Sun City Girls - Funeral Mariachi Eric Nielsen 1.29.11
Blue Orchid as a track encapsulates this album by blending multiple influences like Italian movie soundtracks and eastern influences to combine a delight of sensitive freewheeling. Freak of Araby sounds abound. RIP Charles Gocher and herald the last studio album of the cultic Sun City Girls. So free, so gentle and so down. Lovely whispers and tablas fronting mystical and interesting guitars break and fall open into segues and bridges with instruments unimaginable. Back to the groove, the vibe, the feeling that forms a magick crystal, one you would wear on your neck to draw the currents of the desert sands. Mysterious and melancholoy, fun and serious at the same time the tracks beg inspection.

The track's mood touches the title of Funeral Mariachi. They are sad. Having produced the tracks after their drummer's long battle with cancer must have dredged some melancholy. Some of that southwest bake, that border vibe, like The Road. The songs lay heavy on a riff and deal out the gentle voices that lap you in like waves of heat rising off the baked horizon. Sizzling out the other instrumentation and layers on the vibe, the riff starts heating up to immerse you in the procession, walk with you and mete out your suppression.

This album definately sits well geographically with the rich oiled snake skin of other members of this lovely genre. I hear a lot of Maquiladora in the twisted informal composition, the layering of musical elements but especially in the overall tone. It incorporates that lassaiz faire fuck you I'll do what I want vibe that people love the SCG's for.

Go bask in the broken elements rich with wonder. Drift with the Pink Floyd of AZ. Follow the discourse and broken staggered singing and the limping lilt. Float away on a Funeral Mariachi Procession. Drifting you may find yourself, dry mouthed, awonder at where you are and what it all means. Ring the bell of SCG.