Baynewser.com’s Jason Turbow has a terrific story about a former Chronicle writer, Delfin Vigil, whose band recorded an album in the basement of the newspaper at 5th and Mission streets. Writes Turbow:

It wasn’t so much a company-sanctioned setup as it was that Vigil, looking for a quiet place to work amid the ongoing turmoil, discovered in the basement a back room (used to store book-review books) so isolated that one had to pass through another back room (used to store newspapers) to get to it. Nearby was a bevy of abandoned printing presses and vast rooms used mainly for storing long-forgotten detritus. A perfect place to record rock ‘n’ roll, soundproofing included. 

Vigil soon took it upon himself to secret bandmates and instruments into the building on nights and weekends for sessions. His only audience: a janitor, a security guard and book-review editor Oscar Villalon, who happily relinquished sole deed to the space.

Villalon’s editor, Joe Brown, was apparently pleased with the band recording in the Chron building, but another editor kicked the musicians out, Baynewser reports.

Vigil’s band, Amores Vigilantes, will release the album recorded in the Chron’s basement, “West Coast Kingdom,” on Dec. 8. The band will be playing in San Francisco at Cafe du Nord on Dec. 17.