Sun City Girls: classic or dud?

Most Girls fans will tell you to start with "Torch of the Mystics" 1988?), mainly because it is their most accessible, and it's also (I think) the easiest one to find these days. If you like Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, Trumans Water, Climax Golden Twins, Amon Duul II circa Phallus Dei, Yeti, Tanz Der Lemminge, early Butthole Surfers, et al, this record will feel at home.

"Horse Cock Phepner" (1987), if you don't mind vulgar, is up there too, though that one is harder to find.

Others can vary, depending on what you mind and don't mind..."BRight Surroundings Dark Beginnings" is great if you don't mind swarthy 20+ minute epics. "Valentines From Matahari" is good, if you don't mind walkman recording quality. "Land of the Rising Sun" is an OK live document feat. members of Boredoms. "Box of Chameleons" is a 3CD set containing almost 150 short songs of the biggest dog's breakfast ever made. "Dante's Disneyland Inferno" is a sort of Residents-cum- Mansonesque musical/spoken word play of sorts. "330,003 Crossdressers Across the Rig Veda" is a more perverse direct stab at their Far East influences. I've been told to stay away from "Jack's Creek". Those are just a small fraction of what's out there.

And they still surprise. Just days before the WTC, 2/3rd of the Sun City Girls went on a Seattle public access show to "jam" with a strange religious public access luminary called the Reverend Bruce Howard. The man has the most complex theology that boils down to the simplest tag tine: "god is love". Bruce Howard took the axe, while Alan Bishop and Charlie Goucher filled in as the rhythm section. It was one big 30 minute retarded blues song.

Anyway, there it is. Also worth checking out is the Climax Golden Twins -- especially the latest red polka dotted record.

As for the rest of their catalog...the Placebo albums are all quite amazing in there own ways. Their S/T 1st album is probably their most varied. There's a bit of everything on it, the hilarious scat- jazz "Uncle Jim" speil...triumphant semi-improv free rock plunderings...mental spoken word spook-outs...utterly beautiful acoustic instrumental shuffles....bleak 4th dimension horn blasts....ambience...and absurd babble-rapping. "My Painted Tomb" and "Rapping Head" are two gems that come to mind. Grotto of Miracles is more focused, and probably more akin to Torch. "Different Kind of Whore" & "Damcar" are the most memorable tunes. Horse Cock Phepner definitely ups the ante, and clues you in as to the insane genius and warped perspective of the Girls. Hearing "Nancy Reagan" alone, is enough to get the picture...although their take on the Fugs' "CIA Man" really gets it into high gear. Often misinterperated as a "political" album, I would consider it more like 1987 Americana, being refracted through the SCG's tweaked prism. And songs like "it's underneath the house" and "passenger seat people" have no political points at all. And although this album owes an obvious debt to The Fugs/Zappa/Deviants trip, it surpasses them all in the process, due to the SCG's sheer intensity, wit and diversity. Probably their 2nd best release.

The list goes down from their.....my love for Box of Chameleons grows with each listen. 3cds, 128 tracks, talk about the gift that keeps on giving. The trick is not to dimiss a single track, be patient. 30,003 Crossdressers...is definitely up there to, but it's a bit of an overindulgence. "Kickin' the Dragon" is essential SCG listening. Libyan Dream is a spottier, less magnificent Torch, but great none the less. Bright Surroundings is brilliant as well, especially venerable song....love the Pink Floyd format, 3 fucking long songs. The 7"s are all good to, just as diverse as the full-lengths. "Eye Mohini" is probably my favorite.

Basically....you're gonna have to take a few stabs in the dark to figure out which SCG style suits you, just be thankful they give you so many chances.

http://www.suncitygirls.com/

The sellouts! I'm just kidding. New mailorder-only double CD of their WFMU show available on the site. Damn, it's hard to keep up with these guys.

whats the verdict?

I know absolutely nothing else about the Sun City Girls, but for that alone, CLASSIC!!

Man if only there were actually a radio station that sounded like this life would be that much more worth living.

easily the most distasteful station ID of all time (bad bad 9/11 joke) followed by a batman theme song cover = rAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAad.

i say they're classic, and my flave-o-rite is "The Handsome Stranger" double CD.

"Napoleon & Josephine" 7" if you can...

neung phak s/t is a listen too man. played that for a bunch of line cooks and work. they lost their shit. "TUI TUI TUI TUI TUI TUI" strangled canary action.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000001BER/sr=1-1/qid=1137727725/ref=pd_bbs_1/103-0869921-5030203?%5Fencoding=UTF8

but not $100 on CD good.

i'm really digging richard bishop's solo albums right now. i'm not even that familiar with sun city girls, but this stuff is amazing. the newish one (well i guess it was last year) "while my guitar violently bleeds" has some obvious raga stuff going on, some pieces i've heard of "improvika" are really intense. awesome. haven't heard much of "polytheistic fragments."

oh Mark you have a world of goodness awaiting. Dive in fearlessly and you will be rewarded.

Look for "Fingering The Devil", it is oop like most of his stuff but is maybe my favorite.

Also, I will try emailing you in a few days.

also "While My Guitar" is from 2007 and it is also one of my favorites of the year. He kills it live too.

very poor syntax there. sorry.

You're Never Alone With A Cigarette: Singles 1 CD
Sun City Girls
List Price $17.98 (You save $4.44)
Category Rock/Pop, Rock
Label Abduction Records
CD Universe Part# 7619586
Catalog# 40
Discs 1
Street Date Mar 04, 2008

!!!

No mention of this on the actual SCG site yet, no tracklisting either. I will try and dig for more info but this is pretty damn exciting.

that is cool. SCG and skullflower are the bands i most want singles comps from.

oooh, excellent. i may own most of it, but having it all in one place = awesome. and i don't even LIKE buying CDs!

yeah, this is the supposed tracklist:

1. 100 Pounds of Black Olives (from the "You're Never Alone witha Cigarette" 7")
2. Sev Acher (A. Barsamian) - unreleased studio recording
3. Souvenirs from Jangare (from the "Three Fake Female Orgasms" 2*7")
4. Plaster Cupids from the Ceiling (from the "Three Fake Female Orgasms" 2*7")
5. Amazon One (trad.) - unreleased studio recording
6. The Beauty of Benghazi (from the "Three Fake Female Orgasms" 2*7")
7. Wild World of Animals - unreleased studio recording
8. Harmful Little Armful (For Will Shatter) - (from the "Bruce Lee, Heroin, and the Punk Scene" 3*7" box set)
9. The Fine-Tuned Machines of Lemuria (from the "You're Never Alone witha Cigarette" 7") - unreleased extended full-length recording

other current topics of discussion ... apparently there is a tour-only Sir Richard Bishop / Earth split 12" on Southern Lord, being sold on a current European tour. also, Alan and Richard are scheduled to play a few dates together this summer !

wow that's kind of fucked up that they are going the non-completist collector-scum-baiting route with those comps. All I want is complete versions of the singles, OK? Stick all that "unreleased" stuff on another goddamn CD.

Also, that looks like one short disc. NOTE TO SP3NCER SUND3LL AND OTHER ASSOCIATED SCG PERSONNEL: THERE IS ALREADY A KILLER HOMEMADE 2CD COMP OF ALL THE SINGLES AND MISC TRACKS, MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE JUST FOLLOWED THAT TRACKLISTING. NOW YOU"RE JUST RIPPING OFF YOUR FANS, AGAIN.

Yes I am drunk but this still pisses me off royally.

yeah, but you're right though.

actually in the cold light of day I am wrong!

that set above includes the whole "You're Never Alone" single (plus extended version) and the entire first single of "Three Fake etc." As long as the 2nd single gets included in the next set (and BOTH of those Borungku singles, are you listening Abduction Records?), we are still on the completist path.

Still, it looks kinda short. And it also looks like the And So The Dead Tongue Sang 7" will not be on these as it predates the stuff on this.

I realize that with those Eclipse reissues they deliberately changed some tracks, leaving oens out and including other previously released ones. This was explicitly done so that the folks who owned the tapes would still have a collector's item. I guess that's OK but I hope this series doesn't suffer teh same fate.

for drunk posting I could have done much worse, at least I googleproofed.

I really want that Earth / Rick Bishop split. Thing is, I'd GLADLY go see that show and GLADLY buy the damn record at the merch table, but they're not playing within 1,000 fucking miles of here. It's Sunn0))) / Earth all over again.

Earth were amazing, even better live than on record. Sir Richard Bishop was great too. I got the split £15 it cost!!!

Fuck I'd really wanna see that show, they aren't really stopping by my area either. There is a one date gap in the tour though, maybe I can persuade someone to book them...

Recorded in July of 1988 during the sessions that produced Sun City Girl's most popular recording, these nine tracks represent the other half of songs which were originally prepared as a 2-LP demo version of 'Torch of the Mystics' for Placebo Records in 1989. The sequencing of all 20 tracks at the time was entirely different with the predominately instrumental tracks in this collection mixed in and around the mostly vocal tracks of what became 'Torch'. Placebo went out of business shortly after this proposed 2-LP idea was presented to them but Majora Records quickly stepped-in to begin releasing most of the material. Included here are 5 tracks from early Majora singles: '100 Pounds of Black Olives' and 'The Fine-Tuned Machines of Lemuria' (the complete unreleased 12 minute version) from the single 'You're Never Alone with a Cigarette' and all three tracks from Record #1 of the double seven-inch 'Three Fake Female Orgasms' --'Plaster Cupids Falling from the Ceiling', 'The Beauty of Benghazi', and 'Souvenirs from Jangare'. The short piece 'Harmful Little Armful' is from the triple seven-inch box set 'Bruce Lee, Heroin, and the Punk Scene' (from a Bay Area label-'Massacre at Central High') and rounding out the set are 3 unreleased studio tracks recorded the same day as much of the 'Torch' LP: never before heard versions of 'Amazon One', 'Sev Acher', and 'Wild World of Animals'. This is the first of a multi-volume set of reissued singles, compilation, and unreleased tracks to be assembled and sequenced to play as full-length records. Vinyl editions may also appear in time.
Tracks:

1. 100 Pounds of Black Olives
2. Sev Acher
3. Souvenirs from Jangare
4. Plaster Cupids Falling from the Ceiling
5. Amazon One
6. The Beauty of Benghazi
7. Wild World of Animals
8. Harmful Little Armful (For Will Shatter)
9. The Fine-Tuned Machines of Lemuria

So there you go. I am excited!

I got mine in the mail a few weeks ago, along with the two latest SF DVDs -- it's definitely really, really good.

As I no longer have those 7"s and can't afford to get them at this point, it makes me very happy to know they're starting on this reissue trip (and vinyl versions? -- yes, please!)

so it appears that after all these years it turns out that the sides were labeled backwards on the "You're Never Alone With A Cigarette" single. hmm. those three outtakes are quit nice also.

anybody going to The Brothers Unconnected tour?

Alan Bishop & Richard Bishop Present:
THE BROTHERS UNCONNECTED
A Tribute to Charles Gocher & Sun City Girls

Most dates will feature an opening 40 minute film of Charles Gocher's video experiments followed by two sets of music. AB and RB will be performing Sun City Girls songs as an acoustic guitar duet. This tour will most likely be the only time this show will be presented as such and is a tribute both to Charles Gocher and selected music from the 27 year legacy of Sun City Girls.

5.18.08 - Seattle, WA - Triple Door
5.19.08 - Portland, OR - Doug Fir
5.21.08 - San Francsico, CA - Slim's
5.23.08 - Phoenix, AZ - Modified
5.25.08 - Los Angeles , CA - Echoplex
5.27.08 - Sacramento, CA - Horse Cow Art Gallery
6.08.08 - Denver, CO - Hi-Dive
6.10.08 - Kansas City, MO - Record Bar
6.11.08 - Omaha, NE - The Waiting Room
6.12.08 - Minneapolis, MN - 7th Street Entry
6.13.08 - Iowa City, IA - The Picador
6.14.08 - Chicago, IL - Lakeshore Theater
6.15.08 - Louisville, KY - Pour Haus
6.17.08 - Toronto, ON - St. Vladimir's Institute Theater
6.18.08 - Montreal, QC - La Sala Rosa
6.19.08 - Cambridge, MA - The Brattle Theater
6.20.08 - Portland, ME - SPACE
6.21.08 - Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda's
6.22.08 - New York , NY - Knitting Factory
6.24.08 - Pittsburgh, PA - Andy Warhol Gallery
6.25.08 - Washington, D.C. - Black Cat
6.26.08 - Asheville, NC - Grey Eagle
6.27.08 - Atlanta, GA - The E.A.R.L.
6.28.08 - Chattanooga, TN - Barking Legs Theater
6.29.08 - Memphis, TN - Odessa
6.30.08 - New Orleans, LA - One Eyed Jack's
7.02.08 - Austin, TX - Emo's
7.05.08 - Tucson, AZ - Club Congress
7.06.08 - San Diego, CA - Bar Pink Elephant
7.09.08 - Santa Cruz, CA - TBA
7.10.08 - TBA
7.11.08 - TBA
7.12.08 - TBA

quit = quite

I'll be at that Iowa City show. I'm so pumped!

Likely be at the NYC gig.

I'll try and see 'em in Minneapolis.

Austin, perhaps.

Just got tickets for NY.

Portland for me!

I should be able to make it to Emo's.

got my ticket to the triple door show.

330,003 crossdressers is far better although much harder to locate. it turns up on ebay now and then and usually brings $30. its worth it.

Oh, the good ol' days.

there's a torch of the mystics CD(!) up to $50 and ending in 6 hours.

Good grief. (I found my CD of that about ten years back or so for pretty cheap.)

well, ten years is a long time. and 330,003 on LP routinely sells for $75-100

What are SCG's "poppiest" songs? They definitely have some hooks in them. "The Shining Path" is very catchy. What would fans recommend as good "gateway" tracks for them?

Their double time cover of "journey to the center of the mind."

and "different kind of whore"

i like their "waiting for my man" too. their covers tend to be pretty fun.
something like "space prophet dogon" or "blue mamba" shouldn't sound too far out. if you like the fugs you might like their horse cock phepner record. "i wanna go to the moon" from Severed Finger... is pretty awesome and easy to digest, but it's still weird.

arguably "Nancy Reagan", if vulgarity is considered poppy.

Otherwise, as noted several times, much of Torch is good gateway...

"Esoterica of Abyssinia" is probably their "hit".. It's been covered by a few bands. I know Trumans Water did a cover of this on their Peel Sessions disc.

got my DC tickets last week ^_^

(same night at times new viking - bummer, but duh clear choice here)

OK, so my head exploded when I heard a couple SCG tracks on a recent episode of Top Gear (in the American muscle car challenge from SF->Bonneville)

wonder who was responsible for that, pretty cool.

about a year ago Sc0tt C0lburn told me that Eclipse was still planning on releasing the rest of the ten-double-LP tape archive series, but that it was going really slow.

Haha, weird. Here is the full soundtrack list here (which is also weird in itself - who the hell keeps tabs on this stuff?).

fuckin a maaaaannn
fuckin aaaaaa it's the CIAAAAA

'I barely recall the band that played after us, but they had unusual facial hair and did things like breathe fire to electric tribal beats.'

By Krist Novoselic

O_O

I barely recall the band that played after us, but they had unusual facial hair and did things like breathe fire to electric tribal beats. I know this is pretty standard fare today, but back then it was way off the map. Then the Sun City Girls came on.

Looks like he's referring to two different bands here?

For those interested, Abraxas Records is reissuing Dante's Disneyland Inferno - 3LP boxset next month.
http://www.abraxasrecords.com/showPage.php?template=album&id=2677

The electric tribal beats band is Crash Worship.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xq5RamhrN2s

Looks like he's referring to two different bands here?

He is, I just liked the line.

Well then Mr. Raggett.

figured the "electric tribal" outfit had to be crash worship

KN does not have the most exciting prose style

Takes after Cobain, doesn't he?

What are SCG's "poppiest" songs? They definitely have some hooks in them. "The Shining Path" is very catchy.

aka the "Lambada Song"!!!

final album coming out this month, Funeral Mariachi
from Colburn's website: Just finished mastering the final Sun City Girls studio album. I do believe this to be my best work to date. That’s right! I think this might be better than “Feel’s” .

LOL Scott

I have this on preorder, really excited about it based on the promo blather.

can't wait to check this one out. sounds like a winner.

Just the finest thing ever. One of the most beautiful records I've ever heard.

haven't heard; will buy

certainly. this>>rent>>food

WANT

as expected, this is completely top notch greatness from the cover artwork on down. one of their best.

really great. really expensive too.

actually, after 3 listens today already, i'd say it was worth twice the price. astonishingly beautiful.

Just ordered one.

Awesome cover. I just got this from Weird Forest. Will listen tomorrow.

This is so good, it's great. So great, it's excellent. So excellent, it's superb. Album of the year? Time will tell.

pretty sure it's album of the year for me, the 1-2 punch of "Ben's Radio"-"The Imam" is the most amazing thing I've heard in quite a while.

jesus god I can't wait to get this. should have figured that they had a whole completed LP still in the can, even when Charlie passed

WHEN WILL THE MAIL MAN COME?

Will be on the look out for this one.

Well well well

ya know, one of the things that really interests me about this (awesome) record is that in a lot of ways it's the final "fuck you" from a band that made a career out of fucking with their audiences. for years we've had to live with willfully inconsistent releases, whimsical and inconsistent reissues, cavalier treatment of the back catalogue, confrontational live shows, etc. etc. etc.

now, once it's all over, they put out this record - one of their most beautiful and cohesive - and it's like they just wanted to say "see, we could have done this all along, but we didn't want to."

been jamming this on the regular lately. so fuckin good.

not to be totally lame, but is this coming out on CD?

i bet it will eventually!

ah just saw on aquarius records' site: The vinyl of Funeral Mariachi is undoubtedly limited, but a cd is scheduled for release later in October, we're told.

Hooray! Looking forward to this a lot.

Awesome, I can't wait to hear this on a shiny silver platter.

holy shit... what a way to go out.

I really love this this except for one track I'm not feeling, kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, 2nd song on side B: "Holy Ground".

Listening to it now. I guess it seems a little undercooked compared to the rest of the tracks, musically anyway.
I like the incantatory vocals.

I am also listening to this record right now.

"Black Orchid" has really grown on me. The track that I find a little off is "El Solo", which really sounds like it should be on an Alvarius B album.

I guess, reading that again, that the title might be telling me something there.

also... anyone else have some distortion in a couple of spots on "Vine Street Piano"?

"El Solo" has that kind of Elis e Tom ambience/vibe to it. Pretty subtle track imo.

Fuckin love El Solo

what is this hippie crap

j/k

this is awesome

gorgeous

etc

i balked at getting DANTE'S DISNEYLAND INFERNO reissue last night cause it was $56 at aquarius (also btw new neil young was fuckin $41 for one record!!) -- should i reconsider? ive never heard it...

I really love this this except for one track I'm not feeling, kinda sticks out like a sore thumb, 2nd song on side B: "Holy Ground".

^ disagree, the album is like a tour of various psychedelic styles, and this is clearly the barrett tune

young vinyl pricey b/c of high falutin pressing plant, no?

Neil Young - Le Noise (2010)

Dante's is great, really scary & demonic in parts (xxp)

I LOVE "El Solo." one of the first cuts to grab me. hadn't noticed any distortion on vine st... will re-check.
dante's disneyland is one of my favorite SCG records.

can I just say that after new swans, neil young, marnie stern, and now this, it has been a v v good month for music lovers

didn't mean to imply that I was dissing "El Solo", just that it's the track that sticks out as different for me :)

dear anybody who wants to talk about dud songs on funeral mariachi, I hope that gift horse bites yr face off

angels were obv involved in the production of this long playing album

http://beta.forcedexposure.com/Reviews/Sun.City.Girls-R.html

what the hell is going on there on that page

Cannot perform = operation on System.Int32 and System.String.

could you c&p that? would love to read it.

oh nm for some reason the direct link didn't work

Funeral Mariachi LP (ABD 045LP)

First of all, let me say the album’s title is total bullshit. My late father- in-law, rest his goddamn cigar-stained soul, was a devotee of the Jaliscan musical arts, and many were the nights he kept members of his extended family hostage on one seaside balcon or another, while we listened to endless renditions of the mawkish upbeat ditties that comprise Mariachi’s classic repertoire. Having heard my share (and yours) of Mari-fuckin-achi, I feel qualified to tell you that this album has not one whiff of that particular southern wind. Which, typically enough, makes the Sun City Girls a bunch of liars. Again.

It has been said that Charlie Gocher, the diminutive French percussionist of the Sun City Girls, left the planet inside a flame-filled orb in February, 2007. A bitter dandy, with a lisp, a limp and a reputation as one of the Pac 10’s premier chubby chasers, Gocher told his bandmates he required a toothpick and stepped into the night air. Several hours later, his orb was photographed by United Airline’s Capt. Jack Chesterton, passing by the cockpit of Chesterton’s Boeing 747 at 35,000 feet. These are the facts, ma’am. But ask either of the Bishop Brothers (Bub or Gil) about Gocher’s absence and they will say only, “He who is gone can never really go,” or some such other happy horseshit. They cannot bear to speak the truth – they are both bachelors left naked at the altar, uncooked chicken mottling in the sun and the wind. There is a stink afoot, thus they declare it a funeral. As a way of confusing matters further, they decide to call the funeral Mexican. What apes!

In the three-plus years since Gocher shed his chains, the Bishop Brothers have worked themselves into frenzies of activity. Gil has recorded as Gilvarious B, but has spent most of his time producing erotic (some would say, pornographic) puppet plays based on the repressed limericks of Peter Schumann, as viewed through a Manichean keyhole. Bub has toured cigar clubs nationwide under the name Sir Bub Bishop, has released a string of cleverly-fingered albums, and joined a Mahavishnu-oriented trio with fellow devotees Sri Chasny and Devadip Corsano. They are called Rangda, after the Egyptian goddess of stringed animals. The pair has also hosted a few children’s television shows, heavily made up and employing thick Middle Eastern accents, although the names of these shows escape me right now.

But back to the matter at hand, Funeral Mariachi is the Sun City Girls’ ultimate studio expression. Barring some very odd incident, this is it – the terminal post from Planet Boomerang. Begun many years ago, whilst Gocher was still ensnared by his ongoing situation, the album was recently completed by the dab hands of Bub and long-time co-conspirator, Scott Colburn. Broken into eleven pieces, it is tempting to try and create a meta-narrative for the album, but this eventually appears to be what Gocher might have called “a rube’s toot”. Meaning we are best advised to abandon linear cohesion and approach the album as a randomized sequence of instances, about which we can infer dick. And so that’s what we do.

The eleven pieces of Mariachi present a wide assortment of tropes the band resorted to over its 27 year history. There are also guest appearances by a few familiars – Eyvind Kang, Jessika Kenney and David Carter – but the bulk of the heavy lifting, such as it is, is accomplished by the core trio, naked as jaybirds.

The first track, “Ben’s Radio”, takes its name from an incident where Bub – who served as one of Ben Affleck’s stunt doubles during the filming of Gigli – was accused by Jennifer Lopez of stealing one of her co-star’s transistorized props. The piece imagines what it would be like to crawl under Lopez’s wig and spin her knobs, flashing randomly between stations, during a cruise to the Philippines. Surely a dream we’ve all had at one time or another. “Ben’s Radio” reminds us the Girls initially had a certain similarity to The Residents in concept and approach. Makes you laugh now, doesn’t it?

“The Imam” is a searing attack on recent attempts by certain Islamic leaders to horde cinnamon, keeping this lovely element – so important to the musical culture of the Arabian Peninsula – to themselves. The forged Call to Prayer near the apex of the song is a particularly scathing critique. Man the battlements.

“Black Orchid” was initially begun by Gocher, on commission to create the theme song for a new television show based on a DC Comics heroine. Charlie had initially envisioned a lilting French-style composition in the style of Francis Lai. He worked on this for a while, until Matt Damon (the proposed show’s producer) decided to drop the project. Gocher sued Damon for a small fortune. He settled out of court and decided to recycle the initial work. Here it is reimagined by Gil as an Iranian “horse ballad”.

“This Is My Name” is a sly tribute to Jim Baker, the California health nut who became known as Father Yod, using text drawn from Baker’s self-published book, Liberation. According to knowledgeable sources, the long mellotron solo was designed as an invocation of the internal soundtrack to Baker’s finale – a hang-gliding accident that deprived the world of a tough-ass spiritual leader.

“Vine Street Piano (Orchestral)” is a sentimental instrumental track, named after one of the streets on the British Monopoly board (one of Gocher’s obsessions while on tour). When Charlie would succeed in controlling this bit of real estate, he would always pull out his accordion (which he called his “piano orchestra”) and play one of the many Ennio Morricone themes he had memorized during his youth. Lovely!

“Blue West” is another commercial venture. It was done as the background music for a promotional film for a small couples-only spa in a suburb of Seattle. The visuals – with Gil running around in a wig, sticking his keister into various occupied hot tubs – are really worth seeing. But even without them, one can conjure up a whiff of the majesty involved in the operation.

“Mineral Wells” is about a small town in northeast Texas where it was rumored that a family of Okies had succeeded in drilling a well that spouted diamonds. This is an episode that reportedly occurred during the latter days of the Great Depression in the 1930s, and Pink Floyd also used the song as the basis for “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (Syd Barrett rumors to the contrary). The whole story was laid out in a Roger Waters interview in Q that made quite an impression on Bub. Indeed, he kept the thing pasted to wall of his bathroom for almost a year.

I’m almost embarrassed to write about “El Solo” since its message is so clear. Let’s just parse the elements – a television appearance by the Ray Coniff Singers, a jar of Vasoline, and a young teenage boy who found music thrilling. ‘Nuff said.

“Come Maddalena” is a cover of a piece Morricone originally wrote for Jerzy Kawalerowicz’s 1971 film, Maddalena. But this version draws more heavily from the ’78 disco version, which was a favorite with Bub and Gil during their dance school days.

“Funeral Mariachi” is proof – as if any was needed – that it takes more than just a trumpet to swing like a bunch of portly Jaliscans in tight pants and big hats. But the piece is a darkly burning meditation on the impermanence of life on this planet. Is there life elsewhere? Don’t fuckin’ ask me. But if you happen to be looking through a portfolio of Hubble shots, and you see a flaming orb kinda poking around the edges of some galaxy or another, the chances are pretty good that there’s some life force right there, inside that little ball of whatsis. ‘Cause I don’t know exactly where Gocher ended up, but wherever it was, the place is in a state of constant explosion. That’s just the way it is.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.
.................................................................
--Byron Coley, Sept. 2010

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

Fuck Mariachis. Fuck Funerals. Fuck Death.

man that is a new low for Coley.

(I mean the review)

("review")

it is interesting that the only song he fails to "discuss" is "Holy Ground".

that review is confusing. is it just an extended in-joke?

I actually really liked this review.

meh... tried too hard, made a few incorrect presumptions, fell short. if only he had a legit copy with the liner notes, he could have spared himself some errata.

Yeah, good effort though.

the crimson's review is good but i LOLed at this:

"Come Maddalena"—whose spaghetti western flare call to mind the more adventurous work of Ennio Morricone

haha ouch

and THAT, my friends, is why we have facebook.

lmao

underrated: the uncle jim 'solo' record from a few years back.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^

the human race is just a self-sufficient rock quarry, guys.

http://shoot-the-hostage.blogspot.com/2009/09/ever-heard-of-cigarettes-smoke.html

would you like to watch a movie that's an hour and ten minutes, fellas? or a film that's an hour and fifteen minutes, guys!

wonderful album

cannot be overstated, suddenly (and of course maybe) my favorite SCG LP.

also, since i don't know where else to mention it, the new messenger girls trio LP, excelsior salon trio, makes a v nice companion piece. lovely drifty guitar work from sir RB, with improv tones and drones from sun city girls and local music therapist (?) david knott. likes.

wow, never heard of that one... thanks.

in other "I am a dumbass" news, I was listening to this record yesterday and realized that what I thought was "El Solo" is in fact "Holy Ground". Please substitute that in my comments above - i.e. it sounds like something off of the 3rd Alvarius B album, although I wouldn't go so far as Shasta's "sore thumb" comment.

"holy ground" nestles slyly between psychedelic quotation marks, and i can see how that might rankle, but damn i love it. especially where puffy "oooh-ooohs" swell over sternly intonated & foaming sex gibberish. a breath of life amidst, well, yeah. so sweet.

guess i oughtta cue up some alvarius B...

cannot be overstated, suddenly (and of course maybe) my favorite SCG LP.

can't really go there ... beautiful as it is, doesn't surpass 'Torch' to my ears

hell , even 'Djinn Funnel', which was a jaw-dropping, late-period masterpiece

('Djinn' being, not a "song" album, but an "improv" album -- but as far as their improvs go, it was astounding ... better than even 'Dawn of the Devi', which is high praise...)

can't really go there ... beautiful as it is, doesn't surpass 'Torch' to my ears

yeah, i know. i'm prone to unconsidered overstatement in the heat of the moment. but there's a beauty and emotional intensity to funeral mariachi that just kills me and which seems (at the moment) to have little equal in music of any sort. hits me deep like calling out of context, in a way that i can't explain or deny. like to make me weep, i mean.

Yeah this is a really SCG good record, but like the new Swans record I get the feeling a lot of the "it's their best praise" is just people being happy that there is a new record.

Djinn Funnel is fucking amazing, that's all I can say this early. Dawn Of The Devi is more... overwhelming or something.

haven't heard anyone say the new swans is their best ever, that's clearly some late-to-the-party mentalism

but I've been listening to scg since horse cock phepner came out and though I haven't heard everything they've ever done (has anyone?), funeral mariachi is def top 3 material

contenderizer otm in that sun city girls are always intellectually stimulating and musically challenging but the new one is both of those plus emotionally engaging, it's a triple threat that's hard to discount

^real talk

at the very least, if future newbies are looking for an entry point into scg's weird and wonderful world I'll be pointing them in funeral mariachi's general direction

I'd be happy to get this as my... third?... SCG album, but not because I haven't looked a good bit -- most everything they've put out is waaaaayy out of print and tough to find, frustratingly.

"haven't heard anyone say the new swans is their best ever"

Okay I've definitely heard best since CofG on ILX.

Sun City Girls are nothing if not extremely frustrating.
They are also completely rewarding. If you are patient, anyway.
One of a kind, just a monumental contribution, imo.

haha, that was me! but that doesn't mean their best ever, though I guess parsing that depends on your opinion of their post COG work...

xp

good review of Funeral Mariachi at Blogstitude (also, it is now out on CD)

http://blastitude.blogspot.com/2010/10/top-40-2-through-40-to-follow.html

you guys were not kidding around! mine came today. halfway through and i just miss charles gocher so damn much right now. this is great.

btw coley's review upthread is totally in keeping with the spirit of sun city girls and I don't see a damn thing wrong with it

"ya know, one of the things that really interests me about this (awesome) record is that in a lot of ways it's the final "fuck you" from a band that made a career out of fucking with their audiences. for years we've had to live with willfully inconsistent releases, whimsical and inconsistent reissues, cavalier treatment of the back catalogue, confrontational live shows, etc. etc. etc.

now, once it's all over, they put out this record - one of their most beautiful and cohesive - and it's like they just wanted to say "see, we could have done this all along, but we didn't want to."

― sleeve, den 6 oktober 2010 07:05 (2 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink"

this is very otm and awesome btw

you guys were not kidding around! mine came today. halfway through and i just miss charles gocher so damn much right now. this is great.

― sonderangerbot, Tuesday, October 26, 2010 10:09 AM (1 hour ago)

btw coley's review upthread is totally in keeping with the spirit of sun city girls and I don't see a damn thing wrong with it

― mr. mandelbrot flythrough vertigo, esq. (Edward III), Tuesday, October 26, 2010 10:22 AM (50 minutes ago)

these kinds of people OTM

I just realized that "Vine Street Piano" was also on the Mister Lonely ost a few years ago. I much prefer the FM version

classic

Just ended side one of a tape for a friend with This is my name and Vine St. Piano.

i was avoiding this release bc i am a total sun city girl new jack but i'm listening to it now, & some moments have been real

can't think of a better SCG record for beginners. seriously.

somehow missed that a second singles comp came out until a week or two ago. talky scg is the baddest;it even has an uncle jim appearance!

vine street piano is probably my favorite track on FM. so many great guitar sounds in one song.

"can't think of a better SCG record for beginners. seriously."

Torch is better. That's about it though.

Space Prophet Dogon is gateway, anyone who hears that song usually gets hypnotized.

"can't think of a better SCG record for beginners. seriously."

Torch is better. That's about it though.

I'd direct a beginner to FM before torch tbh

tho if they came back for more I'd send them to torch

If nothing else, you may be able to find Funeral Mariachi for sale at a reasonable price.

fm actually my second scg album, the first one i heard was "330003 crossdressers from beyond..." a cool record imo

I've really gotten into the SCGs over the last few weeks; Torch and Grotto are my joint favourites at the moment (though that keeps changing). Does anybody know if there's a recording of that final concert in Berlin anywhere?

330,003 crossdressers can vie with those two if you don't have it already.

Yeah, I have that and it's great; I guess I'd rank Crossdressers and Bright Surroundings just below the other two. The spoken-word stuff I don't like as much (only in small doses).

I know the Pelican 92 cassette is from their tour with TFUL282, but are there any recordings of a whole SCG/TF gig? I know it's a long shot...

The Seattle off ramp show of that tour was my intro to both bands. I've actually never heard that cassette...

I have a TFUL282/SCG show:

1992-10-30 Reptile House, Grand Rapids, Michigan

SCG in MP3, TFUL282 in FLAC, hit me up on PM if that sounds good.

Pelican 92 has good performances of Frankincense & Fish, Apna Desh and Black Leather Shoes, but isn't really essential.

you gotta send your email address in the body of the message, the ilx message robot doesn't translate it

as mentioned above, Funeral Mariachi is great. You should check out the 1st LP if you like Grotto Of Miracles. I am also particularly partial to Horse Cock Phepner, Carnival Resurrection #6, and Dante's Disneyland Inferno, but ymmv.

Disneyland is something I can admire and appreciate for what it is, but not actually want to listen to much. I do love HCP, and Piano Bar is a fun record in a similar vein, though it feels kinda half-finished.

I don't know the CFR volumes by number, but Libyan Dream, Hi-Asia and Sumatran Electric Chair are all amazing.

yeah all of those are great - I was referring to Severed Finger With A Wedding Ring. Some of that same show is also on Flute & Mask.

Isd there a place in Arizona called Sun City then? I didn't know what the reference in the band name was and thought it might be something to do with South Africa, but as I was tidying things up earlier today I found an envelope with Sun City AZ as part of the return address.

yeah it's near phoenix and was built specifically for retitees moving south, iirc

*retirees*

Oh right get it now, think I get the allusion too

http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2013/01/16/important-musiciansincluding-alan-bishopdispense-advice-for-musicians

:(

I will assume this eager young musician is male.

not only was this sentence not necessary, it's pretty rich from a guy who called himself and another guy sun city girls
oh well

it's not the whole sentence fwiw

Unfortunately, due to overwhelming odds, I will assume this eager young musician is male.

I think your point still stands though, it was unnecessary and isn't actually true.

right
just makes him sound old!

agreed! was literally just thinking that.

there's really not a huge gulf between irl alan and old uncle jim, is there?

anyways he is my 2nd favorite bishop brother

other things that make alan bishop sound old: his raging anti-semitism and love of cigarettes.

also, the fact that he is old

saw him in concert earlier this year, first time i had seen him live since a sun city girls show in the late 1990s

he is very tall!

he is an anti-semite huh? that is bad. source?

googling alan bishop antisemism just got me stuff about bishop tutu

extensive discussion & comments here:

http://alienatedinvancouver.blogspot.com/2006/03/are-sun-city-girls-anti-semites.html

i unsubscribed from the SCG facebook page because i was tired of seeing hateful anti-israel sentiment. everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and I'm not exactly pro-israel, but was just getting tired of seeing such hateful shit.

wow, that's pretty bad

I have a tough time with the line between impassioned critique and just vicious bile when it comes to that subject -- I'm also "not exactly pro-Israel" but it's still an emotional subject for me, so there's a line where I just don't feel comfortable with the tone anymore whatever the content. I guess I don't listen to enough SCG to know how those lyrics fit in the context of the rest of their work though.

i think it's easy enough to ignore the lyrics if you want to, not sure what it says about me that i'd be eager to do that

thanks ian, that clarifies things. yuck. agree w/Hurting here, it's a subtle line but it gets creepy fast. Not that I'm qualified to judge, but I think all of those lyric examples in the link (other than the WFMU ad, which is as bothersome to me as the epithet in "Hippie Conglomerate") are dubious examples of anti-Semitism, so it's good to hear from another more contemporary source (FB page).

some of them seemed like standard-issue criticism of israel and zionism, others seemed to take a little too much glee in being offensive, but then again this is the SCG we're talking about

More disturbed that they might be 9/11 truthers ugh. I'm not sure they're anti-semites but they're clearly kinda jerks but that's not exactly news right.

Other people have posted their displeasure about the SCG's stance on Palestine and they admit to "not exactly being pro-Israel" and being emotional about the topic because they are Jewish. However, contrary to Netanyahu's narrative, being opposed to Israel is NOT the same thing as being anti-semitic. Neither is being opposed to US military action unpatriotic. The Bishop brothers are semites themselves. Or, at least half, as their mother was Lebanese. So, I wouldn't characterize them as being anti-semitic. They are anti-Israel.
It's also not fair to criticize them for recognizing that we live in a sexist world where women are generally not encouraged to be musicians (or anything else requiring an intellect, it sometimes seems). Alan Bishop's last two albums feature female musicians, so clearly he understands talent beyond gender.
All THAT said, it IS fair to criticize Alan Bishop for being pro-smoking, which I believe is as stupid as Beyonce promoting Coca-Cola. Although in Alan's case, there's an element of humor involved in his militant pro-smoking message. I wonder if he'd quit smoking if he had a little more willpower?

Also, this is pretty funny! ** stolen from that Alienated In Vancouver blog **

Are the Sun City Girls cannibals??

I find some of the Sun City Girls' music to be interesting (except those times when the singer cackles and shrieks, which hurts my ears a little, and he barely even seems to be saying words), and I think their Sublime Frequencies label is awfully neat, devoted to poor downtrodden cultures elsewhere in the sadly undeveloped part of the world, but I've come across a few things on their lyrics archive that, well, let's just say they have me a little concerned. I have to wonder – could the Sun City Girls be cannibals?

First of all, I couldn't help but notice this verse in the song "Bitter Cold Countryside."

Then we chopped him into six pieces
Two arms, two legs and a head
And his mid-section made a fine table
Next to Jimmy-O-Wilkinson's bed

And his toes now creep in the river
And his fingers they tickle the corn
And his skull flies high in the hemlock....
From dusk till the early morn

Now, granted, there are no references to the actual consumption of human flesh here, but the ritualistic dismemberment of a human body is very often part of cannibalistic practice. But, other than that, nothing is actually consumed, and I wouldn't even give it a second thought . . . if it wasn't for THIS, in the very next song on the archive, "Ruby on the Ferris Wheel":

"And I did not cry because I like to eat human flesh and all my friends are cannibals too! And if you don't like it, well just put in a complaint at the FDA."

Well, here, if I'm not mistaken, he's coming right out and endorsing the eating of human flesh! And I'm sorry, but that's just wrong. It's anti-human (not to mention anti-Semitic by default). And it's a little disingenuous to think that putting in a complaint at the FDA is going to make things alright, isn't it?

And then, only a few lines later, we have this:

"I don't have any mercy on all those people who died from any kind of tribulation. Yeah, like I'm gonna worry about it . . . I want them dead . . . I want nothing to do with 'em at all! Kill 'em, burn 'em, fuck 'em, eat 'em . . . just EAT 'EM!"

Strong words, huh? Of course, the Sun City Girls have always been known for "pushing buttons" and "breaking taboos," so maybe this is just another example? Surely they're entitled to a satirical song every now and then, right? And part of satire is that it's not to be taken literally. Fair enough, and I'm willing to let even this rather shocking pro-cannibalism treatise pass . . . . if it wasn't for enough other references sprinkled throughout their work to give me pause.

Like this, from the innocuously titled "Sour Smells in Nevada":

"You know, human flesh is addictive. Especially the meat from the head and the insides of the thighs. You can tell a cannibal by them giving off sour smells, with eyes slickly greasy as though swimming in pools of fat. Just look in their eyes. That's how you spot a cannibal."

Now, THIS seems to communicate first-hand knowledge of what it's actually like to eat human flesh. I certainly never knew any of this stuff, and wouldn't it take someone who is actually experienced in the act to know such specific information??

So, really, what do you think? Can someone can set my mind at ease about this? If anyone can vouch that they are not actually cannibals, I would sure appreciate it. I do really want to enjoy their music, and express my solidarity with those poor Arab cultures by purchasing their Sublime Frequencies records – but I don't know if I can give my money to cannibals. If anyone wants to offer any information, or a rebuttal of some kind, please do so. (Although, for the record, I actually have no intention whatsoever of being open to any new concepts of any kind. Just so you know.)

turning up late to this one but

They uncritically repeat one of the sillier rumours about 9/11 – one which is debunked in the film PROTOCOLS OF ZION – in the "song," "WFMU Station ID: Palmer" on Carnival Folklore Resurrection 11, presenting the following as a radio broadcast:
This is Palmer from Asia and Emerson, Lake and Myself, and when I'm in the New York area watching Israelis celebrate on rooftops as the remote-controlled aircraft fly into two towers, and the American public are duped, as they usually are, I always listen to WFMU Radio.

kind of amazed that anyone with even a passing familiarity with these guys would hear that and think "welp, guess that's what they literally believe"

when i saw the farewell tour thing they played some dope stuff and then spent the rest of the time telling like sub-frogs level ironic offensive jokes, it was pretty stupid, i was embarrassed for them

Other people have posted their displeasure about the SCG's stance on Palestine and they admit to "not exactly being pro-Israel" and being emotional about the topic because they are Jewish. However, contrary to Netanyahu's narrative, being opposed to Israel is NOT the same thing as being anti-semitic. Neither is being opposed to US military action unpatriotic. The Bishop brothers are semites themselves. Or, at least half, as their mother was Lebanese. So, I wouldn't characterize them as being anti-semitic. They are anti-Israel.

i don't equate criticism of israel with anti-semitism. i don't think most of the other people on this thread do, either. there was more to the criticism of the SCG than just "they are anti-zionist,"

this is so ferocious

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHnZcXRUUdo

down a youtube rabbit hole tonight

Yeah, it is! And I kinda wish there was more live SCG footage like that on Youtube, but it's such a mixed bag (like the band themselves, of course)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iziRRfFuqY

hell yeah, thanks

http://www.youtube.com/embed/bblW8PnkGGg

hey i need help finding a specific SCG that i have forgotten the name of. it's a slow, minimal song that is not in english - sounds like a southeast asian language in my memory but i could be wrong. it's just guitar and singing, and in the chorus, it has multiple singing in unison. sounds like it could be a cover or a traditional song instead of a SCG original. i have no idea what album it's from. any ideas?

probably one of the singles like "Borungku Si Derita"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5bmVf2xP7U

yes that's it! that was so fast! thanks.

Original recording is also v beautiful

what is the original recording

this i suppose? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th0yvyz3X_s

Yeah!

<3 ilm sometimes!

SCG seem to have created a Youtube account, where they're putting up a lot of the 80s cassettes and other stuff that's been OOP forever

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnQi2zVoylHxokBZwLLQzlQ

from Richard Bishop's FB page:

"Juggernaut - an unreleased 1994 Ukrainian "art film" by Mark Roman Bodnar and Kyrill Kazemirovitch Protsenko has just been posted to youtube. (Run time: 28 min.) Soundtrack by Sun City Girls. No sub titles. The film is dark, totally bleak, oddly edited, and the timing is, sadly, perfect."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVYiaqUQOYM

CARNIVAL FOLKLORE RESURRECTION !!! BIG SALE HAPPENING IN SEATTLE ON MARCH 11th and 12th - - The Bishop Brothers are going through storage units and clearing out things to sell. Alan and Richard will be hanging out and holding court for both days. Sale items will include: Musical instruments of all types, miscellaneous Sun City Girls stage & Studio weirdness, t-shirts, clothes, retro Film posters and lobby cards, Artwork, bizarre handicrafts, Records, Maps, practical things many people could use (including you), oddities, and who knows what else? We’re still going through boxes. If you’re anywhere near Seattle this coming weekend, you should probably go to this! PLEASE SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS IN THE PACIFIC NW.

WHERE: in Seattle at INDIAN SUMMER Vintage (Back Room) 534 Summit Ave E (Capitol Hill).

WHEN: Saturday March 11th 11:00 am - 6:00 pm, and Sunday March 12th 11:00 am - 5:00 pm.

CASH ONLY

new band!

Just Announced: CLANDESTINE QUARTET (Alan Bishop, Richard Bishop, Chris Corsano, Michael Flower) will be performing a live set of new material on September 15th in London. Full details and ticket link on the event page.

"Sun City Girls, was one of the most fiercely independent, challenging and totally unpredictable bands to have operated outside of the mainstream. Sun City Girls embraced and subverted styles and tropes from various genres and cultures, creating a blend of deranged surf, Eastern-but-not-Eastern free improvisation, stateless folk, avant-mysticism and whatever else you want to call it.

Sun City Girls disbanded in 2007, following the death of drummer Charles Gocher. The Sun City name could never be revived without the mad versatile genius of Gocher, a ‘high priest of the outside’ – a line from Alan Bishop’s touching tribute to Gocher in Perfect Sound Forever. The Bishops have only infrequently performed together since, notably on the Brothers Unconnected tour, instead focusing on their personal endeavours: Richard, on free rock outfit Rangda, and solo work under his Sir Richard Bishop guise; Alan, on his project Alvarius B, alongside bands The Invisible Hands, and Dwarfs of East Agouza. And of course, there’s Sublime Frequencies, the label that Alan co-owns with Hisham Mayet, a label that resists any form of cultural gatekeeping, releasing artists and music not represented in any music magazine’s false idea of a ‘canon’.

So how do they go about playing together in a band again, without the deft hand of Charlie Gocher? They’ve enlisted drummer Chris Corsano, an extraordinary percussionist and improvisor, a member of Rangda (with Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny), and known for his work with saxophonist Paul Flaherty. Corsano has performed with Jim O’Rourke, Joe McPhee, Bill Nace (Vampire Belt), Jandek, Bjork, and countless others. They’re also joined by Mick Flower – who has regularly performed with Corsano as Flower-Corsano, and is best known as a member of ecstatic drone ensemble Vibracathedral Orchestra.

Together, they’re hiding away for a week in a studio to write a completely new set of material. And what will it sound like? Who knows. Perhaps the Bishops have found kindred spirits in the form of Flower-Corsano. Or perhaps they’ve just found two new figures to spar with. Whatever the case, this is an unmissable opportunity to witness a performance from the unparalleled brothers of avant-everything".

Holy crap. I'm in!

Well, not in the sense of going to London for the concert, but short of that.

as per tylerw's post from March, FB friend posted this, thought it sounded p interesting

Phx/Tempe record collectors. Eastside Records has ... Alan Bishop's map collection from his Wide World of Maps years. 2 bucks a map, naked cash. Those maps are conveniently buried under some rubble near cash register.

not gonna make that London show on Friday but I am going to see Senyawa, who are supporting, the day before. high recommendation

Was that Torch of The Mystics reissue last year a one off or are there other releases coming?
I only have a couple of their cds and would like more if they're as good.

Rick has said a few times recently that he'd love to get the 80s Placebo trilogy (and Dawn of the Devi etc) reissued, but there's nothing official yet.

yeah those seem like the most obvious candidates to me, Djinn Funnel is another personal favorite that is tough to find

JUst looking at prices of cds on Amazon. So hope there is something coming.
Have found loads on Spotify which i hadn't really looked at before.
Still wondering what determines what turns up on there after seeing which artists have loads of lps up.

https://www.strandedrecords.com/collections/twenty-one-eighty-two-recording-company/products/sun-city-girls-live-at-the-sky-church-september-3rd-2004-lp-dvd

Thanks for the heads up, I should pick that up.

Thought the revive would be about the fact that AB and RB recently played two nights as a duo at Zebulon in LA. I'm unsure how many times they've played together since the demise of SCG, but it can't have been often.

Didn't they play a bunch as Brothers Unconnected?

Yeah, that's how last week's shows were billed, I didn't know they'd done it previously.

Yeah it was a tour maybe a year or so after charlie died. Saw the nyc one. It was great. They sold a brothers unconnected CDR at it which I haven’t spun in awhile.

Anyone know what the live set was like around this time? Tempted to buy this, especially with the added bonus of the DVD.

no predictability whatsoever afaik - I saw them that same year at Berbati's in Portland and it was almost solid gnarly improv madness. Charlie attacked the crowd with a whip. this set sounds interesting for sure.

Yeah there was never a time when it would have been possible to say what their “live set was like at the time”

—they moved around behind a gauze scrim for the whole show while a prerecording played
—they told redneck jokes
—they performed a bunch of what would become 330,003 Crossdressers
—they did a set of gnarly trio improv

It's out today: https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/sun-city-girls-live-at-the-sky-church-september-3rd-2004-lp-dvd/KHZ.1002LP.html
Forced Exposure has it for $18.70, in stock - LP+DVD, whattadeal
While you're at it, get "Dawn of the Devi" too ($15.73 from Forced Exposure...I'm not a shill I swear)

so.... where would one start if they were curious about this band?

probably https://suncitygirls.bandcamp.com/album/torch-of-the-mystics

thanks, will do

Their final album is really amazing as well:

https://suncitygirls.bandcamp.com/album/funeral-mariachi

This is quite good entry point - https://suncitygirls.bandcamp.com/album/330003-crossdressers-from-beyond-the-rig-veda-2

This too - https://suncitygirls.bandcamp.com/album/dantes-disneyland-inferno

Both of these pretty much cover the range of the SCG universe, or as near to it as might be possible.

I'll second Torch of the Mystics, that was my entry point and worked really well.

agree with all of the above recommendations

with the beach boys cover (summer dream amherst 2004)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFWbyuvPImk

also check it out, comrade marc masters has uploaded the whole amherst 2004 show

this one too! great stuff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAOHq579lw

but yeah, Torch of the Mystics is thee one really.

The one that is in print, at least. Or was.
Examining this band through their first album and their last album is pretty rewarding.
First album long oop, unfortunately.

Torch
330,003
And the singles comp that includes borungku si derita eye mohini etc

Thank you for the recommendations - very initial impressions: fascinating + a lot less Ween/Zappa than I had somehow expected.

The first singles comp, You're Never Alone With a Cigarette, is a nice companion to Torch.

I wish they'd hurry up and re-release the first three.

OK I thought about it walking the dog and here’s my recommendation for a ten album scg chronological swoop:

Grotto of Miracles
Torch of the Mystics
Bright Surroundings Dark Beginnings
Live From Planet Boomerang
Eye Mohini: The Singles Vol. 3
330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Veda
Libyan Dream (carnival folklore resurrection series)
Sumatran Electric Chair (carnival folklore resurrection series)
Hi Asia Lo Pacific (carnival folklore resurrection series)
Flute and Mask
Fine, eleven it is: throw in Funeral Mariachi to close

wow! thank you! I'm not ready for the freakout parts of the live videos yet though. Also, some of the less conventional moments on the albums suddenly made me go "what was that 'my pal footfoot' band called again?" but then they shift into a way more complicated thing during the same song - very fascinating

I approve of Jon's recommendationsand might also throw in Severed Finger With A Wedding Ring, also from the CFR series