The Church - C or D/S&D/CB&TT

I must, however, say, that Marty Willson-Piper is probably one of the most pretentious human beings ever to have lived. But you can't blame that on the Australians, as he's from Liverpool anyway. You get the feeling he'd have been much happier in Echo and the Bunneymen.

Search: Heyday, Starfish, Priest=Aura, and Hologram Of Baal are the four pivotal albums IMHO, though I've never heard Seance which everybody seems to rate highly.

Now, "Dreams Even Here" -> "Inbetween Days" or "Just Like Heaven" - > "All The Way" is much more blatant (although probably also coincidental).

The big drawback for me is that on the earlier albums, (I can't comment post-Heyday, except to say that the later albums are in every bargain bin I've ever rummaged through), they're pretty half-hearted in everything they do - never really rocking, never really letting rip on the psyche influences, just kind of chugging along....hoping. The productions do them no favours - Blurred Crusade, and particularly Seance sound muted and dull. The debut does have energy, and Remote Luxury has the best choons.

Biggest drawback of all is the drummer, Richard Ploog. You just can't pull off what (I think) they're attempting with such a wooden, plodding beat. Ploog has no feel and no drive and plays like he's holding a cricket bat in each hand.

Look, I've no idea what happened after Heyday, but on the evidence of the first 4 or 5 albums these guys are also rans, for f~@cks sake!

"The Blurred Crusade has so much energy".....

.....Then we mean different things by energy, Ned. Not that all music needs energy, but if you're attempting a kinda upbeat guitar pop- rock/psyche thing you'll be needing some. Yes indeed. Not on every track, but you'd better have some gas in the tank when needed. Some examples : "In Shreds" "This Perfect Day", "Reward", "Crocodiles". These have what I mean by energy. And decent drummers.

Live, the Church RAWKED. This was always such a surprise, considering the gentle, textured, multi-layers of their albums. But when playing live, they became monster rock gods with blinding guitar solos. But when they ditched Richard Ploog for Jay Dee Daugherty, they didn't rock so much, so Ploog, in all his stoner glory, clearly was contributing something.

They're one of those weird bands who have had far more importance in my life, and on my friends' lives than they really should have.

Where the f@ck do you see Church videos, exile?

(this leak -- was it via p2p?)

"It has been confirmed that the album will be released in Australia on Cooking Vinyl through Shock Records in mid October. FY release date elsewhere is January 2004 in the USA (Spinart ) and UK/Europe (Cooking Vinyl), both special edition most likely with bonus disc, the delay being due to an error in the mastering/ manufacturing process. Australia won't miss out on the international special edition as there will be a unique re issue to coincide.....more to come.The Australian tour will start early November (stay tuned for venues and dates), and Europe and USA will be early 2004. HANG ON !!!!!Great things come slow !!!!!!"

But Ned, how did you manage to snag a listen? I thought "After Everything" was much better than I thought it would be, so I'm really looking forward to this one. And a tour, too? So cool.

x-post!

Kilbey's somewhere in the middle.

As for S&D I actually (contradicting my above statement a bit) Don't like Starfish nearly as much as Heyday or also Remote Luxury (which I feel are the 2 best). This was one of the first bands I got into when I started listening to music. They have such a nostalgia for me, and thier sound only encourages this.

Best since Priest = Aura. And P=A is my fave album of theirs.

As a Chameleons hyperfanatic, I see the point of comparison, but really I think they're two different bands with a slew of shared core influences in common, nothing more.

I wasn't very impressed to see them live. I mean it was interesting and all but they were doing a partly acoustic set and the recordings are soo much better. Maybe if I see them do a full electric set it'll be better.

Much of it is Steve talking about the Isidore album he recorded with one of the Remy Zero guys (which I haven't heard yet), talk about the Beside Yourself collection of B-sides, and then there's this:

SK: I think it's definitely a good way to work, just sending files. You don't have to know anybody. I've been talking to, in a very, very early stage -- a mutual friend of ours introduced us over the Internet -- Sonic Boom from Spaceman 3 and Spectrum. Do you know who he is?

HS: Oh, yeah!

SK: He and I and another guy are talking about doing something together. So if it ends up being him just sending me music that he's done, or if it ends up me sending him that I've done, or however it's going to work out -- where he sends me a bit and I put a bit on top or whatever -- I'm very up for it because I think this is a really good way.

Unearthed is superb, a shamefully overlooked record.

All guitars in heaven sound like that.

See the mystery of personal tastes.
I didn't like that much _Hologram_, while _After Everything_ sounded to me like a kind of resurrection...anyway, the Church = great.

http://homepage.mac.com/fipster/church/sleeves/albums/back-with-two-beasts.jpg

And HFS is it good. I can imagine the conversation in the studio when they were putting this together...

Willson-Piper: "Remember when we used to make those songs with all the 12-strings and chiming sounds"
Kilbey (wistfully): "Good times but what rubbish though"
W-P: "Think we can do it again?"
K: "I dare you to play that way. What do you say Pete?"
Koppes (via guitar feedback): SCREECH! PLONK! CRASH!

*half of album is recorded*

All: "arrgh, sod all this! Where's that Sonic Youth album?"

*band records 20 minute song*

K: "OK, can we get on with our REAL album now?"

It was released late last year.

So, this improv album and "Block" for my shopping. I can't complain.

Come to my Church band Multimedia website
http://www.violettown.com

We are keeping up with all the media out there, read some reviews

We have MP3 samplers for you to hear as well as
a Podcast and many other great essential tidbits a site for the Church
would have to house.

So come all ye faithful
http://www.violettown.com

The Church - Uninvited, Like the Clouds

P.S.: So long as I'm documenting hilarious lines from "Terra Nova Cain" that dude actually tries to sell all serious-like, this is the second best:

She said, "Will you help with our research?"
I said, "Take me to your leader."
She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal.
She was a ... transdimensional speeder.

Mostly because of that INCREDIBLY CAMP PAUSE denoted by the ellipses. "She was a ... (get this) ... transdimensional speed-ah."

Deep in space where disconnexion began
Luxurious space
Vague architechture has infested in the city
moss obelisk ... a green needle

TERRA NOVA CAIN ... I need you again (etc.)

Fantastic fantastic show!

"The barbarians picked through the ashes of the dome
Then went on their way, yeah, continued to roam"

It's all about the "yeah" in there. Years later, I found out that Kilbey wrote this about Zardoz

Also I give them bonus points because one of the band member's daughters are pretty hot music chix.

http://www.myspace.com/brightredband

Anyway, you guys need to help me. I only know the albums up to and including Heyday. Tell me a little about each one from Starfish until now, so that I can figure out what to look out for next. Any clunkers to avoid

The lush pillow-of-Rickenbackers side of them is great, but I'm especially liking the bigger, raunchier, riffy stuff like Life Speeds Up. Did they leave this sort of stuff behind? I read in Wiki that there is ambient-type stuff in the catalogue later. Not sure I'll like that.

Destroy Sometime Anywhere.

A good chunk of the more recent material has a tendency to wander (and turn into the occasional trippy jam), so if that's not really your thing you might want to carefully pick and choose your 21st century Church albums. The one released this year, Uninvited Like the Clouds, is the main exception to the new rule as it's the most straight ahead pop-rock album they've made since Gold Afternoon Fix.

Every album has something to recommend it, though I'm not as big a fan of their trippy jam songs compared to their straightforward pop tunes. The recent albums are more liked for highlights ("Come Down", "Lady Boy" on Magician Among the Spirits, for example) than the album as a whole. Unlike the albums up through Priest=Aura, which work as a single listen.

I haven't heard "Uninvited..." yet, but with the descriptions above, it's now on my list.

That's a solid seal of approval alright. None more solid.

Yes, I'm looking for pop choons rather than trippy jams.

So : Gold Afternoon Fix, Uninvited, Priest=Aura. What was the covers album - I saw a tracklisting and it sounded interesting, do they pull it off?

Dr C., in all the hoopla/discussion of the later albums, I realized I'd left out the most important suggestion. Starfish is by all means essential. It's one of my favorite records of all time, by anybody!

what does that mean??

Starfish is that rarest of things -- band with its own aesthetic slams into American major label world/LA studio hierarchy and *everything* works.

I wouldn't destroy it either, but it does need some serious editing. You can make a strong album out of it if you distill it down with the bonus disc. If anything, just grab "Dead Of The Dead."

I'll also speak up for Hologram Of Baal and After Everything, Now This. They're aren't as strong albumwise as the other ones suggested here (and Great Cthulhu man, get P=A right now!), but contain some of my favorite songs, especially "Louisiana" and the awesome awesome "Numbers."

Which ones? Because I surely can't name any.

Well I'm rediscovering them, Bimble. I used to have all the old albums up to Heyday years ago but they got purged at some point maybe 15 years ago. I kept a double vinyl copy of Hindsight - or so I thought - but when I tried to find it a couple of months ago it was gone, so I assume I must have been imagining that I'd kept it. Obv that had me REALLY wanting to hear it again! THEN I read an article about Marty Willson-Piper's guitars on the web somewhere (yes I'm a sad old muso) which prompted me to pick up a CD copy of Hindsight. And here we are.

He was the first place I had ever heard of Neu! I think. Although I can't really claim I'm a huge fan of theirs I can see how they were trailblazing for the likes of Stereolab.

But I digress...anyway if you check out these albums Dr. C please give us your assessment of them, eh? I must admit an innate prejudice against Starfish a bit, simply because it is so much older than their other best records...maybe I've worn it out over the years. But it's hard for me to see a song like "Blood Money" as appealing to anything but the more stubborn Church fan. I mean, I personally enjoyed the song a great deal long ago, but would a casual Church fan? I wonder. Anyway, I haven't listened to Starfish in its entirety in many many years. I'd guess 1993 at best. Yeah, it's worn out for me in a lot of ways, just simply played it too many times. I'd rather hear Gold Afternoon Fix actually. But maybe it's just comparing two very different times in my life. When Starfish came out, I really loved it, but the Church were not my favourite band, and there was an awful lot of other quite different things going on in the (mostly Brit) indie world when that came out. On the other hand, by the time of Gold Afternoon Fix's release, I was a fanatic and the Church were my whole world. Even though GAF on its own is not by any means their best album.

ANYWAY the moral of the story was that the unreleased song ended up appearing finally on the Sometime Anywhere CD when it arrived. Which was great except...even though I faithfully keep Sometime Anywhere in my collection, I've never found the will to re-investigate that very awkward time in the Church's history. I know there a few gems of songs there, but overall, quite a clunker I think, a glaring embarassment in their oeuvure.

I just love talking about Church albums.
Next up can we mention the Blurred Crusade? PLEEZ?

Also, am finally listening to Kilbey's Remindlessness. Interesting in that you can hear some of the initial stabs at where he and the band would go in future years.

TURN ON TUNE IN DROP OUT

Also: Remindlessness: I have not listened to that in nearly a billion years. Anyone remember his single called "Fireman" circa The Slow Crack or whatever that other album was called? Every time I see the Fireman buttons in the elevator at my building at work I think of that song! :)

But yes, Ned. With a few more drinks I daresay pulling out Remindlessness is well in order and very possible in just a few moments here. Cheers.

Also I wonder if everyone knows that Steve Kilbey's best album is actually...Unearthed? Or was it Earthed? I get them mixed up. The one with "Judgement Day" on it. I think it was Unearthed.

And you know, even though at heart I'm a Church whore, sometimes I feel like I'm not ENOUGH of one you know what I mean? I know there are bigger Church fans than me, but I did fucking put my cents in, and it ought to count for something.

Also I would like to say I'm happy and proud to have found only a year and a half ago the vinyl of Marty Willson-Piper's In Reflection. That fucking thing was IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND back in the day. And one day record shopping with a friend, that thing was mine. Lovely!! Does anyone even have that on CD? Does it exist as such? Hell, maybe it does. But I got a big fucking booklet with it so there. Hahahah.

I like this song on Remindlessness called "The Amphibian". Oh yeah I remember this one. Wow. This is fantastic.

Any opinions on this, or how it relates to the rest of their work?

Starting yet another thread on The Church because of this: the setlist for last night's "Christmas" show in Sydney...
-----
Careful With That Axe Eugene
Cortez The Killer
Master Of The Universe
Magician Among The Spirits
Lord Of Light
Child In Time
Shouldn't Do That
Tantalized
Down Thru The Night
Ritz
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Seven By Seven
Block

Silver Machine
Day 5
-----

The show was described as "LOUD," "monotonous," "unfamiliar," and "some guy with a radio set making noises like he's attempting to get reception" with a chunk of the audience apparently fleeing the hall.

This is like my greatest dream concert ever. The fact that it's one of my favorite bands doing this 25 years into their career makes it even better. Apparently it was recorded, so I hope that some/all of this makes it out.

-- Elvis Telecom (quartzcit...), December 26th, 2006.

1. Wide Open Road
2. It's No Reason
3. Reptile
4. Tantalized
5. Electric Lash
6. After Everything
7. Song In The Afternoon
8. Two Places At Once
9. Appalatia
10. Bordello
11. Pure Chance
12. Grind
13. North South East West
14. Comeuppance

So far it's not quite as striking as the first one ("Two Places At Once" isn't altered that much from the original), but I love the sitar-drenched droneout on "Tantalized" and the reworking of "Electric Lash" into a Parsons-esque desert country song.

Has it leaked anywhere?

I recently read on another website that Marty Wilson Piper has a song called "Forget The Radio" that mentions Robert Wyatt and Andy Partridge. Cue requisite guilt for not having followed his solo career since um...that last album from a long time ago the name of which escapes me...

If that album isn't THE most difficult Church thing I don't know what is.

When they do these old songs like Unguarded Moment I can't figure out if they're being flippant and playing a hilarious joke on me or if they're deadly serious.

Kilbey's blog is really exceptional this time, I think with this Bardo entry:

http://stevekilbey.blogspot.com/

Okay I'm tired of being virtually the only one who wants to talk about the two El Momento discs, El Momento Descuidado & El Momento Siguiente. I honestly do not think they have been this good since Hologram of Baal, freaking 9 years ago, bless their hearts. But I admit the discs are spotty so I have made a comp. of my fave tracks:

1. Wide Open Road (I love how he goes "NOW! You can go anywhere..." it's the perfect romantic heartbreak song, that thing of being in the now and facing a future even though you're stuck painfully in the past)

2. 0408 (I like this one almost as much as "Invisible"...the piano is killer and the acoustic guitar riff is nearly as infectious as "Invisible"'s)

3. That new version of Reptile (oh my god that little scat vocal thing he does at the end is priceless! And the fact that he starts it off with a HISSSS like a snake is fucking classic on top of it)

4. November

5. Chromium (some nice falsetto work from Marty)

6. Song In The Afternoon (this one's pretty hypnotizing, I must say)

7. A New Season (better than the original? maybe not, but damn close)

8. Appalatia

9. Bordello (god, this one is weird, have they ever sounded *that* rock and roll before?? That is some bad ass shit, you half expect Steve to start wearing spandex and rock star sunglasses)

10. Tristesse (every bit as enjoyable as the original, I think)

11. Invisible (my favourite of the lot and a riff that has a tendency to go around and around in my brain incessantly)

12. NSEW (North, South, East, West)(nah, not as good as the original, but it's interesting to hear the lyics clearly)

13. Between Mirages

14. Comeuppance

One complaint with these two discs: the version of Grind pales in comparison to the "Acoustic Version" found on the Terra Nova Cain U.S. promo 12". Uh..available on the internet like everything else.

Bimble - thanks for this, I find these sorts of things very, very helpful. Mostly because I'm too lazy to figure out my own comp! Excellent mix - 7 tracks from each volume, half new and half rerecordings.

So I just finished listening and it's quite fine. 0408 is clearly a standout as is Bordello and Song In The Afternoon. Wide Open Road is a cover - one of the finest songs from Weddings Parties Anything. Not sure about Reptile, though - the original is such a MONSTER that this new version is interesting but desperately missing the soundscape of the original. Agree that Invisible is greatly enhanced, though, with NSEW also benefiting from this treatment.

Meanwhile I'm loving the post-Starfish comp I made (listed unthread with some alterations).

Wide Open Road is a cover - one of the finest songs from Weddings Parties Anything

"Wide Open Road" was done by the Triffids originally. WPA also covered it.

Meantime as long as this is revived, the band sent around this bulletin on Myspace today:

the church created the soundtrack to Shriek, a short film based on the book. The film will be available on the internet next week. World Fantasy Award Winner Jeff VanderMeer’s novel Shriek: An Afterword is out in trade paperback in the U.S. this week.

In the meantime, you can visit the Shriek site http://www.shriekthenovel.com for more information, including a trailer of the film and a couple of soundtrack samples.

Shriek movie trailer : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OC_luLwJ64

More news soon about the Shriek music being available on the internet.

"Being able to get The Church for the soundtrack is a great example of synergy," VanderMeer says. "I wrote the novel while listening to The Church's entire catalogue, so for them to turn around and agree to do the music fit the movie perfectly."

According to Steve Kilbey from The Church, "It's great to make music that'll be heard along with something visual. Collaborating with media other than music sparks ideas for our own music, too." Kilbey and Tim Powles from the band contributed a voice-over for part of the film. Kilbey’s art is also featured."

VanderMeer's previous books have made the year's best lists of Amazon.com, Publishers Weekly, LA Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, and many others. He is widely regarded as one of the finest fantasists of his generation, and Shriek: An Afterward was recently hailed as, “Masterful....fans of Mark Z. Danielewski, Angela Carter and Borges will be well rewarded,” in a starred review from Publishers Weekly.

"There came a force so beguiling that even a cold-minded scholar must surrender to it. There came a war so strange that bullets became delicacies. There came a night so terrible no one could name it. And one man’s obsession may hold the key to the survival of a city….An epic yet personal look at several decades of life, love, war, and death in the famed city of Ambergris, the Afterword relates the scandalous, heartbreaking, and horrifying secret history of two squabbling siblings and their confidantes, protectors, and enemies."

“After a moment the creature blushed into a haze of purple-blue-green, then back to gold, but a more vibrant shade. Duncan poured more water over the creature. It seemed to crack apart, fissures erupting across its skin at regular intervals. But no-it was merely opening up, each of its four legs unfurling, to settle upside down on the floor. Immediately, it leapt up, spun, and landed, cilia down, revealed as a kind of starfish.” —From Shriek: An Afterword

what would be more interesting is if the Church recorded the soundtrack for Shrek

"Wide Open Road" was done by the Triffids originally. WPA also covered it.

God, I hate egg on my hipster face. Good on yer for correcting me.

But WPA deserves more mentions on ILM anyway.

OMG Curtis is so right. As I skimmed through that post, my mind read "Shrek" every time. I was really confused.

They're starting to upload various videoclips from last year's tour on their myspace site. Nice.

Does anyone else like Mimesis, this project Steve Kilbey did with Simon Polinski and John Kilbey and other folks? This CD is a real headtrip. Makes me feel like I'm on acid even when totally sober. Actually, though, if Ned hadn't mentioned it, it would have slipped by me totally.

Meantime, the not-bad-at-all neogaze band Tearwave have done a not-bad-at-all cover of "Under the Milky Way" -- on their myspace:

http://myspace.com/tearwave

Hell yeah, that's nice music. Not bad at all. I appreciate the faithfulness of the guitar solo. One of her other songs sounded good, too. Plus, I love her blue hair.

But honestly I'm just amazed that anyone bothered to revive a Church thread besides me. I've felt very alone in my Church love of late. Maybe I should join their mailing list again like I was in '95-'96 or whatever. Assuming they still have a mailing list. They're really one of my absolute fave bands ever on the planet. The weird thing was that whenever something really really painful happened to me in life, suddenly a new album by them was out to sink my sorrow into. This happened three times. But not this year. No, this year I'm just so happy they sound better than ever.

Mr. Odd, I'm sorry I never before looked at your post-Starfish comp. above. I guess I was drunk and missed it before. It's hard to choose tracks from those albums, though. It's hard to get past the fact that you mentioned "Russian Autumn Heart", though. I think if a random stranger were to come up to me in the street and say those words, I'd probably faint. That song is a killer. And I want to hear it RIGHT NOW.

I've still got my Russian Autumn Heart CD single!

Never heard Mimesis. Is it still available?

I daresay so. Go to the myspace page for a taste.

I just found "A Quick Smoke At Spot's" under a pile of CD's, that delicious collection of Church b-sides and cursed myself cause I've been meaning to play it for weeks, and so I finally have. Only to recall that a lyric for "Texas Moon" is "Going down/beneath the Texas Moon". Does it get any better than that? I think not.

I used to own that. Which song was the early version of "Milky Way"?

Truth be told, though some of my fave b-sides of them were "The View" & "As You Will" both from the Heyday era, and alas, these are not included on this compilation.

xpost

Not sure, Fever.

those two tracks are both on the hindsight comp and the heyday reissue

and they were both deserving of a better fate than being a b-side

Oh I just found it now, the one that is some bastardized version of Milky Way, it's called "Anna Miranda". Wow.

I'm determined to hear "Sisters" from the first album again, I haven't heard that in 7 billion years.

xpost
Well maybe I should get the damn Heyday reissue then, electric sound!

mannnn i love A Quick Smoke at Spot's, i gotta pull that out for a spin tomorrow!

I think the strongest period for The Church was between Priest=Aura and Hologram of Baal, with Sometime Anywhere/Somewhere Else being their very best.

Wow, that must be some really good crack you're on.

Seriously, tho, I realize the record has some diehard fans, I just don't think it's that great.

Last time I caught the band at the 9:30 Club, I watched a group of asian fans stand quietly through the entire concert, then they sang along with "Two Places At Once", cheered loudly and left immediately.

Maybe it's just me, but I think that song is their worst single.

Oh no, I think it's dismal as well. And the fact that they bothered to re-record it for one of the El Momento discs only highlighted what an empty song it is. "They were so blind" is the only good thing about it but the rest is just a soup of boredom, it hardly seems worth the effort to even get to that part.

Exactly.

It partly comes down those arguments about which set of members constitute a band. To me, The Refo:mation album is as much a Church record as the Koppes-less SA/SE and Magician - that is to say not at all. (Plus, Sometime largely amounts to SK/MWP fulfilling the Arista contract.)

My favorite track on SA/SE is "Drought", and that track actually belongs to the GAF era. On the double-disc remasters, you'll find that "Drought" has been removed from SA/SE and moved to the GAF bonus disc (along with the less well-known and terribly under-appreciated "Unsubstantiated").

I really can't speak highly enough of the remasters' bonus disc, especially with Starfish and GAF each acquiring some previously vinyl-only acoustic versions.

Ooh, you make that sound very appealing indeed. I don't remember this "Drought" specifically but "Unsubstantiated" has GOT to be my favourite under the radar Church track ever!! In fact, I feel I must play that right now.

Mmm...GAF previously vinyl only acoustic versions. That sounds so good *salivates*. I know the 12" promo version they did of Grime back then was really good, that's all I know.

Starfish has acoustic versions of "Milky Way", "Antenna" and "Spark" and GAF has acoustic versions of "Grind" and "Metropolis".

Ah, crap, I'm wrong about "Drought" and "Unsubstantiated" being on the GAF bonus disc - they are actually on the P=A bonus disc, along with "Nightmare" and "Fog" (both also underrated).

AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NIGHTMARE & FOG WITH UNSUBSTANTIATED ON THE P=A BONUS DISC!???????

MUST HAVE IT NOW NOW NOWNOW NWOWNOWNOW I love Nightmare & Fog I really do. I bought the expensive Australian version of the Ripple CD single just so I could have those for my very own.

had my iTunes on shuffle for a few hours tonight, whilst reading, and the best thing i've heard all night is easily the guitar line/riff on "Too Fast for You" - don't know if that says more about my iTunes as a whole, or about The Church's genius circa early '80s, but holy fuck do i love that guitar line.

anyone else have the Hindsight compilation? i've got it on now and it's all sorts of wonderful. nothing like The Church to soundtrack a late-night glass of white wine and a bit of web browsing.

likely one of my favorite compilations, ever. i might add.

Check the AMG listing...

i have hindsight, it's a very strong compilation, particularly from the perspective of the non-LP stuff

hahah yeah Ned, read the AMG listing before, i know you have it. you have everything Church-related i assume.

and the b-sides are pretty listenable, yes!
as opposed to certain other artists, whose b-sides aren't worthy to grace a 7-year career comp.

I should get Hindsight, I really should. I remember seeing it in stores many times and just thinking "oh I don't need that, I've already got everything on it" but hell I don't have all the cassettes I used to, either. It looks like a real nice comp now, in any case.

According to Kilbey, the Space Rock Xmas show mentioned upthread is going to get an official release. Apparently titled Mercator Projection, there might be a DVD to go along with it.

Oh my god! Look, I've looked upthread for that bit, but you apparently posted it on the sandbox so now I don't know how to find it! This is the one Ned kept salivating over right? Where they did a lot of Hawkwind or whatever?

I wouldn't put it quite so stickly, Bimble.

Anyway, took 'em long enough!

Heheh. Well sorry for being "stickly". I don't know what that means exactly, but I meant no offense. :)

stickily

Mr. Marty Willson-Piper is playing here next week. I feel rather privileged though I know nothing of his latest or even probably last three albums. Looking at his myspace page, I remember how enthusiastic a music-lover he always was. He mentioned Neu! before I ever even know who the fuck that was! He just has lots of energy. He wants to talk about music, his brain is a sponge for it, he has zillions of records, he's the kind of guy you could have a good chat with and a cup of tea.

Apparently titled Mercator Projection

this was actually the name of the band.

Doesn't the beginning bass line to "Anna Miranda" sound like early Cure??? It's like the early Cure version of "Under The Milky Way"! hahaha

This band is awesomeeeee

Thread revive because I can't think of an appropriate caption for this photo

http://www.vogue.com.au/var/vogue/storage/images/people_parties/events/2008/david_jones_american_express_card_launch/126939-4-eng-GB/david_jones_american_express_card_launch.jpg

(they played at some some AMEX corporate gig)

Kilbey looks in a better shape than 2 or 3 years ago.
Willson-Piper now is ready to join some Californian cult.

Yikes, Marty! Uh...what happened? Next he'll be wearing a rasta hat.

they played at some some AMEX corporate gig

And don't they look thrilled to be there!

prolly had to play the gig to pay off their overextended gold cards...

She put her foot down on the oscillation pedal
And earned ... double Membership Rewards(R) points

In the space between our houses
Some damage was discovered
But thanks to the Purchase Protection Plan
Our retail shopping's covered

I paid eighty dollars for this wedding ring,
I couldn't take it off if I tried.
Got 20,000 bonus Starpoints,
Exclusive Privileges Worldwide.

Sometimes when I just can't find my Gold Card
And I'm on an international flight
I think about ... the Global Assist(R) Hotline
And how they'll replace that Card tonight

And don't they look thrilled to be there!

Apparently it paid pretty well. There's a hilarious Kilbey blog entry about it.

Yeah, see now you've got me going back to his blog and damn me if it isn't even better than it was last time I was there. I never thought I'd enjoy just reading his words nearly as much as hearing their music, but the guy is remarkably talented, you have to admit.

Magician Among The Spirits

Who needs the Church when you have Church. Oh wait.

Glad this thread is revived; The Church's latest album, Untitled #23, is one of their very best; an incredibly dreamy, confident album. Probably the year's most overlooked.

Really? It just didn't grab me aside from a couple of tracks, whereas everything else they done P=A has at least 4 or 5 *great* tracks.

I agree with Evan R, I think Untitled #23 sits comfortably alongside Priest=Aura or Starfish. Top-tier Church album.

Yeah, Untitled #23 proved to be a real grower for me. It's quite astonishing that a band who are approaching their fourth decade together can still conjure unexpected twists and sonic novelties for every album. (For example, the lovely, ghostly backing vocals in Pangaea.) A few other observations:
1. Either Tim Powles has become a better drummer, or he's being better recorded these days. Perhaps both. This is the first record where I've really dug his playing and his drum sound.
2. I was sorry that Marty didn't get a song to sing. However, his vocal cameo, when it appears, is all the more effective for its isolation.
3. The spectre of mortality hangs heavy over these songs, and Steve's melancholy seems to have seeped into Marty's and Peter's playing. They're less energetic than in days of yore, more inclined to strum than arpeggiate. Their languor synergises with the opaque symbolism of the lyrics and the album's almost unvaryingly mid-tempo pace to create a unifyingly dreamy atmosphere, as referred to above by Evan R.

By the way, for anyone who missed it, a biography of Steve Kilbey was recently published. It's quite well-written, features some remarkable anecdotes, and is a definite must-have for any dedicated fan.

This is a lot of material to catch up on, I feel bad about this, I suddenly realized how much I like this band and how they do what they do quite well. They are a really good kind of "boring".

So which albums would you say are strong start to finish, aside from "Starfish"?

i think heyday and seance are both reasonably strong throughout, though neither are quite as classic as starfish beyond the singles. i have never heard blurred crusade from start to finish.

"Forget Yourself" was a hell of an album, too, with some of their best songs. But even that album doesn't quite hang together as well as "Untitled." They recorded two semi-acoustic albums with a mix of classic songs and new material this decade. I know that sounds awful on paper---old band revisits old songs---but the new arrangements are utterly gorgeous and sometimes really innovative. And Kilbey's voice is pure silk; he gives great performances. It's not a place I'd recommend anybody to start, but for casual fans it's a real treat.

So which albums would you say are strong start to finish, aside from "Starfish"?

The Church - "Priest = Aura"/the internet

Heyday. Priest = Aura is solid but overlong, like Disintegration.

Attention all -- will be interviewing Peter Koppes later today so if anyone has any burning questions about the band at present, suggest them here. (I have a ton myself but hey, nothing wrong with more!)

Just ask him when they're finally going to release a live album!

Haha noted.

ask steve about what drugs he was on at that awards acceptance speech, and if he can share w/ all of us

will be interviewing Peter Koppes later today

ahhh fxck me

Nice interview with Steve: http://blog.billkopp.com/?p=453

And new Isidore album out today (Steve and Jeffrey Cain of Remy Zero etc.) -- first part of a two part interview with Cain here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-shepard/jeffrey-cain-isidore_b_1275316.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T22Ozz1ceHI

Okay, so this song "Maybe You" popped up a couple weeks ago and everyone writing about it seemed to agree it's great. Hardly anyone seemed to mention that the twins in question are Elektra and Anna Miranda Kilbey...daughters of Steve Kilbey.

Love how Steve Kilbey sings its praises in the comments on Soundcloud version.

lol I hadn't noticed that.

"reconciling all contradictions. at once modern and classic. following the aesthetic of beauty to an incredible conclusion. subtle. strange. familiar. 2 identicall voices weave in and out of each other creating a delicious silvery feeling. i am shocked at how good this is!"

haha

I have all the time in the world for that guy.

Gotta say I'm really digging that Saint Lou Lou song. It's like the most awesome unpop pop.

Dear brasstax:

We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Mirand Kilbey & Elektra Kilbey claiming that this material is infringing

I feel like I've been personally dissed by the twins! The track was originally a free download, after all.

"Long Distance Century Buzzes and Fades"

So, this new Church dvd/download is fantastic: https://sellfy.com/p/iHaj/

Five hours of self-shot footage from the GAF tour. Lots of eating/riding on a bus/shaking hands/getting yelled at by Melody Maker/etc... which is all pretty fun and illuminating, but there's also a mountain of great live footage (including a 'You Took' that is super bananas - as always).

I think Kilbey actually undersold this a bit (which really isn't like him). I've been into the Church for a good long time and I wouldn't hesitate to call this absolutely essential for fans.

Anybody else pick this up?

correction:
bit less than 5 hours - read the counter wrong - looks like 3.5

thinking about it
would sit through 3.5 hours of jumpy VHS for live footage and also to stare at <3 marty <3

Now I know why there's so much of Marty in his underwear/Marty in his bathing suit on the dvd! hahaha - No, serious.
Technical quality of the footage is way better than I expected, btw. Pretty cool editing too. I expected it to be way more haphazard. It ain't at all.

I think the download is like half the price of the dvd. I would've done that if I had known beforehand.

No way. Really?! He is such a dreamboat!!

Oddly enough... yes!
Kilbey kinda can't keep the camera off him. hahaha

he's the one that looks like a magician/hypnotist, right?

ha, i guess so? he has a beautiful face. when i was in high school, i think i just wanted to look like him in this picture.
http://first-avenue.com/files/imagecache/event/images/performer/MartyWillson-Piper.jpg

now he looks like this and he is still appealing
http://thechurchband.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/387604_10150630175315968_385647585967_11564136_2068150739_n-300x200.jpg

this song has been stuck in my head all day so i offer you this, featuring:
* major awesome one-note marty solo
* insertion of a line or two of an aerosmith song in the middle
* 9 minutes of song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_qlpf3Fyi8

my mistake, on the cover of gold afternoon fix they *all* kind of look like magicians or hypnotists.

man I regret not going to see them play so so much. stupid jobs.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HV0lbcdK6BI/Ude1j4a_msI/AAAAAAAAAiM/E1cvikoya3Q/w506-h380-o/thechurch.jpg

I have a question, do they have any other songs besides under the milky way? Or. Did they for.m just for that one? Much thanks, I am doing a research paper for my a-levels.

^^ flagged for late nite comedy posting

i've never heard the GAF demos -- is this for real? also, marty is the only one who doesn't look like a mesmerist on the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F5zD8c_pI

i've watched about 45 min so far and i had to take a break -- the poignant mundane details (kilbey filming every corner of his hotel room, then himself in the elevator with his own band's shirt on, the sound guy mooning the camera, the interview with the critic/journalist, the interaction with the fan) PLUS the performances and verisimilitude of being there in the back of some huge auditorium with full light show, i mean, i needed to take a break! not to mention that marty hasn't let me down yet. i also really like the idea that he's only now doing something with this footage. worth every penny for the download if you enjoy time capsules, late 80s/early 90s era things, long shapeless verite documentaries, <3 marty <3, or rock docs of all stripes. it seems to clearly be made for fans (or at least marketed to, right?) but i think it could enjoy a wider audience if properly framed.

I was concerned this video might render inaccessible to me the invisible staircase that leads to the room outside of time and space that is the Church and their music, but it does not.

And the best live clip was "Hotel Womb" about twenty minutes from the end!

FYI, the DVD of the Enmore Theater show with the complete Untitled #23, P=A, and Starfish is due out Aug 1:
http://merch.thechurchband.net/new-the-church-live-at-the-enmore-theatre-dvd/

@ Bee OK - I was at that Wiltern show also! The Blue Aeroplanes opened up...

No, they are still totally trapped in the tower -- I love how extremely far away they seem on stage too. I can't wait to watch the rest. Apparently I'm unable to digest much of this at once.

I watched it in three sittings. haha

Your comment above about it being made for/marketed to fans is spot-on. As a massive fan... it's just the kinda fly on the wall thing I've always been curious to see.

It's also fascinating as a portrait of a band with a certain level of fame. They were well known, but not famous.

Anyone who doesn't have it should acquire the Goldfish (Jokes, Magic & Souvenirs) DVD. Apart from collecting their '81 - '90 videos, it features a lot of great candid-camera footage from, IIRC, the Starfish tour. Much of it is comedy gold.

would sit through 3.5 hours of jumpy VHS for live footage and also to stare at <3 marty <3

I would love, even for one day, to know what it's like to have the effect on women that MWP had back then. I took a girlfriend to see The Church about ten years ago and all she could talk about afterwards was "that unbelievably handsome guitarist".

his frock coat, skinny jeans and beatle boots really did flatter him

I hope that's the one you are all talking about.

Oh stop being coy -- you know who he is! He's the one with the ridiculously beautiful face! (Although Peter Koppes gets a shout out for being muuuuuch more appealing in moving pictures than he is in still ones).
I'd like to know what it's like to be that irresistible/talented/good looking too. Some people are just born with a gift. It must be absurd and probably not as awesome as it seems.

MWP is also damn charming and just naturally inhabits the rock star role. I've chatted with him several times over the years and he can instantaneously switch from music/guitar nerd to Coolest Guy In The Room. I don't know how he (or anyone with that kind of presence) does it.

I think of the Church like ILX, as a gestalt entity with shadowy, changeable faces that speak as one in a multitude of voices. Sometimes Steve, sometimes Marty, and then when you think you have the rhythm of it, Peter Koppes appears and sings As You Will or Transient. And you're unsure of anything again.

Looks like Marty is out of the band... at least for now.
That's a drag.

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/the-church-announce-addition-of-powderfinger-guitarist-for-new-album/

Oh no! What happened to Marty?!

From Steve:

hey guys
this has been hard to broach and it has been hard to announce.
this is the simple truth.
marty was/is unavailable.
after having secured the funds to make a new church record, marty was not available to make it.
so i asked ian haug from powderfinger if he would like to play on this record and do the subsequent tour. he said yes.
we have begun the new album and let me reassure you it is magnificent. otherwise we wouldnt be doing it.
i will never say anything more about this subject. marty is not available. ian was. and i needed to make this album because we havent done anything for so long.
you'll have to trust me. this step was not taken lightly.
ian is a brilliant guitarist who brings years of experience and a new fresh enthusiasm with him. this is no second rate deal. and nothing is chiselled in stone.
if you cant dig it i'm sorry. this is my fucking band after all and it has existed at times without peter and in the beginning without marty. and for times in between while he went AWOL.
i love the guy. his musicianship is undeniably good. but its over now . the church will have to move on without him or have no church at all. which one did you want?
i am sitting here right now with 16 new incredible songs that we just wrote. its frustrating that it will be a while till you hear it. but the church will ride on. and i hope that when i fall off my perch that someone else jumps in and keeps it going. this is what i was writing about the other day. the church is an ideal that produces a certain type of music. regardless of individuals.
the church will prevail. and our new music is very very fucking cool.
and thats it!

Ya know, Marty always does the things on each of the recent records I'm not as crazy about... all the progginess and whatnot, but this is still mega blah.

Sounds like the new record will be good though. I wonder what is keeping Marty so busy?!

Him and Steve butting heads is what's keeping him "busy," I'd guess?

Hm. That's unfortunate. I love Steve Kilbey's attitude.

Without getting too far into NDA territory, I'm not surprised by this development. I had a feeling the U23/P=A/SF shows were going to be it for the band - even before Steve went public about the financial rift with Second Motion.

I"m also encouraged. I can't think of many other people from Kilbey's generation who've found such creative engagement in middle age. The Kilbey-Kennedy albums are all worth checking out and generally if he's bragging about something on his blog it does live up. Plus if it gets Peter to do more, then I'm all for it. The RefoMation album is very very good,

The three times they came through New England after U23 were three of the best shows I've seen from them.
Nice that they at least ended that phase on a high.

Kilbey is a talented dude. I'm sure the new record will be more than worth a listen. It's still sad though!

i keep reading that piper is a douche.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Marty's got a new album on the way too. He's over at http://indeepmusicarchive.net now - writing about his favorite albums.

He's also offering Skype guitar lessons. I am very tempted by the idea, I must say.

You could learn from R Lloyd and MWP in the same day!

omg can i pay for a guitar lesson and just make him talk to me for ___ minutes?

Just £35 buys you an hour of his time. I'm sure he'd be happy to simply shoot the breeze...

(x-post)

Maybe I could set both lessons up for the same time and we could all jam on See No Evil. ＼(◎o◎)／

one laptop with lloyd, another with MWP, them facing each other...

i'm gonna set up my laptop in the basement and marty can accompany me for an hour
that seems worth the cash tbh!

play a song, talk for 10 min, play a song, talk for 10 min, repeat
with marty!

Maybe Lloyd and Marty can get together with Bruce Gilbert and form a band called the Estranged Band Members.

The Wiresque Church Of Television

FB page teasing some kind of 'big announcement' this week.

New song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujvVk_RDpZg

And new album next month. Works for me!

I can't even parse kilbey's blogs. so he's back in the church? are they putting this out themselves?

He's in, Marty's gone, and it does appear to be a self-release.

so they're done with second motion? whatever happened with that, did they sue them?

what's marty up to these days?!

Oh wow, why did Marty leave? Hate to be this kind of fan (or this kind of listener in general) but Marty not being there sucks a lot of the excitement out of this

I will defer to Elvis T on all these points.

well, it's relatively straightforward (for SK anyway):

we realise people disappointed cos MWP not there
he literally never got back to us when we wanted to do a new record
he never even left
he just became unavailable
well thats that
we had a coalition of the willing who did
and ian came onboard
exceeding all expectations one could possibly have
what we have now is all that could have ever been
forget the what ifs
i understand you may be disappointed if MWP was your favourite
it was not my idea for him to not be there
however seeing he wasnt and he isnt
shortly therefore
and in spades to boot
Further/Deeper will be with you soon if you want
after all its only rocknroll nothing to get hung about

I forgot how fun it is to read his blog!

Not saying anything until the album is out.

Yeah, I'll withhold judgement. And my expectations for any band that's been around this long are very low anyway. But this lowers them considerably. Just compare the last Church album, which was incredible, to all the Steve Kilbey solo records released around the same time, which were not. There were some OK cuts on those records, but the spark just wasn't there.

Not as broken up about MWP being gone as I thought I'd be.

Kinda feel like he was responsible for most of the lowlights songwise/soundwise/bv-wise for the last 20-odd years.
Starting with Sometime Anywhere, he started feeling a lil too comfortable showing off his progginess for me. YMMV though, of course.

Still would've liked him to be in the band (and boy will this be interesting seeing them live w/o him), but what can ya do...

i just want to know what he is so busy doing that he can't respond to sk's messages

maybe he's still trying to decipher them?

haha
i like to imagine him being super perplexed for months on end

i still think that long boring live documentary of their gold afternoon fix tour was the best thing ever

me too

I like this band but to be fair all of their albums from the past 15 years sound the same to me. So if this sounds different, that might be good. That new song isn't very good though.

kinda wish they'd have stayed with Second Motion long enough to re-release the Sing Songs/Remote Luxury/Persia comp on CD... ah well.

Priest=Aura'ing it up this am, so fkn good

Dunno. While they're all certainly The Church, there is a bit of variety in the years since Hologram of Baal.

After Everything is chilled out, opiated... Forget Yourself, quite a bit more rough around the edges... Uninvited drags a bit more pop action back in... Untitled cuts back on the prog (mostly)... maybe these are minor differences though? They probably are. haha

I like Uninvited a whole lot, my 3 fave churches are it, p=a and heyday. I haven't heard every album though.

Blurred Crusade has been in constant rotation since I got the LP for $1.99! I can't believe it was priced so low. It's so good!

I think it was $1.99 -- i remember it being insultingly cheap (and in great condition) is what i'm trying to say

I'll give you $4 for it.

Just found Remote Luxury for 5.99 on LP.

That's the one with the tragic digital drums right

As a fan of all things 80s and digital, i'm not sure I can answer that question. Sounds great to me.

You're thinking of Seance, probably.

Yes Seance. Sweet Jesus those poor songs.

oh look, Sing Songs/Remote Luxury/Persia is on Spotify! *listens*

i'm listening to that on Spotify right now too.

The era between Priest=Aura and Forget Yourself is my blind spot. I haven't heard any of those albums; are any of them worth checking out?

Haha, Ripple just came on and I was a bit O_o but then I realized I had it on shuffle. Gonna let it ride though, this is gorgeous.

you're a human sacrifice to the goddess of ice fyi

The era between Priest=Aura and Forget Yourself is my blind spot. I haven't heard any of those albums; are any of them worth checking out?

There isn't one great stand out album among them, but there are some terrific songs
Day Of The Dead
Comedown
Magician Among The Spirits
Tranquility
Numbers
Anaesthesia

Also worth seeking out from that period:

The Time Being
The Further Adventures of the Time Being
Two Places at Once
After Everything
Louisiana
The Great Machine

I love Sometime Anywhere (especially if you add in songs from Someplace Else) and Magician Among the Spirits has a second half that is kinda spacey and awesome in a way that reminds me of Julian Cope's Jehovahkill. I kinda like all these records, to be honest. Haven't listened to Parallel Universe much though.

Nobody repping for Buffalo, The Awful Ache or The Dead Man's Dream??

Magician..., Parallel Universe and Box of Birds don't do much for me, but the rest are all different levels of very enjoyable.

Post P=A ranking (not including all the random mail order/acoustic/soundtrack stuff):

Untitled #23
Hologram of Baal
After Everything Now This
Sometime Anywhere
Forget Yourself
Uninvited, Like the Clouds
Magician Among the Spirits
Parallel Universe
Box of Birds

heh, I love the Dead Man's Dream but just picked a couple off each album.

Back With Two Beasts needs a shout-out here. It's my fave of the secondary albums.

And granted it's not *quite* the Church but surely the Refo:mation's Pharmakoi/Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units deserves mention too.

We should compile a best of the side projects. What's the Mrs song that mentions Robert Wyatt and Andy Partridge? That's a keeper.

Damn autocorrect, MWP not Mrs!

Think that MWP song is "Forget The Radio"

Good article on the state of things
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/special-features/a-broader-church/story-fnknbqfy-1227082651923?nk=d1844cb8ddd8159d308f4b30174a7f81

Cool, will read here...

The piece is very glow-y, and a comment from Marty would have been helpful. I can deal with a band losing a member, that happens all the time, but there's something about the nature of this departure that makes me feel uneasy. "We couldn't get in touch with a founding member of the band so we made an album without him."

Also, the article makes it seem like Powderfinger was a huge rock band. Were they just a U.K. thing?

Australian, and yes, pretty big there IIRC.

startled to imagine where Evan thinks The Church have been from all along!

We got stream

http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/exclusive-stream-the-church-furtherdeeper/676

Sounds great on first listen.
More direct? Less proggy? Slightly more youthful?

Sounds very much like The Church, but... doesn't sound much like any of their 21st century albums, I don't think.

I just assumed they were from Utah.

This sounds good on first listen. Kilbey's voice is a marvel, and the straightforward Beatles/Floyd tracks work well. There are some middle and end stretches that lose my attention, but that's not unusual for this band. I expect I'll return to this a lot.

NA tour:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6319916/the-church-announce-2015-north-american-tour-dates-celebrate-35th-anniversary

been listening to this for the last few days... it's mixed so beautifully! I lose focus on the songs because the production is so sparkly. anyway, so far it seems a little front-loaded. the first three tracks are all amazing. maybe next time I'll just put on the second half.

just finished kilbey's recent memoir, great read until the end, which handwaves away the last ten years, which was a bit disappointing. the rest was very enlightening and entertaining. i'm guessing there was a very skilled editor involved as well..

i'll second electricsound on the Kilbey bio. really fun read, but he zips from 02 to the present in like 5 pages or so!
would've loved to read more about 21st cent church dynamics, but what can ya do?

buy lots of copies so he writes vol. 2

New album has leaked, who's heard it?

...the one that was released three months ago?

It was? I thought "Deeper Further" wasn't due out until early next month!

Released in America. It's long been released in Australia.

Damn. 30 years into this band and they''ve never sounded better. Without Marty, Peter is now in 100% guitar hero mode - something which was long overdue. New songs sound fantastic live.

I was really surprised, too! The new album is their most consistent in a long while, since "Forget Yourself" I think.

Favorite tracks: "Vanishing Man", "Delirious", "Laurel Canyon", "Globe Spinning" and "Miami". Kilbey can still paint an incredibly seductive picture with his words.

"miami" slayed the other night in philadelphia

Pity to have missed this tour but hopefully next time -- it's great to see them doing their thing still.

This is tremendous

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJUiOLfnqD0

Yes, that was mesmerising. As per Steve's comments, you can see how Haug's presence has reinvigorated them. I've seen the Church perform three times over the last fifteen years, and on no occasion did Kilbey sound as involved as he does in that clip. That said, I'd love to know what's going on in MWP's mind. I'm so subliminally discombobulated by his absence from the line-up that I actually had a lengthy dream about him the other night. He was house-sitting for his mum, who turned out to own a fancy Georgian mansion in London. He seemed a little irritable, so I was careful not to mention you-know-who.

Entire SXSW show is up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5Nbh4fCbvw

so what's the story behind the band's working with Waddy Wachtel?

From some Aussie paper back then:

The release of their new Starfish album may see financial success coming to this popular local band

The Church has had an influence in the music world disproportionate to its sales but the group now seems set for some overseas financial success.

After a number of albums with EMI they’ve joined Mushroom and taken on New York-based rock manager Mike Lembo. Their album Starfish, which is released here tomorrow, has already made some impact on the US Billboard chart. It was hovering just outside the Top One Hundred last week. Their hooky Under The Milky Way single is Top Thirty nationally in Australia, and getting a lot of play on US college radio. If it crosses over into the pop stations it will be their first big US hit.

“The album did 60,000 on pre-sales alone in America,” Steve Kilbey reported, sounding pleased. “And Milky Way is getting flogged to death on lots and lots of radio stations in America who’ve never touched the Church before.”

Kilbey, lead singer and songwriter, said some of the credit may be due to Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi, two West Coast session experts who worked intensively on the new music.

“I was saying to the boys in the band, if the album does really well it will be because of them, and if it doesn’t it will be because we wouldn’t cooperate with them enough,” Kilbey said. “In this business if you’re not paranoid you’re naive.”

Supersession guitarist Waddy Wachtel toured Australia a couple of years ago with Joe Walsh. Their power chords and guitar heroics seem a long way from the style of the Church.

“He’s got a lot of energy for a guy his age and how long he’s been doing it. He’s got this really funny kind of Jewish perspective on how to do things. He was good; he had some valuable insights to contribute.

“We rehearsed for a month with Waddy just going over the same songs. The drummer and I suddenly became more conscious of how we should be playing together as a bass player and drummer which is something we’d never thought about before.

“The guitarists simplified what they were doing. Waddy would just sit there and go over and over the songs and pick them apart.

“Angus Young’s his biggest hero in the whole world, which is funny because I absolutely loathe AC/DC. But if it had been another producer then we would have just made another of those Church albums. It would have been the usual jingle jangle guitar.

“But all Waddy likes is AC/DC and stuff like that. And you’ve got Greg Ladanyi, who owns his own studio and is into the Don Henley set, and you’ve got us. We ended up somewhere in the centre doing something none of us had ever anticipated. It sure doesn’t sound like another Church album.”

“My late friend and partner, Greg Ladanyi, was working on lots of different projects, and when this one landed in his lap he asked me if I would do it. They were basically a guitar band, but they were guys who were not very cooperative and who needed a lot of work. I sat with them for a couple of months, having them play things over and over till I was sure they were ready.

“But the wildest thing was, Steve Kilby had this idea called Under The Milky Way, and every day they’d go off and work on it until it was a track. Finally, he brought it in. I heard it and said, ‘OK, that’s cool.’ We put drums on it and some guitars, Steve sang on it – I think I have three different drummers on there – and it came down to this mix where there were so many faders on it, all this synth-y stuff, and so I just started filleting everything.

“Suddenly, the song became this beautiful piece of music, and our tracking of it and the delivery was effective. It really worked. It was captivating, haunting. It didn’t sound like anything else on the record, though, which was probably the problem. People thought that the rest of the record was going to be like the single, and it wasn’t. Milky Way was a total departure for the band, but that track sure worked. It was a huge smash.”

“A funny story about The Church: I was working on a record with Ringo Starr, and he asked, ‘So what have you been up to? What are you doing?’ And I told him that I was working with a band called The Church. He asked me if they were any good, and I said, ‘Yeah, they’re good. But you know how it is with these bands who had a modicum of success elsewhere. They come to America, and forgive me for putting it this way, but they think they’re the fuckin’ Beatles!’ Ringo cracked up and said, ‘I know exactly what you mean!’ That was great.”

Christ Wachtel comes across as such a tool. I remember in my NYC studio rat days overhearing some guys we were working with mention him and all of a sudden all the session dudes in the room shook their heads and laughed like he was a dark legend or something haha

From Kilbey's blog: http://thetimebeing.com/sel-fish/

it was nearly twenny yeers ago
the cherch made that record in l.a.
that one with that song
that song about the whatsisname
the song that got used in that tv show
yeah ya know the one i mean
1987
out of nowhere
after being dropped by warmer brothers
and capitol punishment
we were signed up by a-wrister records n tapes
who insisted that we come to l.a.
so they could keep an eye on us
they say why dontcha work with waddsy wok-tell
and grog lady-ani
we thought
ok
why not?
that sounds ridiculous
so we turn up in la
and we get put in the oakwood apts on sepulveda, west la
ploog n i in one apt
mwp n pk in another
swimming pool
barbeque
underground carpark
locked gates
the whole deal
first time i heard rap music
i lying in bed the 1st morning
i hear this ‘orrible ‘orrible loud noise coming up the street
i thought it was the end of the world
a car pumping out rap at a mighty volume
a revoltin’ way to wake up
we go down the studio to meet our pro-ducers
grog is a rude talentless macho buffoon
he owns the complex
the studio we’re recording in
he thinks we’re small fish
and he dont bother hiding his contempt
hes “worked” on jackson browned
and dong hen-lee
so boy hes a big-headed turkey
waddsy is a lot nicer n friendlier
they both snorting cokey-dokey like fiends, fiendss
all the time
it dont seem to affect ww too much
hes pretty affable
he can see we aint too bad
grog on the other hand is a mess
when hes just hadda snort
hes clammy n enthusiastic …for about 5 minutes
he wants to listen to everything at top volume
thru these huge speakers
i cant even bear to be in control room
its louder than a gig!
so anyway we go to this soundstage
in santa monica
where we rehearse all the life outta the songs
for 4 tedious weeks
they start wearing down ploogys confidence immediately
they try to start picking on me bout my voice
but im untouchable in my self-confidence
but they hurt pks n ploogs feelings all the time
grog especially treats us like second rate time-wasters
“look at this” he screams out to ww one day
“that fucking blah blah got a gig doing springsteen..”
“and youre stuck here with these useless australian nobodies”
i said….
grog looked at me searchingly and he cracked an ugly smirk
“thats right…..thats fucking right…!”
grog n waddsy didnae think much of u.t.m.w. neither
it was a kind of addendum to the rest of the album
i did most of it on my own
in a little programming studio
ploogy didnt play on it
they didnt wanna waste their time putting real drums on it
waddsy even tried to dissuade me from putting it second on the record
“you want em to hear some good ones before they get to that one!”
he said…
meanwhile we all had our own cars
and were getting into our own adventures
particularly ploogy who brought a constant stream
of hippies, druggies, ratbags n rastas round our apt.
we ate mexican food a lot
and roamed venice beach
grog sent me n pk for singing lessons in hollywood
we hadda crazy singing teacher
a guy whod played hercules n sampson in some b-grade flicks
he talked about sex non stop between singing instructions
hey steve do the girls in australia like to give head?
he would ask every week between la la la la las
hey steve i had a girl in here last week
she said ” im the queen of head jobs”
i said get down on yer knees and win the title
etc etc etc
in the middle of a c scale
he’d interrupt to tell me
of his latest conquest
and then straight back to the lesson as if nothin’ had happened
i didnt learn nothin’
but grog insisted the lessons were helping my hopeless voice
he hated pks voice even worse than mine
and made him feel real bad about it
one day waddsy stumbled on a huge cache of very very cheap cocaine
the boys bought a small mountain of it and started sniffin’
i had one line of that stuff n i felt sick for 3 days
grog made a pig of himself with it the first day
and stayed home for a (blessed) week
when he finally reappeared his skin was grey
and he lay on the couch softly moanin’
but not saying much
gee i didnt have a lotta sympathy for the olde wanker
waddsy on the other hand just piled in harder
he seemed fucking indestructible
with his diet of coke, winston ciggies, hamburgers, n sodapop
he was always alert n on the ball
3 months we were there
spending so much money that we’d never recoup
(we still probably havent)
day in day out of insults n abuse from these 2
driving round la scoring pot n getting into trouble
ploogy screaming out at the merry barbequers at our apts
“i dont dig your fucking altar!”
arista pouring money into the record
hey its sold almost a million in u.s. alone
but we’ll never see any money
cos it cost so much to make
days n days wasted buggering about
moving all over l.a. to other money eating studios
our stupid manager dont care
hes already commissioned the huge recording advance
now he dont care or know …
if you listen to the record
its actually flat lifeless n sterile
great songs, sure
but the performance, the sounds are ordinary
we coulda got that in australia in a week or 2
for a 20th of the money we spent
but what did we know
these were the ex-spurts
big shot american hard-assed turkeys
they knew best!
anyway
the rest is history
utmw accidentally became a hit
and everyone said
“whatta great record!”
is it really?
it aint a patch on heyday or priest
it was successful despite of grog n waddsy
not because of….
so there ya go
dont expect me to be all excited about sel-fish
it was purgatory having to cope with grog
waddsy i gotta bit of a soft spot for
he does know a bit about music i guess
not the kinda music i like, mind ya..
you dont hear much about grog these days
i mean i dont think his “producing” career went much further
he turned up at a gig after utmw wassa bit of a hit
trying half-heartedly to ameliorate it with me
but i just fucking smiled at him like
are you fucking serious… i fucking hate ya!
waddsy we worked with again
that was gaf
ha ha
lets all sing it now
“i shoulda known better!”
anyway
theres the short sordid history about our big one
too much money…tho none for us
too much cocaine
too much argy-bargy
just too much
can ya believe it was almost 20 years ago?
seems like only last century…
more tails tomorrow!
sk

Not appreciating his taste in puns.

Not appreciating anything about that, really.

Interesting, I guess, that after all the stuff that makes Waddy sound so terrible, Kilbey works with him again and concedes he wasn't all that bad

I know Marty is estranged from this band, but I was looking at that 120 min archive website and saw a MW-P song I had never heard (Questions Without Answers? He had solo videos?). I also found this prime era Marty interview where he's sitting on a haystack.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D4Sxru7IwQ

don't say he is estranged! he might come back. please come back.

While I'm as fond of Marty as the next Church obsessive, I have to point out that Further/Deeper is an unqualified triumph and the band's most cohesive and ambitious album in years. Perhaps MWP's "unavailability" was for the best?

I've been digging back into my Church albums for a couple weeks since reading Brett Milano’s Don’t All Thank Me At Once: The Lost Pop Genius of Scott Miller (2015). I had no idea that Donnette Thayer dumped Scott Miller for Steve Kilbey, and poor Scott had to play shows with Kilbey distracting the crowds. I was vaguely aware that she left and did a couple albums with Kilbey as Hex but never heard them.

The Heyday cassette was my first exposure to The Church and still a favorite. By '88 I was into Pixies/Sonic Youth/Dinosaur, and thought Starfish was garbage. It took a decade to warm up to it. I like the sound of some of the post-1996 work, but songs aren't really sticking, though the Box of Birds covers are great. Listening to "Chrome Injury" again makes me think they were fans of early Ultravox! and Japan for a bit. I realized my version of Of Skins and Heart is missing "Too Fast For You," "Tear It All Away" and "Sisters" so had to fix that. Plus the Sing-Songs EP from '82.

fnb - you'd probably like priest = aura?!

and hold on one second -- apparently the church are playing all of the blurred crusade on tour now? without marty? or is he back? i'm thinking of going regardless but i'd be extra excited if i knew i'd share air with marty again.

Entire show from last month...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxql5gJdhOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly6e-SllHLY

Kilbey talked "Under the Milky Way"

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2016/08/the-church-s-steve-kilbey-on-the-strange-second-life-of-under-the-milky-way

Happy birthday Steve!

i’m 62 and i dont give a flying fuck!

New album soon, new US tour dates, etc.

http://thechurchband.net/

The recent Kilbey Kennedy album is Quite Good.

Agreed, that whole sideline of releases has been very enjoyable.

Continuing Marty Absence? Marty Wilson-Piper: Further Days Without Him? The story dies, Arthur.

Anyway, new song is amazing. And the upcoming North American tour is pretty comprehensive! Definitely going to a couple of the Texas shows.

i was also wondering about the continuing marty absence
my friend who lives in asheville saw that they are offering a $99 "VIP meet & greet"
that's what made me wonder if marty was going to be there or not (i assume not?)

I don't think he's involved in the new album or the tour, no. New song has a real Bowie thing going on with the vocals.

Yeah I think Marty's out, period.

That's a shame, although the last album was pretty strong. I'm not sure this is down to the departure of MWP but Kilbey's lyrical style seems to have shifted to a more straightforward rock and roll sort of idiom. Maybe it's the new guy's influence? I mean, it works... but it's different.

A full 1982 show just showed up on YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxMXeZgjyxE

Man, that'll be a flashback and a half.

many many thank yous for posting
the sound and video are both quite clear for being so old!

Awesome show! Damn, they were a tight unit, weren't they? And I hadn't known that Marty ever played a Stratocaster! o_O

whoa @ kilbey's post on the making of under the milky way etc, missed that the first time around. fascinating stuff. while i hesitate to tell tales out of school (and those LA guys sound like tools), steve himself was a colossal conceited jerk when i interviewed him a couple years later. but i kinda liked him anyway and still love his music.

I like the additional gothness they throw on the vocals in this set. Also like Vast Halo says, they were really tight! This is what, 2-3 years after they formed?

new album was released last week and ~ shocker ~ it rules

Indeed it does.

I'll take the opposing view - this album is ok but it feels a bit too laid back and doesn't have near the high points of "Further/Deeper". But then I didn't rate "Untitled #23" either. Maybe I just miss the rush of stuff like "Unified Field" and "Block" from "Uninvited Like The Clouds".

o man, i loooooooove untitled #23. total hyperbole potentially but it's hard for me to think off the top of my head of an album that awesome released 18 years after a band's debut. that's one of my favorite eras of their music. i'm hoping they have some involvement with annihilation the way they "soundtracked" shriek

28 years.

28 years! straight = bent. reflexive mistaken underestimates when it comes to kilbey & co even among hopeless fanboys

it's easier to say fans than fanboys

LL is right, there's Steve Kilboys and Marty-Wilson Pipettes who are equally hopeless

I really like the new album. Is it bad to admit I'm happy that it's about 45 minutes long instead of 60+? I love the last two records but I rarely make it to the end of them unless I start halfway through. I miss the narrative lyrics of old, but the new record has sort of playful Jabberwocky kinda thing instead, which works really well with the music. It sounds like they're having fun! The openness of Magician Among the Spirits era stuff but folded down into short pop songs.

Marty-Wilson Pipettes
it me!

xpost I'm with you. I like the brevity on this one.

there's only one song on the album longer than five minutes!

I really love this record!

"before the deluge" could be a robyn hitchcock song

Yeah, that's true. Don't forget Robyn and Steve toured together, maybe it was one they whipped up.

A few more spins and the clear winners for me are "Another Century", "Undersea", "Before The Deluge", "A Face In The Film" and the brilliant closer "Dark Waltz".

The only weak track for me is In Your Fog, the first six tracks are the best run of Church album tracks since Spark -> Hotel Womb on Starfish.

Couple nights ago in Sydney. Rock on!

Great interview with an unfiltered SK on The Hustle podcast
https://thehustle.podbean.com/e/episode-147-steve-kilbey-of-the-church/

thanks for the link! that was a great interview, mainly because it was very long and the interviewer let him talk a lot. no further elaboration on the mysterious exit of marty wilson-piper; he just up and left and they haven't spoken since. loved how he was asked for a great rock'n'roll story and told a ghost story instead.

whoa this thread was started 9/9/01

i have a general question about this band: how were they portrayed in marketing/media in the early years, like 1980-84? were they "new wave" or ?

Early post/alt-rock lumped in with bands like The Cure, Echo and the Bunnymen, Soft Boys, etc.

they were considered psych revival, no?

Maybe in the same way as Bangles and Dream Syndicate?

compared to psych revival... maybe as much as R.E.M. were compared to jangle pop via The Birds

I first heard them on 120 Minutes - it was something off Heyday and it really caught my ear. I seem to recall them in what trivial pursuit called the “Art Rock” category

oh boy
i have been having some conversations about "art rock"

so far we have:

early alt-rock
psych revival/Byrdsy rock
"art rock"

does this mean "definitely NOT new wave" or ?

So much of that was all lumped together in the overused "college rock" category in the mid-80s American music press. If you were in a band that had at least one Rickenbacker 12-string guitar in it, you were "Byrds/psych revival" regardless if you were R.E.M., Let's Active, Game Theory, The Church, heck even The Smiths.

Anyway, the video for "Tantalized" was one of the first videos on 120 Minutes in 1986 (never heard them on the radio until UTMW). They opened up for Echo & The Bunnymen here (and completely blew them off the stage)

yeah i know that -- and what i am wondering is how they were portrayed before they were lumped into "college rock"
how were they characterized in their own marketing and in the media before that? i still see promos for super old church albums at the record store and afaict, that is a signal that they were widely distributed. just wondering how they were marketed during those early years.

it's possible that their lack of easy categorization contributed to their "college rock" lumping

Them also being an Aussie band must have made the marketing extra tuff on the suits.

Kilbey is always good for some quotes about this early time.

And with producer Bob Clearmountain handling production, the band has a guy who could bring out the nuances in the band’s moody music.

“He was the number one guy in the whole world and somehow someone talked him into working with us,” says Kilbey. “I don’t know why he did. He was an amazing producer. When the album was finished and mastered, [the record label] EMI rang me up and said there was a cassette waiting. I went and picked it up and went back to the market and my friend had a brand new invention called a Sony Walkman. I put it on, and I couldn’t believe our album sounded like that. It sounded like a million dollars. I remember other bands telling me, ‘How did you bastards get it to sound like that?’ It was rich and warm and organic. Clearmountain did a wonderful job.”

But it never came out in America because the higher-ups at Capitol Records thought Americans wouldn’t like it.

“There’s no way I would write a hit they would like,” Kilbey says. “You have to imagine what a guy working at Capitol Records in 1981 was like. There was no R.E.M. There was nothing. There were a few things, but he was already stuck in 1979 anyway. They’re always two years behind. That’s what [singer-guitarist] Robyn Hitchcock said to me. He said, ‘These guys sign you up in 1984 and they’re in 1982 and their idea of what 1982 is 1980 anyway. So by the time the record comes out, they’re five years behind the times.’ These guys were hopeless. They’re like women who see a guy and want to change that guy when they get him. EMI/Capitol looked at the Church and saw what we were — young scruffy indie guys playing psychedelic music. They wanted to turn us into the Thompson Twins. Why would they want that?”

An ill-fated tour with Duran Duran only added insult to injury; Kilbey pulled the group off the Duran Duran tour after only a few dates.

“Their audience hated us,” he says. “It was 1982 and there was no reference to this. There was nobody else out there with long hair playing 12-string guitars trying to invoke psychedelia whatever that is. It was like a One Direction crowd. It was like putting Fleet Foxes on before One Direction. That wouldn’t go down very well. We were supposed to do a whole tour and after 10 gigs, I went, ‘That’s it. I’m not putting myself or my band through this.’ We couldn’t convert [the fans]. There was no conversion going on. Not one girl wetting her pants over [Duran Duran drummer] Roger Taylor would go home and buy the Church’s album. It’s not happening."

good info, thank you!!

Yeah, those quotes really nail it down

pretty gross about the pants-wetting but whatever
times were different, it was 1982

Marty Wilson-Piper touches on it from time to time in his liner notes for the first set of reissues, they're all on his web site:

http://martywillson-piper.com/music/the-church/

It's an interesting question the more you think about it. Seems like before the advent of the Internet there simply wasn't the same framework (in the sense of, like, rebar) available to hang music genres from, they're necessarily going to be really hazy for a "small-time" band like the Church back then. Once you have crossed some volumetric threshold of discussion and documentation, the taxonomies solidify. Even retroactively. I think one effect of the online music community (forums, curated streaming services, the absorption of genre into fans forming their identities) is to reinforce both the desire and reality of questions like "what WAS the Church in 1982?" It's more part of the ongoing experience of fandom than it used to be... or maybe it's just me whose primary interest in genres pre-Internet was as pathways to finding more music that I liked. Still obviously a part of it, but there are actual services... algorithms... (and marketing masquerading as such) that do that for you now. Like, I can't fully appreciate the Church now without knowing what they were back then. This medium seems to kinda drive that desire in a way it didn't for me in, say, the 80s.

It reminds me of people not part of the antiquarian book trade asking what the market value of a very rare book is, when one only appears for sale every 20-30 years. It simply doesn't have a market value the way a book that is bought and sold every week does... you need a certain volume of trading in order to establish value in that way.

that's exactly why i asked the question here -- i guess i could google around and try to figure it out but i thought maybe someone would remember. i don't have time to read through every liner note of MWP (sadly) but it's good to know the info is there.

the church are such a weird band. this discussion helped me to figure out what to say to my students this week, so thanks for that. at least i am not the one who is "confused" -- the whole narrative is confused because ofthe times/methods of communication then vs now

Steve Kilbey is playing a living room show a couple miles from my house tomorrow night. Should be interesting...

Extremely good show last night for this current Starfish 30th anniversary tour they're doing. Absolutely killed Starfish itself, you got a sense of what they wanted the album to actually sound like. (Pretty sure they did a new instrumental break arrangement for "Reptile," plus Steve sang "Spark" to my slight surprise, would have thought Ian would do that.) Also a smart setup because it gets the big US hit out of the way two songs in. Then the remainder of the set was a split between other standards and newer numbers that show where they're at these days; they really have figured out big sweeping epics that work and allows them to do their prog/space rock deep dives without being dull. A real sense of five performers (counting Jeffrey Cain, their newish tour member) working together even with Steve as the pumped-up frontman. Ending the main set on a fantastic version of "Tantalized," then encoring with "Almost With You," "Unguarded Moment" and then taking it back to the present with "Miami" from Further/Deeper was a sharp move.

I'll also add a rather encouraging sign -- plenty of types my/their age in the audience, but I was happily surprised to note a slew of people in their twenties -- or younger! A whole clutch of people went in ahead of me at the door who were under 21, a mix of indie and goth types. (Definitely a low key goth vibe at the show in general -- saw at least one Siouxsie shirt -- plus also a Gang Starr shirt and a Mastodon shirt! One of the more random and interesting mixes on that front at a show I've seen in a bit.)

cool! as much as I dig Starfish, I'd rather hear a set comprised mostly of songs from their last two albums with a handful of old hits

Yeah, right with you -- had a chance to see the regular tour last year but either something came up or I don't know, so I'm a bit bummed about that. But I could walk to this show -- about eight blocks away -- and even with the anniversary hook I wasn't going to say no. Worked out well! It was also 'an evening with,' so no opener, and it was all done by 10:30. I rather appreciated that!

I'm still mad I had tickets to their Starfish/Priest/Untitled tour a few years back but got a new job and couldn't go (seeing the show involved flying to Chicago)

I went and it was great!!!

Thanks to your tickets iirc!

Yeah I am VERY bummed I missed the LA date for that tour, one of the few shows I could have seen by anyone I still actively regret. Quite literally that afternoon I came down with a fever and head cold and was utterly miserable and out of it. If only.

At least I did get to see them with Marty a few times before that, including the acoustic Steve and Marty tour in the mid-90s.

xpost glad a true fan got to go in my stead!

not just a true fan, a marty maniac! i am genuinely glad i got to see him play with them before he left the band.

well it was payday in arcadia

Anyway, speaking of Marty, new album in two weeks:

https://soundcloud.com/noctorummusic/a-girl-with-no-love-the-afterlife-single-release-2018/

gotta say i am not into that song :-/
oh well. marty's taste has always seemed kind of questionable

Jesus, a song about the virtues of a sex doll. I had thought MWP's solo work cringeworthy at times but he's going all out here.

I felt the same disappointment with the Blade Runner sequel. So many potential themes, and... nope, we're gonna do hologram girlfriend and prostitutes.

his imagination has always seemed limited compared to Steve Kilbey's

Been listening to my Remote Luxury CD today driving around running errands, it's so good... they've really established their own sound on these two EPS. I love MWP's "Volumes" so much, especially the chorus:

they have pages
they take ages
to read and to learn
they're heavy to carry
and easy to burn
volumes have secrets
take them on holiday
book them a room
save them a moment
swallow their swoon

I didn't post on the right thread but last night came across a Rykodisc pressing of Peter Koppes - Manchild & Myth (on clear CQV "CD Quality Vinyl" Ryko's then buzzword) and damn what a great record, some missing link between Church, Durutti Column and 90s shoegaze

The night is a liar
Overthrow the tyrant

Wow, still great in 2017! Just catching up. Man Woman Life Death Infinity is like vintage Church.

Have you listened to Further/Deeper? Absolutely brilliant - to my mind, the equal of any of their earlier peaks.

Wow, Manchild & Myth is wonderful

their last three albums are as good as anything they've ever recorded, definitely better than the 2000-2008 era stuff (which I like too!)

Wow, Manchild & Myth is wonderful

― Mule, Tuesday, January 22, 2019 7:26 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i'm surprised i'd never heard of it, songs production everything is so gorgeous
...early Ryko stuff is pretty much a guaranteed buy for me because it comes around so rarely and they were a weird label then

Never heard of it myself, so thanks for digging it up. Really like that warm, drugged out feel. It’s sort of dated in the production, channeling (as you point out, I’d add baggy though) lots of stuff going on at the time, but still sounds kinda timeless nontheless. Been playing it alot off of YouTube last couple of days

Coming back in April and May: http://www.brooklynvegan.com/the-church-announce-more-starfish-tour-dates/

Kinda like how they're looping around the Bay Area this time to play smaller shows in various spots.

I kinda hit burnout after seeing SK solo at a backyard show right here in Sierra Madre last April but I'm tempted to go to that Pappy & Harriets show. The band sounds tremendous.

Kilbey's Sydney Rococo is worth a listen, with some fine tracks like the below. Also, the Kilbey / Kennedy albums are worth pursuing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kI7C6zCnGQ

Also, the Kilbey / Kennedy albums are worth pursuing.

Seconding/thirding these. SK's songwriting caught a third/fourth wind when he had this outlet to work on. Check 'em out: https://kilbeykennedy.bandcamp.com

Couple of days ago:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RuJK6XVHMY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCQ_hi47x3g

But that appears to be the final bow for Pete:

https://m.facebook.com/?_rdr#!/story.php?story_fbid=10156557066421046&id=20594731045&ref=m_notif¬if_t=feedback_reaction_generic

Surprised and unsurprised that SK would continue on with none of the other originals. Altho of course Powles is a way more durable member than Ploog was.

Yeah, if Powles wasn't still there I'd be looking at all this really askance. Though I do know Jeffrey Cain, and he's a good sort.

What's at Ned's link?

Surprised and unsurprised that SK would continue on with none of the other originals. Altho of course Powles is a way more durable member than Ploog was.

Richard wasn't a founding member! Nick Ward was the drummer on Of Skins and Heart.

What's at Ned's link?

A statement from SK to the effect that Peter is done with The Church. (Presumably for good this time.) This... does not bode well, I would think. They rebounded after MWP's estrangement to make a superb album that retained all the qualities that I most love in The Church, but losing PK too means that they're inevitably going to become a different musical proposition. This isn't a "me and yer granny on bongos" situation.

Really glad I saw em in Ithaca when they came through last year. I was amazed at how great a show it was. They played forever and the crowd was with them the whole way. Sorry to see Koppes go. He was the backbone of the band no doubt.

Well, of course there was that period in the 90s when it was just Steve and Marty. And a slap on the wrist for me forgetting Nick Ward.
I guess my main reservation is that altho the Church were always a benign dictatorship, SK has increasingly leaned into the role of rock legend / elder statesman in the last decade. The self aggrandising statements feel a little less ironic these days.

(Presumably for good this time.)

Ah, as long as the band exists, I wouldn't rule out anyone returning, given the fluctuations of the '90s.

I see Ash Naylor is being brought in to replace him though - seems Kilbey has a project to incorporate all the flattest-haired Australian guitarists of those '90s as positions become available.

I just did a search for him on Google Image Search and indeed, he would fit in nicely on the ILM "swagger of Oasis" thread.

as long as the band exists

Even more likely: a farewell or retirement-fund tour with MWP and Koppes at some point while everyone's still healthy

Naylor is a great player and super low key in a similar vein to Koppes, I must admit

Steve just posted something now re some of the comments of the past few days:

https://www.facebook.com/thechurchband/photos/a.10151876536906046/10156570000881046/

People questioning my integrity and my right to call my band the church should bear in mind that I wrote approx 90 per cent of all guitar parts on first 4 albums other than the actual solos. Seance is virtually a solo album as far as the writing of it. I have never been merely the bass player.

It's a shame both that artists being so close to pissy audience comments these days make him feel he needs to make any response, and also that he went for such a petty, reaching defence. This is throwing the last 20+ albums & mini-albums under the bus, and also the contributions of the recent and future guitarists. Presumably not his intention!

He's never hesitated to use other names for other music. Bummer if there's actual acrimony, not just fed-up-ness, with Koppes, but it's not hard to trust that future music with Kilbey's main Church collaborator of the last 25 years and a lead guitarist who's been in the band for six years will be Church-ish.

I'd guess that calling an album a Church album instantly means more sales and the ability to plan a tour with larger venues, and have a shot at actually making some money, regardless of who plays on it or what it sounds like.

i looked up MWP after the last revive and wondered if anyone has seen his new act w his new wife? i thought she was his daughter until i read a little more about the project :-/

i wish steve kilbey would do another album in the earthed/unearthed style, maybe re-earthed? de-earthed?

should we pitch in and buy LL a one-hour Skype guitar lesson with MWP for £35

lololol irl lols here
maybe i will do it over the summer. i'm sure someone would let me borrow their guitar. he can teach me the basics as i know nothing about playing guitar :)