. Then we got Christof and Emil and got really into Amon Duul II, Guru Guru, Budgie, Hawkwind and heavy stuff like that. We started getting clothes from Buzz's shop New Government on Haight St. It was sort of a New York Dolls meets La Dusseldorf look. Sofia LaMar and Jorgee Douglass were our dancers sometimes, like Stacia from Hawkwind. Nobody was doing anything like that at the time really. We played with Loop, Celebrity Skin, Soundgarden, Mudhoney, The Imperial Butt Wizards. Sub Pop wanted to do a record but we said no because we didn't like the bands on that label. We thought they didn't have good style!

Dope broke up by about 1990 because Jefferson and I got interested in the occult and then our drummer Tod lost his finger. It freaked Christof out so he quit. We got Steve Brown (who was in The Imperial Butt Wizards in LA but had just moved to San Jose to go to school) to replace him briefly and then the legendary Space Dave on drums. It became El Dopo which was more Ashra Tempel-ish but that didn't last long. 

Soon after that Roxanne Rodriguez, John Henry, Jeff Davies, and I put together a one off band called the Planet of the Hairdo Apes. Jeff taught me how to play bass and we played at The Peacock Lounge (with Cameltoe). Then Steve Brown and I started writing songs for our new group called Broom. It was like a mix of Section 25, Faust, Crispy Ambulance, Neu! and bubblegum! We got Roxanne and this girl Christina from France and we had many drummers over the 2-3 years of our existence-Shannon Handy, Lara Allen, Tom Marzella, Jefferson Parker, Paul Hoaglin. That was my favorite band I was ever in. Steve Brown is a genius and we had a lot of fun writing songs and working on the concept. We did a couple 45s and played all over SF and Chico. I moved back to LA in 93 and Steve kept broom going with Pat Lambelet (who's tried out for Dope early on and then joined Enrique) and Jodene Setera for a while.

Your bother Tim sings and plays guitar in The Mother Hips. Do you think you influenced his direction in music?

Yeah, I used to make him listen to Black Flag and X and The Adolescents and stuff when he was really young. He even played drums for the Melancholy Carrys when he was like 13. He took to guitar a little later and really got serious about music. I continually fed him stuff to listen to and he and Hips guitarist Greg Loiacono ate it up, especially Gene Clark and Buffalo Springfield and later Everly Brothers and things like that.

Are you involved with the Hipnic folk rock festival series up in Big Sur?

              

No, I DJed there last year a little bit. My brother and Britt Govea from Folk Yeah! do that.

Tells us about your passion for California folk rock music. How did that evolve? Who were the first groups you were turned on by?

          

In high school, after punk ended, Ted Edlefsen and I started listening to garage music a lot for a couple years. Later I began to prefer the jangly stuff like the Byrds, The WC Fields Memorial String Band, the Bees,  and their contemporaries. When I started collecting 45s I just kept finding more and more gems.

What was your impetus to you start your magazine “Great God Pan: The Champion of California” and where did it lead you to?

I grew up with Mark Sundeen and he ended up at Stanford studying writing. I was into music and I'd enjoyed 60s zines like Audrey Moorhead's Hey Little Bird. I also got into these 60s California guide books by Russ Leadabrand. Mark had good stories he was writing and I thought we could put these three things together. Our friend Tommy! started his own zine so we copied him. The first couple issues were Xeroxed and just a few pages. Ten years later we were a perfect-bound magazine with a big circulation. It ended with issue 14 which was the result of a residency with the Center for Land Use Interpretation. Mark is now a successful novelist.

Have you ever been a part of a cult?

No, I'm not really a joiner. Maybe if the right one came around. I've had good experiences with The Source Family people I know and Rajnessh people too. I've collected a large amount of Rajneesh related ephemera. Someday I'll show it off!

Nature is a big backdrop in your life. What are some of your favorite spots in California?

I had lots of good times in the desert as a young man. Big Sur too and up and down the coast. Nowadays it's mostly the High Sierra.

Are you playing in a band these days? If not, do you think you will ever participate in live musical performances again?

I'm part of a performance group called the West Coast New Energy Encounter Group. We've played at museums and art-related things. When I moved back to LA I started an instrumental garage/surf group called Bookmobile and we did some records, then I sang for a hardcore punk band called the Fishsticks briefly. Then I played with Tom Watson from Slovenly for a couple years. We recored a record with Mayo Thompson of the Red Krayola and Brian MacMahon from Slint but it never came out. Then Tom joined Mike Watt's band and we started the NEEG. It's pretty sporadic these days.

Your amazing online radio program “West Coast Fog” on Luxuria Music Radio seems like a natural progression helping you to present the music and the time period that you love. Do you do a lot of research on each band you present and/or are you culling the information from your own personal library?

Once I realized I had a lot of CAlifornia 45s (like 1000s!) I approached Chuck Kelly who was the director then. He like what I played him and gave me a show. Sometimes I wonder how long I can only play California music but I haven't run out of ideas yet. I do extra research if I'm presenting a theme, otherwise I just know a lot of people around the world who know a lot about that kind of stuff and we discuss it in groups and conversations, then track down original players if possible. I've published some of that stuff in Ugly Things and am working on a website westcoastfog.com that's sort of like what Cream Puff War was doing back in the early 90s, interviewing obscurish bands and telling their story.

What fascinates you most about California's history?

All history is fascinating but California's seems to resonate globally. What happens here seems to influence the whole world. All the brightest minds seem to end up here.