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Biscuit! posted:Sun City Girls i'm stealing this from blastitude but I think it's the best beginner's guide. by far some of my favorite musicians. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TOP 10 BEST SUN CITY GIRLS ALBUMS by Larry Dolman My recommendations, anyway, whatever they may be worth, with #1 being the most recommended, in descending order of essentiality. Subject to change without notice. 01. Torch of the Mystics (Majora LP, 1989; Tupelo CD, 1993). It's the obvious choice, but it really is a perfect introduction, a collection of short songs so catchy that almost anyone will sit and listen to it. There's none of the gratuitous vicious improv that SCG usually includes in order to keep The 99 Percent Nation (a/k/a "The Norms") at bay, but it's still deeply loaded with layers of scorch and baffle that reveal themselves slowly and continuously over time. 02. 330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda (Abduction 2CD, 1996; Locust 3LP, 2002). Not just for the music, which is all amazing, but for the sheer weight. From Pan-Asian pop to gamelan music to soundtrack music to heavy downer folk ("CCC"!) to 33 minute improvs with heavy metal violin, the most Sun City Girls variety you'll get on any one release (including Box of Chameleons). 03. Sun City Girls (Placebo LP, 1984). The self-titled debut LP from 20 years ago still sounds astonishingly up-to-the-minute. 04. Horse Cock Phepner (Placebo LP/CS, 1987). Maybe this should go higher on the list. Maybe this should just be #1. If you get a chance, listen to it. You'll see what I mean, and it's so much more than just the dirty jokes, even though the smut of "Nancy Reagan" makes it my personal favorite song ever about U.S. politics. (Lately I've been thinking of it as "Laura Bush," with the role of Mr. T played by Kobe Bryant and/or Michael Jackson, but that's probably just a phase.) 05. Kaliflower (Abduction CD/LP, 1994). Much smaller than Crossdressers, but somehow almost as varied, featuring the all-time classic introduction "X+Y=gently caress You" (put that on your K-Tel novelty rap compilation), an incredible 1990 live-in-Chicago version of "The Venerable Song," the Atlantean/Venusian Frankie Valli (Frankie Kali?) drum circle gospel tune "So The Dead Tongues Sang," coupla sweet VU-type jams, and even more. 06. Alvarius B (Abduction 2LP, 1998). Maybe this shouldn't be on here, as it's not actually a Sun City Girls album. But it's such a piece of work that the world should know. This is an album of almost forty songs written and performed solo by Alan Bishop, just his voice and acoustic guitar and lyrical imagery taking you down increasingly creepy paths of allusion, satire, filth, and paranoia. 07. Dante's Disneyland Inferno (Abduction 2CD, 1996; Locust 3LP, 2002). Like the Alvarius B album, I list it not so much for being a Sun City Girls album as I do because it's a work of art that simply cannot go unmentioned. It's almost (but not quite) literature instead of music. Every track is a different window on some sort of psychological malice or horror, the blinds raised almost entirely by the texts/readings of (SCG drummer) Charles Gocher. Set pieces, one-act plays, surrealist skits, campfire songs, evil nursery rhymes, invocations, rants, poems, dream narratives, creepy uncles, malicious neighbors, songs, and more, for 139 minutes, with the perfect cinematic musical accompaniment throughout. (Maybe this should just be #1.) 08. Bright Surroundings, Dark Beginnings (Majora LP, 1993; Majora CD, 1998). Side one is the 'definitive studio version' of "The Venerable Song." Side two is split evenly into two cuts, both heavy psychedelic red torch light jams. One of their most straight-faced albums besides Torch, and their best album of 'long cuts.' (i.e. Dawn of the Devi LP, Live From Planet Boomerang 2LP.) 09. Libyan Dream (Cloaven CS, 1993; Abduction CD, 2001). This is the album that is most like Torch of the Mystics. But then again, it's different . . . for example, Torch has no 'long cuts,' and Dream ends with a 'long cut' (15 min.) that sounds like Wah without the wah. And the Amboy Dukes cover just blazes. 10. The Dreamy Draw (Abduction CD, 2000). This emerged as a fan favorite from the not-always-quite-this-essential Carnival Folklore Resurrection series, presumably for its distinctly hushed bell-tone quietude, sustained throughout, living up to the dreamy album title (the name of a well-known dam and recreation area in Phoenix, AZ). The most thoroughly gentle SCG release, by far.
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Mar 6, 2008 20:13
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