Half
the fun of following a band like Sun City Girls is wrapping your head around
the notion that they could actually exist.
Self-described
“aristocrats of impertinence,” the Sun City Girls have been performing and
recording their defiant music since 1981. And there’s really no sense in
classifying that music, which was initially (and fittingly) developed in
Phoenix’s open-mic circuit. The Sun City sound shifts without warning,
encompassing woozy improv, tight jazz, industrial noise, performance art,
various confrontational tactics, etc. Performances are often given in
mix-and-match tribal garb, with each Girl (there are three) wearing some sort
of perplexing mask.
By
now, much of the Sun City Girls’ music has been released on CD, but there’s
plenty more out there on unlabeled vinyl or homemade cassette. It’s the type of
underground elusiveness that drives completists mad, and that music nerds
absolutely adore.
At
the center of this medicine show are two brothers: Richard and Alan Bishop,
which marks at least one SCG fact we’re comfortable in reporting. And somewhere
you can hear the Bishop brothers laughing at how they’ve managed to toy with
underground culture and its attendant mix of elitism and consumer fetishism.
In
an interview with Perfect Sound Forever (www.perfectsoundforever.com)from way back in 1998, Rick Bishop
seems earnest in addressing the Sun City Girls’ mystique: “I don’t think we
keep a low profile, we just don’t find it necessary to put our names on
everything we do. The music speaks for itself and we know it’s our work. That’s
all that matters.”
Elsewhere,
in discussing the Girls’ format selections, he states: “I’ll always be a fan of
vinyl, though CDs are a necessary evil. I’ll also always be a fan of evil.”
And it was Richard, appearing this Friday at
the A\V Space, who in 1998 added yet another layer to the Girls’ mystique. With
his solo debut on John Fahey’s Revenant Records, Richard Bishop (Sir Richard Bishop if you’re playing
along) was outed as a classical guitarist with jaw-dropping talent.
Bishop’s
approach to steel-string wooden guitar is so entirely focused compared to the
Sun City Girls’ schizophrenia, it’s nearly jarring in its purity. Which isn’t
to say the Girls’ output is not musical. On the contrary, some of their
recordings sound too alarmingly accessible — too downright joyful — to have
been relegated to the “out there” bin.
Over
the course of three albums (one for Revenant and two for Locust Music), Bishop
has revealed himself as a guitarist sitting firmly in the tradition of Fahey
and even Robbie Basho; an exploratory musician bent on coaxing every emotional
capability from his instrument. Like Fahey (and Sun City Girls), Bishop does
this without regard for formal restrictions. Epic pieces traverse the Delta
blues, minimalism, the ragas of the Middle East, arabesques, and quaint gypsy
asides. It’s personal music that’s still capable of taking listeners along for
every dazzling run and hairpin turn.
“One part bruit Peckinpah muscularity and two parts illuminated
Jodorowskian symbolism,” is how Bishop explains it, once again showing his
willingness to play around with avant-garde tendency.
Richard Bishop calls himself a “dealer of rare
occult books and fine paper ephemera,” both of which would be enough to pique
the interest of the culture geeks he typically appeals to.
But
if you skip his involvement in Sublime Frequencies, you’d be missing yet
another giant chunk of what Bishop has contributed to the musical landscape.
“A
collective of explorers dedicated to acquiring and exposing obscure sights and
sounds from modern and traditional urban and rural frontiers,” Sublime
Frequencies has issued countless recordings that you should only be so lucky to
hear.
Field
recordings, radio and short-wave transmissions, various far-flung pop and folk
forms, and other “sound anomalies” have wound up in the Sublime catalog.
A
description of the label’s I Remember
Syria two-CD set serves as a touching statement of purpose: “A jaw-dropping
exposé of music, news, interviews, and field recordings from one of the
least-known quarters of the Arab world. The country of Syria has been
politically and culturally exiled for decades by western media, leaving little
known of its rich heritage of art, music, and culture.” The set includes street
scenes, interviews with citizens, radio broadcasts, a song about Saddam
Hussein, and “the mystery of an underground city called ‘Kazib.'”
But
when Bishop hits the A\V Space, it’ll just be the unmasked man, alone with his
mystique and his guitar; and the knowledge of so many frontiers yet to explore.
Sir Richard Bishop of the
Sun City Girls plays with Pengo on Friday, April 29, at the A\V Space, 8 Public
Market (second floor), at 9 p.m. $5. 423-0320 or www.avspace.org. More
on Bishop: www.suncitygirls.com, www.locustmusic.com/sirrichardbishop.com, www.sublimefrequencies.com
This article appears in Apr 27 – May 3, 2005.
