Sun City Girls: classic or dud?

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?

For years I thought this was a late-'70s female punk band; when this thread got bumped a few weeks ago, finally looked into them some more and ended up downloading Torch of the Mystics, which seemed to be the online consensus as their best (or at least most accessible) album. The songs I like, I quite like--really brings to mind the Fugs (mentioned in this thread) or Kaleidoscope's "Egyptian Gardens."

Where would one start with Sun City Girls? Heard about 'em for years, never tried them out. Intimidated by how much is out there.

Torch as noted, or 330,003 Crossdressers, or Funeral Mariachi

along with Torch and Funeral, this is also on their Bandcamp, Vol. 1 and 3 are the user-friendly ones

https://suncitygirls.bandcamp.com/album/eye-mohini-sun-city-girls-singles-vol-3

I recommend Grotto of Miracles if you liked Torch and FM, it starts pretty accessible but then gets weirder and noisier as it goes along - a good encapsulation of those two aspects of SCG.

I've finally heard YLT's cover of Radio Morocco via Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfPDmb0Dl2A

Apparently only released on a limited promo cassette during Stuff Like That There, kinda apt for an SCG cover I suppose...

i really like Grotto of Miracles and Horse Cock Phepner. I also think Singles Volume 1 is a good place to start

Funeral Mariachi is great but probably not a good entry point, as it won't prepare you for how inaccessible 90% of the rest of their material is. I say this as a fan. That said, if you do want to ease in: Funeral Mariachi

I saw Alan Bishop in his band Dwarfs of East Agouza on their 2023 US tour at their Baltimore gig. That group includes Egyptians Maurice Louca and Sam Shalabi. That group mixes rock and Egyptian shaabi, jazz and some Krautrock and has been putting out albums since 2016. In early April this year I saw Louca’s band Fera at Rhizome in DC. They mixed jazz with shaabi and had Luke Stewart on acoustic standup double bass and percussion for that gig ( and tour) plus violinist Ayman Asfour, and drummer and percussionist Dylan Greene. Definitely worth hearing also.

Alan Bishop has a new album out as Alvarius B that got reviewed in Pitchfork recently

New Alvarius B is really good, feels closer to SCG (in Torch/Funeral mode at least) than the other solo material I’ve heard.

Listening to the Louca’s Fera album now

I like the Dwarfs albums

have not heard the new AB one yet

Richard Bishop played in my town last month and Dwarfs of East Agouza are playing at the same venue later this month, so I'm getting my fill of SCG stuff at the moment. Richard's gig was great, watching and listening to him play acoustic is a compelling experience.

yeah he's amazing to watch, total virtuosity

Alvarius B is very good but mostly more restrained than Dwarfs albums or live