Another supergroup of local desert-rock pioneers has assembled and created a new album—and, of course, it’s a desert-centric musical experience.
The group is called Mario Lalli and the Rubber Snake Charmers, and the band’s debut record features Lalli (Fatso Jetson, Yawning Man) on bass; Brant Bjork (Kyuss, Fu Manchu) on guitar; Ryan Güt (Brant Bjork, Stoner) on drums; and Sean Wheeler (Throw Rag) on vocals. The band has featured various other musicians at times, as the group is heavy on improvisation and jams—but the record, Folklore From the Other Desert Cities, is a live recording of a show in Gold Coast, Australia. The album is due out March 29.
“The idea for this band started back in, like, 2011,” Lalli said during a recent phone interview. “I was living in Los Angeles, and my regular bands, Fatso Jetson and Yawning Man, were a bit spread out. There was a member from each of those bands living here in the desert, and then vice versa—where now I’m living in the desert, and half of Fatso Jetson is in L.A. We’ve always had a challenge to get together regularly, rehearse and write, and act as a normal working band. We’ve managed to do it … but with that downtime, I always love to keep playing in some respect, and I’ve always been a jammer.
“Early on, back in the ’80s, we started to enjoy improvisation, but not any kind of schooled improvisation with some sort of musical theory behind it like jazz improvisation. This is just really a bunch of friends getting in the garage and making noise, and sometimes … it would start to take the form of something rather musical. We did this a lot, and I did it for years with all my brothers—Alfredo Hernandez, Gary Arce, my cousin Larry Lalli, Tony Tornay and then, later, with Jerrod Elliott, who still performs with the Rubber Snake Charmers. … With that practice and that comfort level, after years, it started to make more musical sense, and we developed these pathways that we would travel musically, and a chemistry started to build.”
The Rubber Snake Charmers performed one of their first shows at Cobraside Distribution, a vinyl distributor based in Glendale, around 2013.
“The idea started to take form that it was almost like a club, and the club was guys who enjoy improvising, are willing to get up in front of people and do it with zero rehearsal, and who have something to say when they do that,” Lalli said.
Lalli said about 20 different performers have been part of this club, but things began to change course when Yawning Man went on tour with Stoner (Brant Bjork, Nick Oliveri and Ryan Güt).
“One of the guys in Yawning Man got ill, and we couldn’t do the tour, so instead of finding another support band, Brant was like, ‘Dude, why don’t we just do an old-school desert jam session before the Stoner set?’ And I was like, ‘Well, I’ve got a thing that I do, and have done over the years, and it has a name.’ We did it on that tour, and it was very successful in the way that we had an instant chemistry.”
On Folklore From the Other Desert Cities, vocalist Sean Wheeler complements the improvisation by reading from his book Dry Heat, a collection of poems and words all about the desert. Wheeler was performing in a similar fashion under the name Dry Heat, reading his poetry while desert musicians (sometimes including Lalli) jammed—and put on a puppet show.
“Fast forward, we got another opportunity to open shows for the band Stoner, and this time, it was a tour in Australia, and we basically drew from the Dry Heat experience with the poems and stories from that book,” Lalli said. “… That would become the content for the performance that was recorded in the Gold Coast, which is this album that we’re releasing. It was really cool the way it came out; it was very organic. … There was zero planning, which is great, because when we perform the music, I think the only planning is who’s going to play. I have a huddle before the show, and I say, ‘OK guys, less is more. Let’s all listen; don’t start off at 11 volume; let’s start off really sparse and mellow. Just let it build, and watch Sean.’ He’s got the hardest job; he has to put words to all this cacophony. Sean and myself, we kind of both share the role as the conductor.”
Lalli admitted the difference between the Dry Heat band and the Rubber Snake Charmers is somewhat nebulous.
“Dry Heat is basically specific to the material in the book, that group of poems, and that is a primary source for Sean in the Snake Charmer performances, but it’s not exclusive to that, and in the future, if Sean is part of a Snake Charmers performance, he’ll be doing stuff different from Dry Heat,” Lalli said. “Both projects came together in a confusing way, because we were doing both at the same time, but there are Snake Charmer performances that Sean may not be able to attend, or Brant may not be able to attend or Ryan, and I will pull together a different group of guys. … I don’t even have to be there. Let’s say I’m off playing bass for Brant and me, and Brant and Ryan, the rhythm section for the record, we’re not available, but somebody says, ‘Hey, we’d like to have the Rubber Snake Charmers play at The Hood.’ I’d call my son and say, ‘Hey Dino, do you want to host and, for lack of a better term, be the musical director for a Snake Charmers performance?’ Knowing him, he’d say yeah, and he would get on the phone and find a bass player and a drummer and a sax player or a keyboard player, and the Snake Charmers would perform. It’s not exclusive to any one person.”
Lalli said the spontaneous nature of the Rubber Snake Charmers has opened the eyes of some participating musicians.
“The guys who grew up playing more traditionally in live bands, who write songs and rehearse and then perform those songs, always voice real gratitude for the experience,” Lalli said. “They’re like, ‘Wow, it’s a really cool exercise in being spontaneous and creative, and also being vulnerable.’ It just depends on your ego. Like, ‘Do I want to look like some guy up here just making noise?’ And, ‘If I clear out the bar right now, is that going to be a bummer for me?’ It’s a selfish, self-indulgent action, but therein lies the art. There have been a couple (of shows) that were hard, and it’s especially, again, hard for Sean. When you’re playing an instrument, you can go on and on and on and on, and if it gets weird, it gets weird, whatever—you make some noise, and you regroup and get back on a groove, but with Sean, he can’t do that. He’s saying words, and the words have to be placed. He’s the focus of attention in the eyes of the audience, and if the music isn’t delivering something he is inspired by, it can be a very uncomfortable, even frustrating position to be in … but it’s only been a couple times out of many, many, many performances.”
Since the Rubber Snake Charmers excel in the realm of improvisational jamming, it’s only right that their first album is ripped straight from a live show.
“We’ve recorded some stuff with us four—me, Sean, Brant and Ryan at a studio—and it’s cool, and when I listen back to it now, there are some really amazing moments, but it’s very different,” Lalli said. “Your mindset in the studio is just so different than when there are people watching and listening. The Snake Charmers will not always be live recordings, but it certainly made sense for this one, because it was actually an inspired performance—and captured really well.”
For more information, visit heavypsychsoundsrecords.bandcamp.com.