The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast :: A Sun City Girls Story

Before the highly influential and groundbreaking "Riot Grrrl" movement began taking shape in the 1990s, with bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, empowering women in music and the arts, there was the Phoenix, Arizona-based trio Burning Bush out in the desert, laying the groundwork for perhaps one of the most important periods in the American underground scene at the time. Featuring members Audrey Creed (drums), Denise Tanguay (bass, vocals), and our most recent guest, Thomascyne Buckley (guitar, vocals), the band's music symbolized a giant fist made of creative concrete that punched through the fake shiny veneers of the system that led with a crooked smile during the pungent politics that riddled the 1980s. Like most of the groups coming out of the Tempe/Phoenix scene at the time, Burning Bush were one of the many that coexisted alongside the Sun City Girls, as each of their electrifying ethos cut through the existentialism of life, and exposed the beauty of community connection, and creative freedom.

Several groups come to mind when reflecting on the sonic scene of Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona, throughout the 1980s. While surfing across the spiritual surface of the desert, and its dry destinations into the vibrant void, one can still hear the staticky screams of Mighty Sphincter, Poet's Corner, Joke Flower, Killer Pussy, J.F.A., or course, the Sun City Girls, and the brother-led trio the Meat Puppets. Consisting of members Curt and Cris Kirkwood and Derrick Bostrom, our most recent guest on the podcast, the group was born from the anarchist ashes of Atomic Bomb Club before its melodic metamorphosis into the Meat Puppets, which has since become a household name amongst the underground community and mainstream over the last four decades. The Puppets and Girls' psychedelic paths crossed many times over the years, sharing the same bill at local venues like Mad Gardens, Whiskers West, Vivians, Merlins during the rare sighting of Paris 1942, as well as appearing together on the infamous comp "Amuck". Still, it's their shared memories and liberating legacy that bind them together within the harmonious history of the local scene, and beyond, and Bostrom is here to share a few of those ancient anecdotes of a time that has long since passed.

Depending on when you where born, most people know exactly where they were, who they were with, and if it was on a school night, or not when Fugazi's "Repeater" was released, or "Facelift" by Alice In Chains, "Goo" by Sonic Youth, "People's Instinctive Travels and The Paths Of Rhythm" by A Tribe Called Quest in 1991, and rightfully so. These are just a just a few academic artifacts of a decade that was shifting significantly from the underground into the mainstream, and there was nothing you could do to stop it. But do you remember where you were, who you were with, and if it was on a school night, or not when the Tempe/Arizona-based group the Sun City Girls released their mythical masterpiece "Torch of the Mystics"? This week's guest, James Toth (Wooden Wand), does, and he's here to tell all. Having been a sonic staple in the New Weird America movement from the late 1990s and early 2000s, it was here that this culturally captivating climate influenced several artists, who were undoubtedly touched but the Girls' metaphysical magic. Toth recently wrote the lucid liner notes for the archival release of Paris 1942's "Birds in Their Cages" on Superior Viaduct back in the November, and with Three Lobed Recordings graciously deciding to continue carrying the tonal torch that Eclipse Records left off with releasing the steady flow of SCG's cosmic Cloaven Tape series on vinyl in the early 2000s with "Famous Asthma / Tibetan Jazz 666", and "Extra-Sensory Defection / Graverobbing in the Future" back in July. Their spirit is more alive than ever, and Toth helps us catch up on a few missed calls from beyond the Rig Veda.

Jeff Jones's all-around philosophy of music would forever change once he relocated to Arizona to attend ASU in the late 1970s. Coming from a more traditional atmosphere that approached music parallel to its time, Jones began to infiltrate the local scene in search of like-minded people to connect with. Not only would he be creatively challenged, but his spiritual senses would be harmoniously heightened when he first met the late great Charlie Gocher after an epic duo set of drums and saxophone, which, to this day, you have to imagine the extraterrestrial energy in that room as a freakish fly that has landed on a slice of stale pizza. Eventually, the Sun City Girls' infamous short-lived quintet era was born, which featured multi-instrumentalist/vocalist Linda Cushma, Joe "Stage" Musico on drums (later replaced by Gocher), and Jones on sax. What would become the band's first-ever vinyl appearance on the legendary compilation "Ominous Clouds: Produced For Citizens For A Non-Nuclear Future," which also featured local legends Clarke Rigsby, and Hans Olson, who founded the influential Sun Club in Tempe, the group would later slim down to its mind-altering trio, and the rest is history!

During the summer of 1990 (we discovered later after recording), a Minneapolis-based radio DJ (KAFI), artist, and musician by the name of Patti Walsh, shared an unforgettable season of spirituality, laughter, madness, and epic travel with the Sun City Girls as the "unlicensed" bus driver for the band's tour with the City of Lakes-based female rockers of political power, The Pseudonymphs. Both groups shared similarities, with each having sibilings in their lineups; they also had the same booking agent at the time, Peter Davis (another discovery later corrected). These cosmic coincidences weren't some meaningless detail that haphazardly appeared later down the road in life. These were details that would later behind memories of blissful youth, and creative chaos. Join us as we ride shotgun in a buckless seat as Walsh takes us on a journey through New Haven, CT, Boston, and Worchester, on an epic expedition whose destination is still in question. We would also like to acknowledge the horrendous murder of 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good that took place on January 7th. May her family receive peace and justice during this time.

To kick off a brand new season, we decided to go back to the very beginning, where it all started, and catch up with Paris 1942's Jesse Scrogoncik to talk a little bit more about Moe's legacy and the integral role she not only had in the band's short-lived history but also for the revolution of women in music everywhere over the last half century. Even though the group only played four shows, they dedicated a great deal of time to capturing several recordings and esoteric evidence of the metaphysical magic that makes up the band's creative, cosmic core, which can still be heard in countless canyons and calcified caves around the world. While entertaining the Gods of improve, Paris 1942 isn't just the humble beginnings of the Sun City Girls, but a sonic staple in the importance of the decade's radical reaction to the world around them. With the release of the band's archival material "Birds in Their Cages" on Superior Viaduct, as well as a souped-up compilation via the group's legendary self-titled debut, the band has come full cirlce, while simultaneously occupying a special space in people's subconscious after all these years.

If Alex Coxen, the madman behind all things Milk Music/Mystic 100's/Graffiti Phallico/Worn Spiral, were alive during te Sun City Girls' radioactive reign on society's senses in the 1980s, his iconic illustrations would have been all over the band's bootlegs, t-shirts, show posters, and other various alchemical artifacts without a doubt. Bridging the gap and endless distance between the parameters of punk and the enlightened ecosystem of the hippie generation, Coxen's influences have connected him from one end of the galaxy to the next, just like the greats before. This isn't the first time we've made a connection between the Sun City Girls and the mighty melodies of the Grateful Dead on "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast." From Greg Ginn sporting his classic "Steal Your Face" tee at a Blag Flag show in 1983, to Placebo Records founder Tony Beram, who released the Girls' second LP, having seen the Dead numerous times during his youth, the cosmic connection is both relevant and uniquely universal. Join us as we take a trip, literally, with Coxen to explore the first time he became aware of the Girls' music, aquring his copy of "Grotto of Miracle," the critical chemicals that make up consciousness, and much more.

It's bitter-sweet wrapping this two part episode up with the legend behind the Phoenix, Arizona-based label Placebo Records, Tony "Victor" Beram, but all good things must come to an end. Or do they? For this epic episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast," we sit down with Beram to discuss the band's last two cult classic LPs on the label, 1986's "Grotto of Miracles," and 1987's "Horse Cock Phepner." Two subliminal subjects in the band's institution of indecipherable intelligence that poetically pushed the boundaries of bravery, humour, politics, and alchemical attitude, which have become some of thier most revered efforts to date, the power of the Sun City Girls only grew mightier as the times continued to unfold like a freakish flower. Released during the crazy whirlwind of metaphysical mind control, cultural censorship, and contagious creativity, the Girls unleashed their next two sonic specimens like a pack of wild deranged dogs on a bunch of iridescent intruders looking for a biblical bone during the hallucinogenic height of the Cloaven Cassette series throughout the 1980s. Buckle up as Beram takes us on one last holy hoorah through the liberating landscape of one of the most fascinating groups to have ever existed. Do you disagree? No one asked...    

It's hard to say, if at all possible, where the Sun City Girls would be if they hadn't released their groundbreaking self-titled LP on famed Phoenix, Arizona-based label Placebo Records in 1984. As a prolific powerhouse that would later go on to self-release a treasure trove of metaphysical material, the band's harmoniously humble days in the 1980s were marked by their cosmic connection with local hero Tony "Victor" Beram, who attended an open mic a few years before the release of the band's first album, and immediately ignited a life long brothership that has stood the test of time. Springing into action, these two electrifying entities combined their esoteric efforts and set out to take over the world with their unique univeralism and artistic integrity. Or piss it off as they held a merciless mirror in its face during a time of censorship, political unrest, and the emerging AIDS epidemic, to name a few. For the first part of this two part episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast," we sit down with Beram to chat about the early days of Placebo Records, meeting the Bishop brothers, and the late great Charles Gocher, pushing to release the band's monumental debut at any cost, touring for three months in the summer 1984 with skatepunk legends J.F.A., the abstract atmosphere of the local scene, and much more.

Imagine being on the road touring with the Sun City Girls for over a month in the autumn of 1992, pulling poetic pranks, and making memories that you'll continue to carry with you for the rest of your life. Memories that you reflect upon to make sure that life wasn't some Truman Show reality trick, and that it really did happen. From Vancouver, Canada, to Winnipeg, Columnus, OH, to home base in Tempe, AZ, where the Girls, and their guests, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 shared a bill with the late grate Eddy Detroit and his Ubangi Sextet, these two powerhouses put a cap on the end of an era in a lot of ways. The 1990s were a glorious time for our spiritual subjects, and Mark Davies (The White Shark) takes us on a journey that is simply one for the ages. On this episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast - A Sun City Girls Story," we sit down with Mark Davies to talk about his unparalleled and unique connection to the Sun City Girls, and how a night in the Bay Area sometime in the late 1980s eventually led to a deep friendship that has gone down in harmonious history as one of those tonal tales you only read about in underground zines, or hear on interstellar broadcasts that stretch across the nocturnal night skies like some holy hand gripping sonic secrets with all its strength.

Before his long-running career as a legendary stand-up comedian, Neil Hamburger, Gregg Turkington was a prominent fan figure in the highly influential Tempe/Phoenix, Arizona music scene of the 1980s, which ultimately gave birth to such notable acts like the Meat Puppets, Mighty Sphincter, skate punk legends J.F.A. (Jodie Foster's Army), and, of course, the Sun City Girls. As a young teen, Turkington's connection to the Sun City Girls, in particular members, the Bishop brothers, and late drummer Charles Gocher, who tragically passed in 2007, not only inspired his poetic pursuit over the decades, but also showed the aspiring artist that anything is possible if you stand your ground. Mixing melody with madness, the band shook the scene's hardcore backdrop with free-range ritualism and challenged even the politics of punk to go where no man has gone before. Eventually relocating to San Francisco to work alongside Bay area legends, Flipper, Turkington launched his own zine, "Breakfast Without Meat (Gravyhills Cassettes)," which simultaneously acted as a record that famously released one of SCG's most notorious albums, 1986's "Midnight Cowboys From Ipanema." Now, if you want to get technical, this is considered to be the band's third official album, but who's asking? A collection of radio-friendly covers inoculated with various spiritual snippets from their cosmic catalog, Turkington later reissued the album on vinyl and CD with his newly formed label, Amarillo Records, while continuing to book and stay connected with the band during some of their earliest West Coast shows. Similar to that of the Sun City Girls, Turkington's legacy is radically rich with a liberating language spoken only through the melodic mist that entangles its subject's senses with an ancient grip like no other.

For this episode of The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast, we decided to cover some bands and cultural happenings adjacent to SCG to add context to the times. We begin by diving into Grails' classic cover of "Space Prophet Dogon" and discussing some of Emil's time with Jandek as it runs parallel to his meeting with Alan Bishop, and how both of those characters helped change the course of his artistic life.

Have you ever wondered about the deranged details and mind-numbing narrative behind the Sun City Girls' infamous comic "The Brothers Uncconected" that was featured alongside the 1992 7-inch "Napolene & Josephine"? If there was some graphic novel, and I do mean graphic, to come out of the collective's consciousness that ultimately demonstrated the poetic possession of demonic dynamics between thought and expression, then maybe we could finally wrap our heads around the freak flag pole that has stood its ground for nealry half a century.  Released on the Black Creek, BC, Canadian-based imprint Scratch Records, just a year in operation at the time, the band played in the label's underground location, where they connected with owner Keith Perry, and musician/illustrator Blaine Thurier (The New Pornographers), while on a rare run of shows with The Thinking Fellers Union Local Club 282 in the fall of '92. Hired to work on the group's only release for the label, Thurier spent endless amounts of time working out the contemplative concepts and pathological philosophy to go alongside the group's ancient text. Haunted by the project and its gravitational pull on his spiritual senses, Thurier finally completed his masterpiece, and the rest is history. 

Arizona-based music journalist Marc Masters has contributed to several notable platforms over the years, like Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily, The Wire, and NPR Music, and has even published his own books, "No Wave," and, most recently, "Hi Bias: The Distorted History Of The Cassette Tape." A brilliant writer whose dedication to the collective culture of sound and its harmonious history is just as inspiring as the greats who laid words to paper in the decades prior, Masters' voice and style are entirely his own as he graces the alchemical airwaves for another episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast - A Sun City Girls Story." A fan of the band since the early days of tape trading and mail-ordering, Masters, along with his brother, followed the band on an early 2000s run, documenting every performance along the way. From Philly to Boston, New York to DC, Masters takes us on an epic escapade through the captivating catacombs of the band's iconic impact on culture, while simultaneously exploring his unique connection to their all-encompassing economy of esoterica, and much more.

Hailing from The Great White North, Sam Shalabi is one of those rare talents that effortlessly bridges the global gaps, both musically and politically, in a familiar way that echoes the essence of society and culture at its most critical condition. From the boreal borders of his country's forests to the poetically sharp physiographic regions, while simultaneously inhabiting the ancient atmosphere of Cairo, Egypt, Shalabi's fundamental footprints can only be measured in melody and madness. Having connected with our subject, the Sun City Girls, over two decades ago, Shalabi immediately secured a cosmic connection with Alan Bishop, in particular, and has spent the last decade and a half establishing the esoteric ecosystem that would eventually become The Dwarfs of East Agouza. On this episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast," the multi-instrumentalist, Egyptian-Canadian composer, and improviser sits down to take us through his unique introduction to the Sun City Girls and how he first became aware of the band around the time they released their monumental classic "Torch of the Mystics." it was inevitable that Shalabi and Bishop, along with Maurice Louca, would go on to form the Dwarfs, who are set to release their brand new LP "Sasquatch Landing" on Constellation Records in early October, back in the 2010s, while their telepathic trickery seemed to percolate to the surface like a rising cloud of contemplative consciousness. But to connect the dots with a liberating language such as intimate improvisation? Forget about it. Maybe there is a higher power out there somewhere pulling all the strings, while we dangle mercilessly from its fragile fibers in the cold vacuum of space. I guess some things do happen for a reason, and investing in that melodic mystery is just part of the poetic puzzle of being a person.

There are several topics, cosmic concerns and esoteric elements that spiritually surround the wild and wonderful world of the Sun City Girls. One in particular that comes to mind is the universally dense phenomenon of the UFO subject. Smitten by the legndary lore, the band has effortlessly explored and eagerly expressed their critical connection to one of the greatest mysteries known to man, which ultimately added to the band's visceral vision throughout their captivating career. On this episode of the "Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast," we're joined by Josh Moss, the man behind all things The Mordern Folk, to break down perhaps one of the most complicated conspiracies surrounding the Dulce Base that began to raise eyebrows in the late 1970s and into the 1980s. Giving Roswell a run for its money, the base supposedly rests under New Mexico's desert, where extraterrestrial excitement is the talk of the town, and a lucrative way to capitalize on the cryptic content. Moss takes the controls of the mother ship and sets out on a metaphysical mission that begins on Earth and ends up on the cold outskirts of the event horizon. Or the middle of nowhere, USA.

From the cold, calculated catacombs of Kolkata, formerly known as Calcutta since 2001, a spiritually sophisticated system of songs, esoteric emotions, and liberating legends lurks in its sinister shadows. It's a safe assumption that when you think of Seatlle in the 1990s, bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden come up, but what about the Arizona-based collective and institution of intensity, Sun City Girls? After relocating to the Emerald City, bringing along with them the adopted audio wizard Scott Colburn, the band began the next chapter of their sonic story by effortlessly diving into the ethereal ecosystem of the singing subconscious with one mission, and one mission only, to conjure the melodies of madness and murderous meditations of music. After meeting the band on their first tour with local legends JFA in 1984, Colburn not only became the group's biggest fan but a lifelong friend and brother as their irresistible influence and alchemical approach to art shattered the universe with unparalleled expression. Since 1993, Colburn has single-handedly documented every project the band produced, leading up to the untimely departure of drummer and spiritual scientist Charles Gocher Jr., who passed in February of 2007. From "Kaliflower" to "Jacks Creek," Colburn was there ready to capture the lysergical lightning in a biblical bottle at any cost. On this episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast," we sit down with Colburn to explore the band's 1996 masterpiece "330, 003 Crossdressers From The Rig Veda." A subliminal installment in the band's legendary landscape of sound and melodic madness, join us as we return to the epic ethers of the album's feverish fibers to unlock the meditative mysteries, techniques, and cosmic concepts of this truly groundbreaking body of work.

The short-lived, Phoenix, Arizona-based outfit, Paris 1942, consisted of the Bishop brothers, Alan and Rick, who had recently established the famed Sun City Girls, former drummer of the Velvet Underground, Moe Tucker, and Jesse Srogoncik. Together for a short four months in the early 1980s, the band took atmospheric advantage of the time given together by relentlessly recording their feverish findings until the desert moon faded, the spell lifted, and each member moved on to other respective avenues in their creative constellations. Srogoncik, a legend and sonic staple among Arizona's alchemical scene of poetic pranksters and music maniacs, tells his captivating story of the band's humble, yet biblical beginnings, befriending Tucker, several collaborations with the Sun City Girls, the essence of expression, and much more.