Sun City Girls: classic or dud?

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.

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