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

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.