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

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · November 25, 2024

I just discovered this band after consuming the new Brant Bjork Trio band and album, Once Upon A Time In The Desert (review here). After many listens to this glorious recording, I did some research and discovered Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers, who also released a 2024 album called Folklore From The Other Desert Cities. The band features the same lineup as the Brant Bjork Trio with Bjork on guitar, Lalli on bass, and Ryan Gut on drums. The Rubber Snake Charmers have an additional vocalist/ poet in Sean Wheeler and a keyboardist in Mathias Schneeberger, who also mixed and mastered the record. The bio of the band describes their inception:

“The Rubber Snake Charmers began simply as an exercise in live rock improvisation and sonic experimentation curated by desert rock pioneer Mario Lalli, featuring likeminded musicians from all walks of the musical spectrum. Some of the past Snake Charmers include, Dino Lalli, Brant Bjork, Gary Arce, Tony Tornay, Sean Wheeler, Joe Baiza, Vince Meghrouni, Bill Stinson, Ryan Gut, Nick Oliveri. The idea to perform live and play totally improvised excursions anchored by Lalli’s heavy grooving and morphing bass lines. This is not a “jam band” taking solos over rock progressions…not at all, but more of a heavy meditation on rhythms, drones, grooves and riffs. Sonically becoming a canvas where each participant is encouraged to create fine lines or splatter and explode into chaos…wherever it goes it goes. Adding to the vision is the dark beautiful words and otherworldly vocal energies of the deserts own Sean Wheeler.”

I believe the idea of this project originated in 2010 and developed into what we hear today on the Folklore From The Other Desert Cities album. The record was created from a live performance in Gold Coast, Australia and formalized by Mathias Schneeberger’s engineering skills. For a live recording and creation, the sound quality is excellent and mixed so well. The album came out on March 29th 2024 and was released on Heavy Psych Sounds.

The opening track “Creosote Breeze” eases into the song with a hypnotic buildup initiated by the bass and scores of spacy sounds with keyboards and guitar layered upon it. The vocals vary on pysychedelic and psychotic with Sean Wheeler’s singing that transpires into a spoken passage. The almost nine minute song has a natural and organic buildup that introduces us to the essence of the Rubber Snake Charmers sound. The song fades out and kicks right into “Swamp Cooler Reality”. Wheeler’s shamanic spoken delivery drives the rest of these songs in a unique and authentic scripture. The music is an esoteric transcendence with Mario Lalli’s enchanting bass lines leading the charge. Bjork’s psychedelic guitar noodling is a suitable match with Gut’s rock solid drumming. Another essential component to these songs is Schneeberger’s keyboard wizardry. He encapsulates the songs in a blanket of mesmerizing layers. The almost hypnotizing spacy arrangements flourish the music in a mind bending manner.

“Other Desert Cities” is an almost ten minute composition of musical magnificence. The intricate improvisation of the song takes the listener on a sonic journey into the desert with Sean Wheeler as the guide. His poetic dialogue of twisted tales of the desert and beyond is enthralling with his raspy delivery in his commentary. The song weaves in and around his diatribes of eating spaghetti with a fork, and waiting for the devil. Just over the five minute mark, the music alters and Wheeler sings a cryptic crooning line “Desert girl, desert girl, don’t lie to me- tell me where did you sleep last night”, an ode to Lead Belly/ Nirvana’s “Where did you sleep last night?”. He expands and expresses on these words and delivers an Iggy Pop like emotional speech to these lines. He carries on to mention the band in a poetic rendering of warping dialogue of sheer brilliance. His vocal contributions and unique rhythmical approach to Mario Lalli & The Rubber Snake Charmers music is truly remarkable and adds a huge component of originality to these songs.

“The Devil Waits For Me” is the final composition on this album. It’s an excellent capper to this incredible ride of cosmic sonic grooves made by some of desert rocks finest musicians. Wheeler discusses all kinds of debauchery in this one. The music starts with an infectious bass line from Lalli and is joined by a simple drum beat from Gut and some subtle guitar wankery, courtesy of Bjork. The song enhances in repetition and Wheeler is at it again in spoken, poetic mastery. The song has a very hypnotic tone about it and Wheeler mentions Nick Oliveri on a couple of occasions and leaves a gracious mention of the band members also. The song gains steam in the jamming and executes an epic farewell of sorts to the crowd at hand.

Overall, I really dig this album and can’t believe how excellent it sounds with their improv approach to song crafting. I must say, Sean Wheeler’s sermonizing is what sets this apart from other great instrumental artists that like to extemporize. The talent pool of these desert musicians is deep and the ability to create music off the cuff in such an exuberant manner is quite astounding, to say the least.