S & D: Sun City Girls

The Alvarius B. solo records (that's Rick's brother Alan, another SCG) are pretty decent too, but somewhat "difficult" for neophytes.

And Charlie Gocher's (that's the 3rd Girl from the Sun City) solo stuff (Pint-Sized Spartacus, something else I can't remember) is def. more in the jokey, faux-beat poet style of some his songs on the SCG stuff. Good, but not a great starting point.

Anyway, I'd rather listen to the Girls' worst records than ever have to hear another note of Momus.

The Brothers Unconnected tour just kicked off last night at the Triple Door in Seattle. For all you SCG fanpersons, you don't want to miss this tour. srsly. Chances are the Bishops will play "that" song you always wished you saw the Girls play. Yeah, acoustic, but they're incredibly vicious and loud on acoustic. And don't invite friends who are easily offended unless you hate these friends, then it's totally encouraged.

Oh, and they're selling two tour-only items

* A CD of a selection of Brothers Unconnected songs (i.e. Bishops acoustic versions of various old Sun City Girls songs)
* A tour only LP that is the Girls live show at Sit & Spin in Seattle from 6 years ago. McGoonyGal was at that show, and I think he rated it their best? or one of their best? (I missed it like an asshole.)

I leave for Portland in under two hours!

Yeah I saw those merch things announced, am bringing extra cash for both.

songs I am pretty sure I will hear: Dreamland, Bitter Cold Countryside

songs I hope I will hear: Kill The Klansmen, Shining Path, Borungku Si Derita.

I'm actually not super-familiar with Sun City Girls -- should I go to this Brothers Unconnected show when it comes through Denver? I like the Sir Richard Bishop stuff I've heard.

Yeah, go. It'll be worth it, easily.

yes, this is a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

My friend in Seattle was at the show last night and said he was moved to tears. So, that Austin date? Yeah.

dates

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 - Whippersnapper Gallery
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

brattle might be doable for me. it's a beautiful venue.

HOLY SHIT THAT SETLIST

got back from Portland about 3 A.M. last night. still reeling. Check this out:

SET 1

Horse Cock Phepner (!)
Six Kids Of Mine
"black leather shoes" song, from Grotto I think
Rookoobay (!!!)
Hippie Conglomerate (one of my very favorites)
Saint Bernard's Observation Booth
Cruel & Thin
Bitter Cold Countryside
"don't ask me who they are"... from Dante's I think
Rodent With A View
Book Of Revelations (!!!!!)
Soft Fragile Eggshell Minds
Cookin' With Satan
Church Of (D)Anger
improv
The Brothers Unconnnected

SET TWO

Blue Mamba
The Flower
something from Hi Asia
Encyclopedia Vomitanica (!!)
Nyne De Gris Sang
Civet's Tango
Papa Legba
The Vinegar Stroke
Pay The Fiddler
another one from Hi Asia
Space Prophet Dogon
Eye Mohini
The Shining Path
Eyeball In A Quart Jar Of Snot

amazing, do not miss, blah blah.

Phew. Hope they're recording this for release.

That is some set.

there were people taping with their own gear and it didn't seem to be a problem, maybe that's up to the venue though. I forgot to ask Rob if they were doing their own recording but I sincerely hope some form of this is available someday. "Papa Legba" in particular was very different. Also loved Rick channeling Charlie during "Book Of Revelations", goddamn I guess it wouldn't be an SCG (RIP) show if they didn't scare the living shit out of me at some point.

ALSO, I would like to hear if they do "Eyeball" again, I am pretty sure they just busted that out cause my friend requested it. In an interview Rick once alleged that they were capable of playing any song out of their catalog at the drop of a hat, and now I think I believe him.

Man, I hope they aren't out of the CD/vinyl by the end of the tour.

currently praying that they bring this to europe!

Yeah, that set list matches the Seattle show.

I TOLD YOU :-D

What did you think about how Alan specifically ended the first set? Or more to the point, what do you think that was? (I have my idea, but curious to see if we're all in the SCG fanperson hivemind or not.)

hm, all I remember is them doing that dialogue bit ("The Brothers Unconnected"), which was mostly Rick talking. Then they just took a short break. I'm not really sure what you're referring to, but it sounds interesting.

I had never noticed how much Alan sings through his nose! His mouth hardly moved throughout the whole evening.

Damn Damn Damn Damn - same night as Swervedriver in Chicago - really would like to split myself in two ...

Did Alan seem to open up a little jar of something and blow it into the audience near the end of the first set, sleeve?

not that I saw, but I was a little distracted right then and making my way back to my seat. Mr. Yeti was there, maybe he knows.

by the way I am listening to the tour CD right now and aside from missing the short obscene tracks and long rants it is a very good representation of the evening.

hmmm, but I can see why he would do that now that I reread your post.

I guess we'll hear the reports from the Cali peeps and/or mcgoonygal and find out!

How crowded have the shows been? And has anyone listened to the vinyl yet?

Portland was disappointingly sparse. Have not listened to vinyl.

more setlist geekery:

"Church Of (D)Anger" above should be "Ballad Of (D)Anger", also I think after listening to the CD that "Aristocrats Of Impertinence" and "Flesh Balloons Of Tibet" and "Mama's Milk (Too Dry)" were in there somewhere as well...

No talk here about this supposed soundtrack work with Jason Spacemen? It's said to be listed as Sun City Girls anyway...

That's not a collab right? There are just son Jason tracks and some SCG tracks and they are on the same CD, no?

It's a split album, essentially. Jason Spacemen did not collaborate with the Sun City Girls. I can't even imagine the two even getting along. But the soundtrack, I think, features the very last work the Girls recorded with Charlie.

xp
Oh that seems about right yes, still not much info anywhere. Are those new SCG tracks?

I see. Should check that out then

Ah, man. I left after the first set because a) had to get home to the babysitter and b) figured the second set was going to be all or mostly Charlie songs too. (The "improv" was not actually an improv, it's "Mama's Milk (Too Dry)," which as far as I can tell has a specific rhythm and no specific notes.)

The second half of the CD is basically acoustic versions of half of "Torch of the Mystics."

Listening to the LP now--it includes "Rookoobay" (is that a cover of somebody's song? whose?), "Duniya Mein Logon Ko" and "Radar Love," among others...

The Spaceman/SCG Mister Lonely soundtrack is really good! Both parties, oddly enough, mix together quite nicely. And you get a typically gloomy monologue from Werner Herzog, too! Everybody wins!

cant wait for this. am i to understand that the show is way too long to expect to make it across town in time to see times new viking after it's all done? the DC show is supposed to start at 8...

The SF show thankfully has an opening act. I won't get there at least until 9.

DC show starts at 9:30. And I feel embarrassed that someone who likes Sun City Girls would consider seeing Times New Viking at all, let alone the same night.

Heading to Toronto from Scotland just to see this show - can't wait!!

x post
Rookoombey is a cover of some old calypso standard, Ernesto San Miguel and Black Czar & The Paragon Haitian Orchestra both did versions, not sure who came first.

Wow.

The Brothers Unconnected was the best reunion-type show I've ever seen, Mission of Burma included -- and it's your last chance to ever see Rick and Alan perform this material. I was ecstatic during it and then cried the next morning, realizing I'd really never hear those songs again.

Of course, those guys have always done things with such honesty and integrity; it's partly the circumstances, but mostly it's just that the Girls have always done everything so well, you know?

After watching the forty-minute montage of Charlie's little film vignettes, you'll miss the fuck out of him even if you're just seeing the guy for the first time, there on screen. He was brilliant and brutal and uncompromising and funny as fuck.

The tour CD is great, I think -- I've had one since EMP. Alan even left a track off of the thing for the next YETI, which will have other rare Girls material and people covering them as well...

I didn't buy the LP as I only had enough on me for the lovely poster and the Rick plays SCG 7" which I know has been out for some time but I'd not gotten it before. That Abduction LP is a live recording of a show the Girls played in Seattle at the sorely-missed Sit & Spin (which I was at and I remember it being pretty great).

Scott and the guys are recording every show, yes. Didn't ask to what end, but those guys have always documented as many of their shows as possible. Some day I need to ask to see the VHS tape of the first time I saw them, Miami 1982 -- Charlie said over the years he'd watched it half a dozen times!

Do not miss this, that's my advice.

Ooops, sorry for saying what you'd already said Brian -- and it's really hard to rate SCG shows, for me anyway, but if I said that about the Sit & Spin show then I guess it's true!

I sat next to Scott and his wife perchance at the Seattle show. Not sure if there was a full mixer board hookup he did, but I know he's also using a regular video recorder from wherever he could sit.

I wasn't aware he was touring with them! I figure he was busy in the studio at home as usual. Unless you mean "guys" as people Scott trained?

Hopefully one of the many Tom Petty jokes at the SEA show makes whatever video document may come out of this, heh heh heh.

scott's gonna be at all the shows, doing sound and hawking wares. any climax golden twins fans should be sure to say hey to him as he's such a sweet and talented dude! the twins' awesome dust to digital book/ cd set has sold out already, fyi -- believe it's being repressed now.

uh, rob millis is the climax golden twin who is hawking wares, scott colburn is the sound dude.

Some day I need to ask to see the VHS tape of the first time I saw them, Miami 1982

My head just spins at this.

ohh man i've made that mistake for years -- yeah it's rob. i'm so bad with names, man i am embarrassed.

ha, Mackro, in Portland the jokes were about Cat Stevens.

good to compare notes, everybody. and I think it's worth reiterating what Mike said above - that this is pretty much your last chance to hear these songs.

I talked to two of the other people who were there with me on Monday and there were no mysterious substances blown into the audience that we could see.

also, to 69: Times New Viking are certainly worth seeing (and I say this as a pretty big SCG fan, Mr. Reatard, careful with those unconditional statements) but this show will be too long to split the evening, and it will be far better.

oh and thanks to poppy for the info about Rookoobay.

sleeve: i talked to friends since, and we all saw Alan blow something into the air at the Triple Door show, end of first set, very deliberately and conspicuously. The going story is that they were Charlie's ashes. (But it could have just been talcum powder or dust for all we know.)

re: Rob. Yeah, Scott didn't look like he was going on tour after he took off from the Sunday show. And Rob was the man behind the merch. Scott did help videotape the Sunday show though.

from the mid to late 90's on, every time I saw them they were mostly in confrontational mode, warming up with one hour of improv and meandering & parodies of parodies of racism designed to clear the room of anyone who was there because they'd read the writeup in the free weeklies, then one more hour of slightly more focused improv, then they'd close with two or three fantastic songs

but last night they just launched right in. still took them about an hour to completely lock in but that second hour was something rare

HELL FUCKING YES to the show last night Minneapolis. It's going to take me a long time to process it/talk about it, but just GO SEE THIS!

A powder of some sort was definitely blown into the crowd at the end of set one. People around me were all saying "Gocher's ashes!" Can anyone confirm?

The tour CD and LP are both great.

Anyway, this was everything I could've hoped for.

So .. how much extra cash do I need to bring tomorrow if I wanna pick up the LP & CD ?

$30 I think, 20 for LP 10 for CD.

cool ... thanks, sleeve!

gah i missed l.a. thank god for san diego. that's my bday weekend too, can't wait.

The Iowa City show was truly amazing. They barely made it from Minnesota due to the Iowa floods. Richard told me that this was the first show that they were not able to show the movie. Because of the movie omission he also said that we would get to hear a few extra tracks.
The set list was staggering.
Alan did blow something into the audience in between sets. He never did say what it was. I like the Grocher's ashes theory.

Also...a tour only screen print was available at merch. Alan and Richard were gracious enough to sign one for me.

I do have audio of the show if anyone is interested.

Have these last four shows been announced:

7.09.08 - Santa Cruz, CA - TBA
7.10.08 - TBA
7.11.08 - TBA
7.12.08 - TBA

Holy shit. The DC show was probably the best show I've ever seen. I PRAYED that someone was recording it -- I would sell my soul to get a copy of the "Uncle Jim" they played tonight -- but I looked around and didn't see anyone set up. Are there recordings of any other of the recent shows floating around?

Two more things:

1. The girl who came to clean up that glass bottle in the middle of a song (an exceptionally quiet song, nonetheless) was obnoxious.
2. The bitch who kept saying "yeah, dog" during "Uncle Jim" is lucky I didn't kill her.

i believe that all of these shows are being recorded, by the dudes themselves fyi.

scg themselves video'ed and/or sound recorded most of their shows, as i understand it -- charlie told me he'd watched the tape of the first time i saw them (miami in '84 as i'm pretty sure i said upthread) 8 or 9 times... i should have asked to see it with him sometime!

the ashes are pretty clearly the ashes. my friends got some on them.
Rick picked up the little square box containing them at the end when they took their bows & made it do a little box bow.

highlights of NY show: 1-800-FUC-KYOU by request; pedal shout out to noise musicians/m4rci4 b4sset; brothers sharing a water like brothers

Help!
Can any of you help name some of these mystery tracks?

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=ETO6MFPV
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3XJVOU20

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Great show here in Asheville, North Carolina. Best SCG show I've ever seen, in fact. When I was younger, I really zeroed in on all their craziness. But last night I realized just how rooted they are in classic stage performance and entertainment. Sure, they're totally out there. But you can see them as the logical fusion of American theatre, from traveling medicine shows to the Living Theatre. I mean, they are just such great actors and musicians, delivering the goods. They're true students of drama. Awesome. Man, they were on. Super tight. OK. I'll stop babbling...

Sunday night, here. I'm pretty excited.

hey last night's show was awesome.

san diego was FREE!

I have a SCG question for you fanatics out there - is all of Kaliflower like the song "X + Y = Fuck You?" Because I just heard this track on the new Yeti magaizne comp and - fuck!! Nedd more like this - twisted Uncle Jim style raps. Always heard Kaliflower was one of their, err "avoidable" releases.

yeah the rest of it isn´t as hot except for "And So The Dead Tongue Sang", which I also love. and nothing on it sounds like X+Y which is one of their best.

Is Yeti a good magazine? There were ads for it at the back of the new Love & Rockets ish and it looked pretty good.

Yeti is fucking awesome, seriously.

Great magazine, Alex. One of the last print rags left worth it's (relatively high) cover price

I'll check it out then. I don't think I've ever seen it in shops.

they have it at amoeba, aquarius, rvca, any bookstore... :-P

Haha okay apparently I haven't been looking.

Yeti is grrrrrrrreat. And $12 isn't so high a price, considering the volume of enjoyable articles plus a CD PLUS, you're supporting an ILXor!

What is a CD PLUS?

I just ordered issues 5 + 6.

an unclear use of punctuation.

New issue of Yeti:

YETI SEVEN pre-order now for May 18 release and save $2 . . .

On the 80-minute CD: rare/previously unreleased music from: Grouper, Abner Jay, Dum Dum Girls, Wooden Shjips, Dutchess and the Duke, Jacuzzi Boys, the Great Unwashed, Nodzzz, Zola Jesus, Crystal Stilts, Finally Punk, 39 Clocks, the Bible Aires Spiritual Singers, Fresh + Onlys, Moon Duo (an awesome W. Shjips "offshoot" band), Explode Into Colors, Limes, Eternal Tapestry, Woods, Christmas Island, some Jamaican gospel -- and yes. even more. Probably the best CD we've ever done.

Inside the 200-page book: Joe Brainard's remarkable book cover designs, a rare manuscript by Abner Jay detailing his time at the antebellum-fetishizing Stepehen Foster Center in Florida, Grouper talking to Ilyas Ahmed, the life and work of poet/educator Nancy Dupree, comics by clients at Portland's Full Life center for developmentally disabled adults, drawings by J. Bradley Earl of Woods, and the music of Black Twig Pickers and Jack Rose. Plus interviews with artist Jim Woodring, author Lynne Tillman, SF-based band the Nodzzz, author/screenwriter Rudy Wurlitzer, also SF-based band the Wooden Shjips, and fiction by Mimi Lipson. Contributors include Erik Davis, Doug Elliott, Justin Farrar, Ross Simonini, Sara Jaffe, Kevin Elliott, Jesse Studenberg, and Michael Neault.

We're super-psyched that the cover is a detail from a new painting by Mingering Mike (Pres. Obama as a boxer) with reproductions of his Obama-themed works inside. Full-page illos by Tara Sinn, E*Rock, Mark Weakley, Pedro Lourenco, Forrest Martin, Jess Fogel, Sylvie Spencer, and Susan Willmarth.