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.

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

Alan Bishop, Richard Bishop and Chris Corsano just played a festival in China as Clandestine Trio, playing only SCG songs. I thought this was a new project but I'd forgotten, per sleeve's post from 2017 upthread, that they'd previously played as a quartet with the addition of Mick Flower. Hoping for more dates to come.

Rick posted the setlist on IG and it looked really amazing! let me see if it's still there...

https://www.instagram.com/sirrichardbishop_scg/p/DJzEtLJhf5T/

hell yeah

The Alan/Richard Brothers Unconnected 2008 tour when Charlie died (they even sprinkled some ashes on the audience, although I never found out if it was real) is still the best show I’ve ever seen and I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to see them again ever since, seems like they don’t travel the US much outside of a an occasional West Coast one-off.

yep it was amazing, I saw the Portland OR show

yes. i saw nyc. the souvenir CD is great.

re setlist... nothing more recent than Libyan Dream? Interesting...

oh, I have that disc somewhere and think I was at the nyc gig too. lots of 9/11 jokes, right?

re setlist... nothing more recent than Libyan Dream? Interesting...

― duolingo ate my baby (Jon not Jon), Monday, May 19, 2025 1:51 PM (five hours ago)

"Black Orchid"

New Cloaven reissues on 2xLP limited to 1000 and sounds like probably won’t be repressed, if you want them better go for it now…I don’t really buy records much anymore, especially new ones, but I made an exception here

I saw those in an Unrock email update, are they available in the US?

SO glad they have restarted that series btw

I grabbed mine from the Three Lobed Bandcamp, not sure if they’re available elsewhere as well

Postage to EU is absurdly high in Bandcamp, tried to ask Three Lobed about any European distribution but haven't heard anything yet.

Unrock in Germany is gonna have some copies

https://www.unrock.de/product/sun-city-girls-extra-sensory-defection-graverobbing-in-the-future-2xlp/

Thanks! Found that hhv.de had them as pre-order also and grabbed them there. UK people: at least Norman Records offer pre-order.

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