Arcane Candy

Sir Richard Bishop performs at the Bootleg Theater in Los Angeles, California on May 4, 2017.

Los Angeles, California
May 4, 2017

Upon arriving at the venue, the first thing I noticed was that it’s called the Bootleg Theater. I’m pretty sure that means if you fellas go to a show there, you’re automatically officially authorized to make bootleg recordings, GUYS. First up was Sir Robert Millis, a six-string slinger from Seattle who won’t hesitate to vigorously apply patches of modeling clay to every area of your face if you so much as glance in his direction. Mr. Millis completely dominated the stage, stomping around like King Kong (as you can see in the photo below) on a rampage through the pre-Keiji Haino city of Tokyo. He played several songs off of, I assume, his numerous albums. I’m not sure exactly which ones, so feel free to hire an attorney and take me to court. What the hell do I look like, the Discogs database?

Read the rest of this entry »

Sir Robert Millis performs at the Whistle Stop in San Diego, California on April 25, 2015.

San Diego, California
April 25, 2015

Sir Richard Bishop is a seller of rare books and guitar player who is best known as a member of the Sun City Girls, a one-of-a-kind band that was busy churning out Top 10 hits (at least in a few peoples’ households) from 1981-2007. Sir Robert Millis is a writer, videographer and musician who is part of an experimental outfit called the Climax Golden Twins. (According to the invisible friend inside my mind, their name is a tribute to the Climax Blues Band, Golden Earring and the Thompson Twins.) Both Rick and Rob are also world travelers who have contributed to the Sublime Frequencies label of raw international music.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sir Richard Bishop & His Freak of Araby Ensemble.

Read the rest of this entry »

Since 1979, Sir Richard Bishop has proven himself to be one of the hardest-working, multi-talented entertainers since Sammy Davis Jr. From 1981 to 2007, he tickled the public’s fancy with his guitar playing and singing for the Sun City Girls, an outfit that could veer from rock to jazz to free improv to hillbilly to avant-garde to performance art at the drop of a wooden nickel. Over the years, in addition to working as a seller of esoteric books, Rick has been helping his brother Alan, who played bass and sang in SCG, record and film myriad raw music performances from around the world for CD, LP and DVD releases on their Sublime Frequencies label, which was founded in 2003. Since 2005, Rick has also been touring far and wide to take his masterful solo acoustic guitar playing to the masses.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hollywood, California
June 5, 2005

As one third of genre-ignoring aural juggernaut the Sun City Girls, six-string-slinger Sir Richard Bishop has, for the flesh-eating lion’s share of three decades, permanently stained the unsuspecting underpants of the musical world. In fact, the SCG were downright notorious for stirring up the pot, the public and their sonic soup with such disparate elements as rock, free improv, country, experimental, spoken word, folk, performance art and dozens of other styles and anti-styles known, unknown and never to be considered. After forcing a wearily counted number of platters and tours upon anyone who was hearty–and smarty–enough to accept them, the trio called it a day when their tubster, Charles Gocher, checked out of this mortal hotel on February 19, 2007.

Read the rest of this entry »