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>>Surviving Sun City Girls Alan and Richard Bishop revisit the sounds that set them aparte clean

EXCITING ANTAGONISM: Alan and Richard Bishop

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

Founded in the early ’80s, the Sun City Girls rarely played outside of their hometowns of Phoenix and later Seattle. Mixing Americana, world music, improv and anything left of centre, the trio sounded like nobody else and, despite bands that claim them as a major influence, cannot be imitated. Subject of much myth and legend, they further obscured themselves by making their wealth of recorded material incredibly hard to find, for even the most ardent collector. After the death of drummer Charles Gocher in early 2007, the Girls finally called it a day. As a tribute to Gocher, the surviving Girls, brothers Alan (bass) and Richard Bishop (guitar) play the Suoni per il Popolo fest under the title Brothers Unconnected: The Bishop Brothers Play Sun City Girls, in a very rare, Montreal-only performance. The Mirror struggled to talk with Alan Bishop over a faulty cell phone while he was driving to Denver, Colorado.

Mirror: The first time I ever heard of the Sun City Girls was back in the early ’80s in an Arizona scene report in the hardcore punk zine Maximum RocknRoll. Did your world music and penchant for improv really scare the punkers back then?

Alan Bishop: We weren’t really like any other band back then, and I guess we aren’t really now. We played a lot with hardcore bands and that antagonism was always really exciting for us. Some places were a lot more hostile than others but it was really exciting to see how it would play out, because we would just hold up the mirror and be the ones in control.

M: It seems being antagonistic has always been an important element of the band. I remember hearing about you guys doing a rare performance in Seattle where you said you were going to “play” the entirety of John Coltrane’s record Live in Seattle. After fans travelled from all over the country, you just simply played the entire LP on a stereo.

AB: That was great. One of my favourite shows we ever did was our “hobo show” in San Francisco, where we ate canned food around a campfire dressed as hobos waiting for a train. We played some Americana on banjo and did some jigs—I thought it was great theatre. People expected us with instruments, playing songs from our records, so they were really pissed off.

M: Among the current crop of noise and improv bands, it seems that a lot of people have been influenced by the Sun City Girls.

AB: A lot of the so-called underground bands I hear now I find to be really conservative. Noise bands are really not happening for me because they just aren’t very interesting and exciting, and the new psychedelic groups just have nothing to say. When I listen to music, I want to be inspired, and most of the stuff I hear now is far from it. Noise music to me is like 30 years behind.

M: With the passing of Charles Gocher early last year officially ending the Sun City Girls, do you find it strange playing the music without him?

AB: It definitely feels different, but I wouldn’t say it’s uncomfortable. Not having him in the van travelling around the country and seeing him every day at home is a bit more strange. He was a major part of my life for the past quarter of a century, and was really more of a brother.

At la Sala Rossa on Wednesday,
June 18, 8:30 p.m., $15