THE HANDSOME STRANGER (CARNIVAL FOLKLORE RESURRECTION VOL. 8)

The Sun City Girls were in fact three men from Arizona, whose enormous discography is filled with strange, independently produced albums running the gamut from psychedelic guitar rock to spoken word performance art. This particular release leans a lot closer to the latter category, giving center stage to Charles Gocher (drums), who provides vocals for all tracks in his Tom Waits-meets-the-Fugs phlegmy growl. The musical accompaniment by Gocher and the Bishop brothers (Rick on guitar/piano, Alan on upright bass) is what I like to call "junkyard jazz", a clunky, drifting mood piece that gives Gocher's gory recitations a "poetry and jazz" feel. As musicians, they clearly have some pretty serious chops (as heard on other releases), but for this album, they keep the music pretty low-key.

The Sun City Girls' (particularly Gocher's) recurring lyrical themes are often very disturbing trips inside the evil nature of man - not "demons and goblins" scary, but "creepy guy in the country who keeps little girls' eyeballs in his refrigerator" scary. The glee with which they deliver these stories makes them even more disturbing. Through it all, the group manages to come across as nice guys in sneakers and t-shirts you'd probably like to hang out with, but who just have a pretty sick sense of humor.

"Shadowland" opens, and sounds a lot like Tom Waits circa "Swordfishtrombones", but distilled down to it's noisy core, with little discernible melody to hold onto. Think of it as a delirious, drunken romp through a barren wasteland. "Prisoner of Mold" is mostly instrumental - soft, ominous jazz led by piano, with upright bass and brushed drums, with Gocher's spooky groans just in the background towards the end. "Isle of Spree/Foley's Halloween" is a 7 minute recitation by Gocher with moody background music. The story is told from the point of view of John F. Kennedy, who meets John Wilkes Booth (referred to as "the handsome stranger") in Purgatory, they visit a bar together and Booth propositions JFK for sex. Fun stuff, huh? "Leprosey (sic) of Melbourne" is a brief, noisy number, and "Calcium Kiss" is its quiet flipside, with just piano and tender (for Gocher, anyway) sing/speaking about wanting to kiss the bare skull of his lover after cutting off her head and soaking it in bleach. Holy cow, Chuck.

Light entertainment follows, with "Grease That Lightnin' Bolt", a relatively straight swing number with saxophone and scat singing. "Carcass Investigation" is all mood, an abstract bit of avant ensemble play, which turns out to be an intro for the final track, the 11 minute "The Handsome Stranger". Gocher's vocal hits its most raspy and horrible registers here, as he appears to elaborate on the JFK/Booth story told earlier, but perhaps told from the point of view of the Devil. Hard to say. It's disturbing stuff, but also kinda funny in a dark sort of way.

Overall this album is a good concise example of this band's vocal-based work, and Charles Gocher's twisted stories and visions. It's definitely more interesting than it is pleasant to listen to, and a lot of it sounds made up on the spot (with 40+ albums under their belt, it's easy to assume they don't spend a lot of time composing each one), though Gocher's stories are literate and sometimes gripping. It'll certainly open your eyes, but it's definitely a rough listen that may not be your cup of tea. But if you like seeking out the Weird, you should check these guys out.