Sir Richard Bishop: C or D?

for purposes of this thread, hells = heels

Dammit, I meant to go to that show.

SRB is really a very different beast solo than with the Girls. I think it's all classic. Fingering The Devil is probably my favorite. The two older ones (Improvika and Salvador Kali) are good, but not worth spending collector prices on.

I think I had a brief post about SRB's solo stuff on one of the Sun City Girls' threads. Anyways, complete classic. In just the past month, I picked up Improvika, While My Guitar... and Polytheistic Fragments and they are all incredible. I'm probably liking Improvika the most right now but I play them all interchangeably. SRB's stuff has gotten me on a big solo acoustic guitar kick lately.

On a similar note, any fans of SRB should check out the other stuff on Locust Music's Wooden Guitar series (the series which released 'Improvika') - this stuff is awesome too. Eric Carbonara's Exodus Bulldornadius is outstanding, and Steffen Basho-Junghans's album is good too. I need to check out more Locust's catalog, they seem like a cool label.

but yea, SRB's stuff is amazing. total classic.

SRB + Lichens + Om, wow that sounds like an awesome show, btw.

this will be the least controversial c/d ev!

The first one on Revenant is my favorite although the newest one has it's moments too.

While My Guitar Violently Bleeds is SRB's winner so far. The other stuff is wonderful as well. But this album is just an angry motherfucker of an album without resorting to any stereotypes of "angry sounds",if that makes sense.

I dunno, I was kind of sad about that lengthy noise/drone/whatever track on While My Guitar....mostly because he's so damn good at playing normal that I don't need any of that stuff. Fingering the Devil is my favorite for that reason--1 day in the studio, solo acoustic and he absolutely kills it. Gotta see him live sometime.

I go to the other albums for individual songs, but as a whole album, it's While My Guitar.... Does it matter how well he plays? (rhetorically asking) I know he's good, but that's not the deciding factor on why his stuff works or doesn't for me.

I hear what you're saying but I think it matters to me. I really like unaccompanied guitar but finding someone who is technically skilled enough to play good unaccompanied guitar while also not being totally clinical is tough to do. A lot of what I feel in his stuff is a result of how good he is--his command of dynamics, the way he can back off and then come in and crush you, his musical vocabulary, etc.--lesser guitarists can't really do that stuff.

What you say is true, cad, but I agree w/ Mackro2. While My Guitar... witholds the blazing technique, but it's as rich and emotionally connected as any of his other work. (Though the best and most moving piece in the live show was Abydos, from Fingering the Devil.)

Improvika has been the best thing I've heard from him, but I also like Salvador Kali and (recently) Polytheistic Fragments...the last few times I've seen him, however, there were parts of the show where the improv seemed particularly uninspired

the last few times I've seen him, however, there were parts of the show where the improv seemed particularly uninspired

Or maybe not so indirectly...

sounds like he needs to stop playing gypsy jazz and Middle Eastern scales

“When I began my recording session back in December the first song I recorded was “Ka’an Azzaman” which is a cover song written by Elias Rahbani, born in 1938 and one of Lebanon’s finest song writers, arrangers and composers (I am half Lebanese just so you know). The version of this song that I was familiar with was an instrumental version by late Egyptian guitarist Omar Khorshid (1945-1981) who is one of my favorite guitar players of all time, and quite unknown to a lot of people.

<3<3<3<3<333333333333333

so good

Ka’an Azzaman rly is dope

out when?

26 may

My mom once told me I should play Dream Of The Lotus Eaters at her funeral.

so i know nothing about Omar Khorshid, but I'm digging this new Bishop record a lot. Where should I go to check out Omar? Is there a comp or something?

i only have polytheistic fragments but wow what a record. real talent.

Ricahrd Bishop's facebook status a few days ago was some anti-vaccination nonsense.

:/

If Omar Khorshid is who I think he is, I've always found him kind of cheesy, and not in a plasing way. But I will want to check this out. The Rahbanis of course wrote a lot of Fairouz's songs. (She was married to one of them, I forget which one.)

http://www.myspace.com/sirrichardbishop

I dunno, I've already got some stuff that sounds a lot like this that I never listen to.

love srb. i try to buy all his vinyl shit. lately hearing a lot of fahey, blackshaw and ben chasny. all else bore me to tears.

check out also this japanese dude called yousei. he only has cdrs out and i hope he is working on a record deal on a proper label. check his shit out :

http://www.myspace.com/youseis

"Ricahrd Bishop's facebook status a few days ago was some anti-vaccination nonsense."

Yeah, unfortunately he (they?) seems to be a conspiracy nut.

It's hard to tell when he's pulling legs, though. Cuz I for one love conspiracy theories, and if I were a different type, I might play devil's advocate and harangue people even if I didn't believe in it.

There was some blog article a few weeks back abt the supposed anti-semitism in the SCG's output.

xp Alex: Richard is fond of conspiracy theories.

Yes, let's rule out all conspiracy theories a priori, no matter how much evidence is staring us in the face.

(Not meant as a defense of anti-vaccination positions.)

Who is ruling out all conspiracies? I'd say if you believe in the existence of more than oh let's say three conspiracies you are probably a nut.

i dunno, on an aesthetic level i sort of like the fact that they may be crazy conspiracy dudes

The fact that Bishop is a nut does nothing to detract from my enjoyment of his music.

Half the time I can't tell when the SCG dudes are pullin my leg, which is at least one reason to <3 them.

dude can play; that's all i really care about

I guess. But it is kind of interesting that he's a bit shitnuts.

It certainly makes reading interviews (or viewing his facebook status) more exciting.

guys, i really, really don't think that SRB (or Alan, or Charlie) "believed" all this crap ... it's soooo a part of their schtick. like Ian says, i've totally known lots of dudes who are waaaaay into this stuff, can recite all kinds of arcana, illuminati stuff, but don't actually BUY INTO IT. Like the Napoleon & Josephine thing and the Dante's Disneyland material ... they are just well-versed in the stuff and can riff on it at will

DN: You seem to mostly be mocking when you write anything political - have you ever felt that your fans don’t get it?

AB: Yes-only a small percentage is truly qualified to “get it”. That may change over time but I’m not always mocking – sometimes I’m dead serious—it just may not be clear which is which.

DN: …and of course, do you care?

AB: It is never wise to express weakness in any situation, regardless of how much the social engineers wax on about how much women love the “sensitive male”. It’s a scam. Beware!

Alan's always fun in interviews! I can't not read that second response in the Uncle Jim voice. (I even found myself inserting "fellas" at select points the first time I read it!)

But yeah, case in point, it's a lotta chain yankin / mockery. And occasionally they (or at least Alan) mean it.

"Ricahrd Bishop's facebook status a few days ago was some anti-vaccination nonsense."

Maybe he watched the new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last night? Because it was ALL about anti-vaccination debate, and featured his evil twin in disguise Hilary Duff as well...

oh, speaking of SRB, it looks like 'Improvika' has just been reissued on vinyl:

http://www.reckless.com/index.php?keywords=Improvika&format=&cond=&store=&is_search=true&srch=Search

I already have the Bo Weevil lp pressing but nice to know it's back out there on wax

"Maybe he watched the new episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit last night? Because it was ALL about anti-vaccination debate, and featured his evil twin in disguise Hilary Duff as well..."

I knew I shouldn't have gone to bed after Biggest Loser!

he is a dealer of esoteric literature.

http://shop.ebay.com.au/merchant/esotericbooks_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZ

this is him right?

Who is ruling out all conspiracies? I'd say if you believe in the existence of more than oh let's say three conspiracies you are probably a nut.

Spoken like a true single-bullet man.

Spoken like a true the Rockefeller's are behind it all man.

this guy can believe whatever wacky shit as long as he plays a mean guitar IMO

The fact that Bishop is a nut does nothing to detract from my enjoyment of his music.

― Alex in SF, Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The fact that Alex in SF quotes himself does nothing to detract from my enjoyment of his posts.

lol

I'm going to get the Rockefeller-Bolshie-Kremlin triumverate on all your asses now.

so meh, the more pertinent question in my mind is WHAT THE FUCK was up with that exclusive Earth/SRB split LP that you could get if you lived in Lancashire or some shit like that. That is so stupid, and uncool to the "Base" here in the states.

that was for their Euro tour, i got one. I dont live in Lancashire

Sun City Girl in limited availability SHOCKER

that split is find-able on the net, if you just want to hear it ... it is awesome, but that is fairly obvious!

Sooo, does anyone know anything about the musicians backing Bishop on the new LP? The playing throughout is great stuff, and I don't recognize any of the names (lol i'm white btw.)

don't have the record yet but i saw him live last night and his backing band were the members of the oakland group oaxacan and i thought they were fucking great. plus they performed a number off of grotto of miracles. holy shit! amazing.

^^^ this

Oh cool he's playing the Bottom of the Hill in July. I couldn't make it out to Oakland.

I played the new album yesterday and was kind of put off it by the number of people that came up and asked if it was The Shadows...!

:-(

At least they know who the Shadows are...? Don't you like surf?!

Also, it doesn't look like the Oaxacan dudes are the dudes who play on the record, unless the record dudes are playing under pseudonyms.

great last night! and oaxacan were cool too. great to see them in such a small place too. one jam reminded me of a saharan surf version of a robin trower song or something. with all the twang in the air i was kinda hoping he would do a number by his old labelmates JFA.

if you are in boston you should go tonight.

dude from oaxacan stopped by my store during the day and he was a little worried that people wouldn't show up, but there was a good crowd. not PACKED, but respectable for a tuesday night in turner's falls massachusetts.

sad i missed this.

scott is your store open?

yup. open for 3+ weeks. next to tofu a go go on main street in greenfield. noon to 7 every day except sunday.

cool! what's it called?

Also, it doesn't look like the Oaxacan dudes are the dudes who play on the record, unless the record dudes are playing under pseudonyms.

― ian, Sunday, May 24, 2009 4:57 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I think they are pseudonyms, cause the only guitarist listed is Rasheed Al-Qahira who I assume is SRB.

"cool! what's it called?"

john doe jr.

(we are still waiting for our cool new sign to go over our door. should be ready by friday.)

oh, and my brother's store is called john doe. which is why i called mine john doe jr. cuz i'm the younger brother.

good to hear the report i'm going to see this tour in mpls.

freak of araby is a great too...total weirdo ventures-gone-world music vibes

urgh, wish he was coming through my city. loving this new album.

he plays here (Eugene OR) July 2nd. so psyched. picked up the Freak LP 2 days ago but I keep just listening to my bad MP3s, gonna have to break it out today.

listened to this today. soooooooooooooooooo prog. space bass prog, even.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_TPGvgtLrAHs/SYdZMvYfJXI/AAAAAAAADHg/BJNfddUFZH4/s320/61tzRiOpiaL._SS500_.jpg

oops! wrong thread.

although an alphonso johnson/richard bishop jam would be pretty cool. they could do dark star together.

I played the new album yesterday and was kind of put off it by the number of people that came up and asked if it was The Shadows...!

:-(

― krakow, Sunday, 24 May 2009 09:23 (3 weeks ago) Permalink

At least they know who the Shadows are...? Don't you like surf?!

Also, it doesn't look like the Oaxacan dudes are the dudes who play on the record, unless the record dudes are playing under pseudonyms.

― ian, Sunday, 24 May 2009 20:57 (3 weeks ago)

Heh, I would have been asking if this was the new Richard Bishop and not known who the Shadows were.

Oh i c, they're British.

going to see him saturday nite! so excited : )

tonight, should be good

saw the show with oaxacan at the music gallery.
i was expecting mystical improv madness, so i had to readjust for the surflike stylings of his freak of araby material.
really liked what the oaxacan drummer was doing during their opening set.

Saw them on teh 3rd. Oaxacan were great (I bought both their CD-Rs.) Bishop was good but seemed slightly tired (he actually remarked on this a couple of times). . . for some reason I was expecting more jokes. One of the stranger audiences I've seen in recent memory too.

the show i went to was great!

yeah he was great in Eugene on the 2nd. Played "Sidi Mansour" in like triple time with a raging extended solo. I was thinking this lineup is kind of a dream gig for that particular kind of Sun City Girls fan who never really liked much other than Torch Of The Mystics. They also did "Wild World Of Animals" as an encore, that was slow and sad and sweet.

best garage sale ever? http://lineout.thestranger.com/lineout/archives/2009/08/21/sir-richard-bishop-is-having-a-garage-sale

Wished I lived in Seattle.

daaaaaamn

I will stop by tomorrow and check it out

will you buy a guitar 4 me? also some erotica

request noted

Wow! I can hardly bear to imagine what goodies he might be selling. His record collection is going to be something special.

yeah no kidding -- sort of curious why he's going the garage sale route? has he never heard of ebay?

going to richard bishops garage sale sounds like much more fun than ebay

"If you want the music to stop, just buy the guitars." lol

oh yeah, totally more fun, just seems like he could make more $$$ on ebay

ahhhgg i want to go to this!!!

I hope there's at least a whole bunch of photos taken.

I also love this wee snippet from the directions on how to get there...

"Sale is in the BACK yard — follow path through bamboo grove."

He has a bamboo grove!

I notice he's not selling any LPs, just CD/DVD/tape.

yeah no kidding -- sort of curious why he's going the garage sale route? has he never heard of ebay?

― tylerw, Friday, August 21, 2009 9:07 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark

RB is a noted ebay bookseller in fact.

ah, right, I see there's a link on this very thread. durr.

So, did anyone go? I'd love to hear more...

how did I miss this great interview:

http://www.markprindle.com/bishop-i.htm

http://www.unfictional.com/joseph-moshe-mossad-bioweapon-swine-flu-vaccine-westwood

anybody know who the support is for tonight's London show?

should go really, but it's £9. and a Monday. and he's up against University Challenge.

I can't answer your qu but I saw him on Saturday and enjoyed it a great deal - played most of 'The Freak of Araby' and two or three old SCG songs, seemed like a really sincere and decent guy to boot

The Glasgow show last week was wonderful, pretty much as per DJ Mencap describes. Varied, charming, fun.

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/v3/p822185574-3.jpg

Click image for more...

Nice pics! Anyone have any recent live recordings of him?

My only disappointment was that he didn't have any handmade tour cd-rs like he has in days of old. I got a very nice t-shirt though.

new one http://www.unrock.de/sir-richard-bishop-the-unrock-tapes-lp/
translated (awesomely) from the German:
Bishops capabilities allow various influences come together in his game, could give rise to the absurd impression that it was in his solo work for world music (as we know it). His playing is his fire and his fascination but rather through traditional irreverence. The Spirit of the Sun City Girls pervades the album, even if it is less a musical similarity to disclose this fact, as the approach. Disrespect / Respect, a game of opposites, which is used here by exaggerated wink. Musically, full of allusions to the tradition of Sun City Girls on the one hand, characterized by respect and appreciation congener (Omar Khorshid) on the other. Bishop's stunning guitar work, an Impetuous hybrid that can operate because of its subtle skills almost effortlessly across calls, rightly, a shameless authenticity of which he recognized that history in mind, no one will seriously deny.

Looking forward to that one. SRB is also releasing the vinyl version of last year's cdr "Intermezzo" soon.

tour dates! psyched to see him in Denver.

Feb 08 2013 Seattle, WA @ Highline
Feb 09 2013 Portland, OR @ Doug Fir Lounge
Feb 10 2013 Vancouver, BC @ Media Club
Feb 12 2013 Salt lake City, UT @ Urban Lounge
Feb 13 2013 Denver, CO @ Larimer Lounge
Feb 14 2013 Albuquerque, NM @ Sister
Feb 15 2013 Phoenix, AZ @ The Crescent Ballroom
Feb 16 2013 San Diego, CA @ Casbah
Feb 17 2013 Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room
Feb 18 2013 Los Angeles, CA @ Center For the Arts Eagle Rock
Feb 19 2013 Santa Cruz, CA @ Don Quixote’s Intl. Music Hall
Feb 20 2013 San Francisco, CA @ The Independent

Unrock Tapes LP is amazing... It's kind of a ringer since it compiles some of the best CDR-only tracks, but I only had one of the original CDRs so this is almost all new to me.

Last time I went to a February Portland show it was a hellish ice-covered 2-hour drive back home, so I dunno abt the Doug Fir show.

got a hold of the live freak of araby CDR -- totally great! i love that record.
annoyingly it looks as though i may not be able to make it to his denver gig tomorrow night urgggggh.

ooh tyler I am gonna hit you up for trade via mail when I get home today.

xp - when was that recorded and where?

not sure where, when is 2009-ish?
actually posted over yonder by one of the dudes in the band: http://www.electricalaudio.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23116&hilit=sendspace&sid=33b459a6e66bc2711ca2acc7d35ea8a8&start=6960#p1603598

oh ok, I misunderstood and thought you had the CDR. looking forward to hearing this!

http://capturedinasia.tumblr.com/

awesome picture, weird that some of the captions are lame dad jokes

That scene with all those figures with their hands clapsed together is fantastic, especially dog-head man

xp haha, yeah, some of them made me laff (i am a lame dad after all), but some of the things he's taking photos of are so amazing i kind of want a little more actual information.

That's SCG/Sublime Frequencies all over though, isn't it. Driving up the mystique through never acknowledging their sources.

why learn when you can gape?

That's SCG/Sublime Frequencies all over though, isn't it.

No. Hisham Mayet was in Brooklyn for a lovely film series centered around Sublime Frequencies movies in March. Very forthcoming and candid about sources, musicians, context of all his movies/recordings. Never felt there was any "intentional mystery"/mystique to SF stuff, unlike the early Mississippi releases.

it's true that some of their releases have decent liner notes. i guess this maybe applies more to some of the earlier releases like princess nicotine (which came out in the 80s right?)

The original Princess Nicotine was compiled by Alan Bishop and released by Major in 1994. When it was reissued by SF in the 2000s, I believe there were liner notes added but I'm not sure.

*Majora

the bishops/sublime frequencies can maybe be accused of focusing on the more "exotic/esoteric" side of various cultures, but at the same time, I don't doubt that they know a lot about these various cultures...i mean, they've been actually going to all of these countries for several decades, i'm sure the interest for them isn't just "lol how weird".

"lol how weird" is fine by me btw

haha, yeah the world is weird!

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/gms/3809089215.html
you can own sir richard's 88 Honda CRX! and some other stuff too.

I wonder where he is moving? Seems like more than your typical yard sale.

Man $200 Sir Richard guitar a pretty sweet deal. May catch some of the magic from those fingers ....

that amp looks p nice

this dude loves having garage sales

4 new albums up for download over here: http://deliradio.com/sir-richard-bishop
$11 seems kind of steep for mp3s, but...

also worth your time - http://www.sixorgans.com/?p=261

oh those are MP3?!? fuck that. I listened to three of them yesterday and liked what I heard, yay for streaming.

well, i dunno, maybe you can get them in lossless? they do sound pretty good, but yeah...

my favorite of the bunch seems to be mystery guild, but i haven't spent much time with them yet.

Fourteen SRB albums are now available for free to download until 1st September:

http://deliradio.com/sir-richard-bishop

Good grief, that's rather huge. Bump!

raaaaaaaaaaaaad. i only have four of those. thanks for the heads up dude!

http://www.sirrichardbishop.net/tourdates.htm

On the US east coast now but not in my neck of the woods. Oh well

He's playing in Brooklyn on Saturday but I don't know if I can make it...

also those free downloads are still active

somebody tell rick bishop :)

One of my favorite concerts of all time was this one: http://www.newyorknighttrain.com/zine/general/live/mar/live032206.html.

SRB's set was perfectly placed between different varieties of nutso noise.

i'm doing the saturday gig; he's also playing sunday at the new WFMU Monty Hall

Crap the tickets link from issue project room's website says sold out. It's through brownpapertickets-- maybe it's just one of those things where they stop selling them online the day of the show?

No, it was sold out. Great show! Dont miss the wfmu thing tomorrow.

Anyone else here at Monty ATM?

Well, the show was fantastic!

so hamish kilgour sat in with bishop? man, that would be cool to see.

He did! He just kinda casually screwed around with a plastic djembe and a few other percussion instruments. They did an unrehearsed little jam for a few minutes as the last number.

Richard was amazing overall though!

Tashi's set was very cool as well. Lots of tension and great use of sound with little experiments involving a bobby pin, a piece of foam & a safety pin.

oh man that would be cool
hamish has such a weird drumming style! i like it.

kinda bummed that i missed srb show here but o well

I was afraid I would! I drove to the venue and found a spot around the corner. Was kind of failing at parallel parking for 6 minutes as Richard sat on the sidewalk next to me smoking a hand rolled cigarette or perhaps a joint. I decided not to say hi...

wait fuck tashi dorji played the sunday night show as well? dammit. After saturday sold out I didn't try to get it together for sunday bc I really wanted to see dorji as much as SRB. I'm stupid.

He's playing Union Pool tomorrow night! There are still tickets. I've been asked to spread the word.

he's amazing live and i strongly recommend going

He sure is. Opener is Robert Millis (not a known name to me)

Millis was way more trad singer/acoustic guitar strummer than I expected but he did play one more experimental piece in the beginning.

Bishop is in Arlington, VA Saturday night

Robert Millis was in Climax Golden Twins, they are old friends

ohhh climax golden twins ok

Drag City announces Sir Richard Bishop August and September 2023 US tour

He’s coming to Baltimore, I may need to see this.

he's great live, it's amazing to watch him shred IRL

he'll be in Minneapolis tomorrow night. i think i may go.