Episode 9 Mark Davies (Thinking Fellers Union Local 282) :: "Strangers From The Universe & Other Popular Locations Across America's Wonderous Wasteland"

Episode 9 Mark Davies (Thinking Fellers Union Local 282) :: "Strangers From The Universe & Other Popular Locations Across America's Wonderous Wasteland"

Author: The Self Portrait Gospel October 8, 2025 Duration: 1:06:41

Imagine being on the road touring with the Sun City Girls for over a month in the autumn of 1992, pulling poetic pranks, and making memories that you'll continue to carry with you for the rest of your life. Memories that you reflect upon to make sure that life wasn't some Truman Show reality trick, and that it really did happen. From Vancouver, Canada, to Winnipeg, Columnus, OH, to home base in Tempe, AZ, where the Girls, and their guests, Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 shared a bill with the late grate Eddy Detroit and his Ubangi Sextet, these two powerhouses put a cap on the end of an era in a lot of ways. The 1990s were a glorious time for our spiritual subjects, and Mark Davies (The White Shark) takes us on a journey that is simply one for the ages.

On this episode of "The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast - A Sun City Girls Story," we sit down with Mark Davies to talk about his unparalleled and unique connection to the Sun City Girls, and how a night in the Bay Area sometime in the late 1980s eventually led to a deep friendship that has gone down in harmonious history as one of those tonal tales you only read about in underground zines, or hear on interstellar broadcasts that stretch across the nocturnal night skies like some holy hand gripping sonic secrets with all its strength.


It’s a strange and wonderful thing when a band becomes more than just music-a kind of shared language for those who find it. The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast :: A Sun City Girls Story is an attempt to speak that language, to trace the contours of a group that defied easy categorization. Created by The Self Portrait Gospel, this series isn't a standard biography. Instead, it unfolds as a series of conversations and deep dives into the atmospheric alchemy of the Sun City Girls, treating their work as the spiritual institution of sound it truly is. You'll hear from those who knew them, played with them, or were forever changed by their records. Each episode leans into the poetic and the specific, celebrating the band's relentless creativity and the boundaries they pushed, not just in music, but in thought and performance. This podcast provides that consistent platform, a space where the band's peculiar magic isn't just explained, but felt. It’s for anyone who believes that certain art requires going all the way, and that the story of such a phenomenon is best told through many voices, all trying to capture something that, at its heart, remains beautifully indescribable.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 22

The Burning Nerve Ending Magic Podcast :: A Sun City Girls Story
Podcast Episodes
Season 2 - Ep. 8 :: "666 HR. Photo w/ Kim Campisano" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:28:57
Campisano has an incredibly interesting relationship and a cosmic connection to the Sun City Girls and its members, in particular, the late, great Charles Gocher. While attending Arizona State University (ASU) in the 198…
Season 2 - Ep. 7 :: "Engineer Extraordinaire w/ Clark Rigsby" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:46
On this episode, we speak to local legend, engineer, musician, and founder of Tempest Recording, Clarke Rigsby, who knew the band before their prolific output of metaphysical material in the 1980s with the Cloaven Tape s…
Season 2 - Ep. 6 :: "Grrrls, Grrrls, Grrrls! w/ Thomascyne Buckley" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:16:09
Before the highly influential and groundbreaking "Riot Grrrl" movement began taking shape in the 1990s, with bands like Bikini Kill and Bratmobile, empowering women in music and the arts, there was the Phoenix, Arizona-b…
Season 2 - Episode 5 :: "A Meating Of Minds w/ Derrick Bostrom" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:10:36
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, on…
Season 2 - Episode 3 :: "Me and Mr. Jeff Jones!" [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:21
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 b…