ALBUM REVIEW: Folklore From The Other Desert Cities – Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers

March 25, 2024 Tom Fordham

The desert resort city of Palm Springs, California has been a hotbed of heavy psych and desert rock for decades. Only half an hour away from Palm Desert – the epicentre of a scene that has spawned many seminal bands and musicians – it is the home of desert rock stalwart Mario Lalli. Active in the desert rock and psychedelic stoner scene since 1981, Lalli has been a prolific songwriter and musician, having worked with the likes of QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE, BIG SCENIC NOWHERE, YAWNING MAN, YAWNING SONS, BRANT BJORK, THE SORT OF QUARTET and many more including his own bands FATSO JETSON and the focus of this release MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS.

Formed in 2010, MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS (ML&TRC) are a stoner rock collective that boasts Lalli on bass, silky smooth and legendary guitarist Brant Bjork, Ryan Güt of STÖNER on drums, and the impassioned poetry of desert native Sean Wheeler. The band focus on live psychedelic rock improvisation and sonic experimentation; blending together groove heavy bass lines, meditative guitar lines and hypnotic drums rhythms, the quartet come at you like a heavy psych version of THE DOORS. The band’s debut live release Folklore From The Other Desert Cities takes you on a shamanic and bizarre journey through the desert filled with off the wall poetics packed to the brim with strange scenes and characters wandering through the desert.

Across the album’s four tracks you experience a truly strange but ultimately calm and meditative record. Wheeler delivers his desert poetry with hypnotic fervour while the luscious layers of guitar and earthy bass lines wash over you. The collective songwriting might and musicianship of ML&TRC’s members makes improvisation seem like a walk in the park. The intrinsic chemistry that follows their experimentation is truly remarkable. You simply cannot tell which parts are written beforehand and which are improvised. Even the dulcet tones of Wheeler’s melodic poetry fits perfectly within the band’s expansive and exotic desert rock soundscapes, like a shamanic voice from beyond the sandy dunes of the Californian desert.

Musically, the songs develop and evolve subtly. For example, Swamp Cooler Reality gradually builds and builds with Wheeler becoming more impassioned as the layers of reverb, delay and chorus mount up. Then it drops satisfyingly into a bass driven section and mellow riffing. If anything this album is a musical journey in its most literal form. On the surface it doesn’t feel like it makes sense, like the first time you watch a Quentin Tarantino movie. However, with each new listen through a new character emerges or a previously missed poetic phrase gains a new perspective. It is wonderfully bizarre how these varying strands of stories and musical exploration come together to form an album that’s completely mind boggling.

The album opens with excited cheers from the crowd and an eastern sounding melody that might traditionally charm cobras out of their baskets. Creosote Breeze sets the scene for the album, and Bjork’s luscious guitar playing is instantly recognisable. Lalli’s bass lines are the driving force throughout the album, swelling the lower frequencies and punctuated only by the tight drum work of Güt. This opener is probably about as distorted and fuzzy as the album gets and as it bleeds into Swamp Cooler Reality the heavy psychedelia begins to really take over. As mentioned, Swamp Cooler Reality is a trippy, continuously building track. It is marvellously entrancing, so much so that you don’t notice the subtle tempo changes as the song ebbs and flows as you are so caught up in the psych layers.

Other Desert Cities opens up the second half of the album with a subdued introduction that slowly unfolds around Wheeler’s Tarantino-esque narrative. Analogue sounding synths fill you with warmth and give you the sensation that you are floating through the desert. The strange scenarios that Wheeler describes in this song makes you feel like you’re tripping on something as you wait for the devil and learn “to eat spaghetti with a fork”. Strange and eccentric it may be but it is entertaining. The album closes with that very devil making an appearance on The Devil Waits For Me. This track is the pinnacle of the album and when the band feel like a heavy psych THE DOORS. It’s an 11-minute desert rock masterclass with Güt, Bjork and Lalli completely in the zone, trading vibes back and forth while Wheeler hollers about demons and The Great Escape actor Steve McQueen.

MARIO LALLI & THE RUBBER SNAKE CHARMERS is an eccentric project to say the least and Folklore From The Other Desert Cities is one of those albums that you come across and you can’t quite believe what you’ve heard but you love its bizarreness. It’s the most obscure musical journey but one worth taking.

Rating: 9/10