Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Sir Richard Bishop/Sun City Girls
















So Richard Bishop (what's up with the "sir"?) has had a residency at Zebulon this month, playing each Monday. I finally caught the show last night, braving a super-packed, very sweaty crowd full of hipsters and caught about a half hour before I had to catch up with friends outside who couldn't get in. The first couple of songs were way cool, open-tuning improv stuff, distortion, eastern scales. Then he sang this very weird but totally cool song about incest, which I wasn't expecting. He kept singing and that's when it got less interesting and I had to split. But would like to check out Sun City Girls, that blog bigfatsatanfest is no longer up, but I think I can find some stuff on captaincrawl, what should I check out?

6 comments:

shelley duvall said...

YOU SHOULD FUCKIN CHECK OUT EVERYTHING SUN CITY GIRLS HAVE EVER DONE

AND THEN CHECK OUT EVERYTHING ALAN BISHOP HAS EVER DONE

AND THEN YOU MIGHT ASWELL KNOCK YOURSELF OFF THE EARTH


BROTHER

Bill Zink said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bill Zink said...

I'm down with the first suggestion, but to be more specific:

"Horsecock Phepner" is a Fugs-inspired masterpiece - as a matter of fact, they have a great version of the Fugs "CIA Man". It is SCG at their most lyrically aggressive, much like Alan Bishop's Uncle Jim stuff.

"Torch of the Mystics" is their most accessible album, but not compromised.

The Carnival Folklore Resurrection series has a lot of good titles, my three favorites being 5, 6, and 7: "Severed Finger with a Wedding Ring", "Sumatran Electric Chair", and "Libyan Dream". SEC has a lot of field-recording type stuff, SFwaWR has some corrosive jams, LD is a better, lower-fi version of "Torch".

"Napoleon and Josephine" and "You're Never Alone with a Cigarette" are both singles compilations, and therefore have the broadest overview.

"330,003 Crossdressers from Beyond the Rig Vida" is another one of my favorites.

They tended to record whole bunches of stuff, and they were all over the map. Some people considered this lack of editing instinct a drawback, I consider it a strength.

Sorry your show was beset with hipsters. His shows here tend to be getting more crowded as well. Harder to enjoy the shows, but I'm glad SRB's getting more attention. He deserves it.

rootless said...

I live in Williamsburg so I don't really hate on the hipsters, it was just sweaty and all. want do I want to check out if I'm most into the eastern instrumental shit and not as much the wacky stuff with vocals? thanks.

ator said...

I would say "Torch of the Mystics" fo sho

I got turned on to the Sun City Girls from this weird short film they used to show on IFC that had Claire Danes in it. The music completely burrowed itself into my consciousness after watching it only once or twice. Yook a little while to track down the source, but Ive been and on-again/off-again fan ever since.

Anywho, I think "Torch of the Mystics" is the best starting point and one of their more "focused" albums. As for the cover art....

rootless said...

Thanks, ya'll, I'll get to downloading. I threw $3 into the hat going around for Richard Bishop so I feel entitled to their whole catalogue now, haha.