Sun City Girls / Sir Richard Bishop
 

Sun City Girls are an amazing group who bring together so many different styles it's hard to even begin describing them. Sir Richard Bishop is their lead guitarist and he's recorded quite a few solo albums, the latest of which came out recently and is completely brilliant. It's called While My Guitar Violently Bleeds and it definitely goes a long way in showing the range of the acoustic guitar. It's all great trippy music with Middle Eastern and gypsy vibes and with jazz, surf, noise/drone etc. all thrown randomly in the mix.

I would like to hear the sun City Girls. They sound interesting at the very least.

If anyone else is interested just pm me.

Gave it a go but it didnt really grab me. You can't win them all!

Sir Richard Bishop is an unvelievably talented guitarist. Like, it's strange that he's THAT technically gifted and yet nobody really knows who he is.

Sun City Girls are one of my top 5 bands, easily. They have released a LOT of stuff, and there's plenty of it that is pretty s.h.i.t. to be honest...some of the jam sessions they've done, some live recording...not particularly great.

But the main albums are all stellar for the most part. My top three...

1. Horse Cock Phepner
2. Torch of the Mystics
3. 330.003 Crossdressers From Beyond The Rig Veda

As for Sir Richard Bishop's solo work...While My Guitar Violently Bleeds was one of the best records of 2007. That and Fingering The Devil are his best albums. I'm seeing him live soon, should be amazing!

f'ucking awesome music.

Sun City Girls are basically perfect. Sir Richard Bishop solo is really cool too, Salvador Kali is probably my favorite of his. Either that or While My Guitar Violently Bleeds,

Any chance I could get that off you?

yeah, gimme some time and i'll get it to you.

I've liked a lot of what I've heard, find they work better as album / artifacts than as downloads as each release bears a buttload of INTENT, ie meant to be heard as a set, in this or that format, in this or that amount of time, and not just to be observed as information that they exist... Whatever that's supposed to mean. Only thing that puts me off is the hint of "you're a dolt for spending your money on us" that sometimes rears its head. Not to say that it's all to my taste otherwise but I can at least appreciate everything and the musicianship is tops without being snarky. Their Sublime Frequencies world music label puts out some AMAZING things, too, imo, especially the Radio Thailand discs

yeah those guys kick ass

Sir Richard Bishop was amazing live...to see him playing in the flesh makes you really appreciate how technically gifted he is. Plus, the guy has a fantastic beard.

I picked up their self titled just recently and from what I've heard so far... they sound alot like The Magic Band, only more chaotic.

I remember reading an interview with Sir Richard Bishop on the Horse**** Pephner album. It was pretty funny, he mentioned that they "fell behind on their obscenity quota." If you've heard the album, you'll understand what he means, because that album is chock full of vulgarity a lot of it directed towards politicians, etc.

Sun City Girls' Torch of the Mystics is great. What album should I get next?

Have you checked out their self-titled yet?

so...these guys have been flirting around my recommendations page for a while.

i picked up Torch of the Mystics, it's pretty good, but i feel like there's some element to their music i'm missing out on. any help/suggestions?

Ahhhhh seeing him play in less than an hour! Hellz yeah I'm out. Peace.

Edit: So the show was fantastic. As expected. Richard is truly a gifted guitarist and I enjoyed his three band members. I also picked up a limited edition dvd/cd "God Damn Religion" a disturbingly trippy and falic series of images exploring religion and... evil.... nasty ****.

I was just browsin' around on youtube and found the last performance with Charles, who died only a few months after this. I do have sort of a melancholic feeling while watching this, well it's nice to know that they threw his ashes out in the crowd on the tribute tour. ****, when I die I want to be creamated and have my friends frolic amongst my ashes.

Saw these guys play live at ATP in 2004, seriously fantastic stuff, got talking to Rick and Alan for a fair while, really nice guys, who could keep anyone interested for hours.

I also have everything Rick Bishop has latterly released as Sir Richard Bishop. His latest "The Freak of Araby" is absolutely stunning, backed by a full band for the fist time whereas his previous releases have all pretty much just been finger-picked guitar on his own or de-constructed electric guitar.

oh, "Freak Of Araby" is amazing! one of the best records I bought last year, if not in the last several ... doesn't quite sound like anything else though I guess it reminds me a bit of Marc Ribot's "Muy Divertido" or Gabor Szabo on steroids

I am thoroughly convinced these guys are one of the greatest bands of all time.

Even though I knew about them for a long time, for some reason I didn't start listening to them until I joined this forum and thanks to GravitySlips recommendation. Torch of the Mystics became on my very loved albums on the first hearing almost. I cannot quite explain the sensation. It's like it touched all the right strings that I wondered why haven't I heard this before. Since then I listened to Horse Cock Phepner and their first Sun City Girls, but Torch of the Mystics remains my favorite.

Their new album "Funeral Mariachi" is also quite accessible. It's like their last hurrah before the Bishops lay this tired old, but still good moniker to rest. Charles passed away awhile ago, but for some reason they decided to release something new way after.


The first song is off of "Funeral Mariachi" and the second is off of "330,003 Crossdressers From Beyond the Rig Veda". The latter is a must get if you dig Sun City Girls.

^I remember you posted about Funeral Mariachi a while back and it's on my 'to hear list'. They really have a lot of albums and although I haven't heard them all, I'm under impression that they're quite different from each other. I never know what to get next. But I'll definitely check 330,003 Crossdressers. Thanks for recommendation.

Just listening to Horse Cock Phenpher and thinking.... ****ing Christ these guys are underrated. I really need to look into them more.

They're the only band to make me cry from laughing and totally wow me with their knowledge of world music and their overall musicianship. I am thoroughly convinced this guys were brought into the world via a mad scientist's experiments on man. I love them to death there's not a single band out there like them.

Space Prophet Dogon is incredible. Torch of the Mystics is easily their best album in my opinion, Horse Cock Phepner is great too. And I really dig Sir Ian Bishop's solo stuff, from what I've heard.

I've known about this band for a while now, but I've never really looked into their music. Does anyone know of a good album that I should start with?

"Torch of The Mystics"

No doubt the best starting point.

Yes, Torch of the Mystics. One of the best albums of all time!

Here's a collab with the Residents, it's fantastic:

While My Guitar Violently Bleeds is incredible, totally melts my brain away.

Watched the first two of their VHS tapes, and they're amazing. Suppose too 'goofy' for a lot of people, but top quality entertainment for me.

Sun City Girls are a ****ing riot. I use their spoken word stuff all the time in my acting classes, especially The Brothers Unconnected.

I couldn't add anything more to what hasn't been said already.

What do you guys think of the Rangda record he did with Chris Corsano and Ben Chasny? I personally though it was stellar.