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

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.

They strove to be visionary and it didn't always work, but when it did it was fantastic. And I am always down with the people who really commit to the vocation as psychedelic warrior.

ha yeah was just reading about Kilbey hearing Hawkwind at a formative age

there aren't many world-building lyricists I can think of better than SK, perhaps Bid from Monochrome Set/Scarlet's Well

I agree. SK is probably my all-time favourite lyricist and the 45-year consistency of his cosmic vision is a big part of it. He has an occasional weakness for regrettable whimsy, but for someone so incredibly prolific, his hit/miss ratio is very, very impressive.

Made me think of the lyrics of "Shadow Cabinet" which are pretty much perfect

are there any other bands at all with lyrics more suited to conversion into a D&D module than the Church?

Intending no disrespect at all to D&D, aren't you doing the band a disservice with that suggestion? The uninitiated would assume that it means that SK's on some kind of swords and sorcery trip, which is most definitely not the case.

nah, that's just about one of the highest compliments I can make for a lyricist

Heh, alright then

also I'm not entirely sure he isn't on something closely paralleling a swords and sorcery trip!

I mean...the most recent main studio album (not counting the complement/followon) was a full on concept album about a weird future creature/thing so what more evidence is needed!

yeah probably more accurate to say he's more of a Gamma World guy

If you've checked out the Kilbey-Kennedy albums (especially Persephone Nimbus), the Gamma World description is too far off

Listened to Sometime Anywhere and Somewhere Else last night on headphones, I love this band so much

not sure if book is mentioned upthread but just finished the 33 1/3 (“Oceania” series) on Starfish and it was a solid read. Not revelatory but nicely constructed and did a good job sketching in the context. New interviews with all protagonists bar MW-P (bad vibes? Would have thought he would be keen to participate in the historicisation of his group - altho maybe he had said all he wants to say, and the book draws extensively on his liner notes for the reissues)

Anyway the main takeaway for me was what a commercial dead end they were at prior to Starfish. Just incredible to turn in an LP as good as Heyday and then find yourself without a record contract.

I listened to Blurred Crusade a lot on my Walkman in the late 80s and early 90s, when I was a mad keen NME reader and watching UK bands go through that hype cycle. And I remember feeling that The Church really were ahead of the curve on so much stuff - like, they had melodies as good as The Smiths, a psychedelic pop rock guitar heroism thing that smoked the Stone Roses (IMO), mandolin jangle action comparable with REM… they were so good! a little bit pre-shoegaze, proto “dream pop” - and “in your eyes” seems to prefigure some grunge moves as well, in the way it hovers around that central chord and avoids being too demonstrative

also - personally - growing up in australia there was such excitement about having a band that good come out of one’s local scene - it was fuckin cool! And Steve Kilbey would put out his “artier” solo records on local label Red Eye and it was a great vibe

but for some reason it never quite clicked, geographical isolation for sure and bad timing I guess - they were never quite doing the “right” thing at the right time

but yeah so Starfish was the big one I guess and they deserved a big one but even though they are somewhat feted I still feel they are perhaps under appreciated? it is wild to me that they never played the really big rooms in Australia, 2000-seat venues seems to be about their max, even during Starfish era

anyway has been a great trip revisiting this stuff- 3rd band I ever saw! (gold afternoon fix tour 1990)

Great story all around! Granted it really isn't the same band any more now once Peter left but the current incarnation's been doing pretty well on the road here in the US based on the last three jaunts in the past two years, and it is a crazy weird arc over all this time they've had -- not many acts that in blunt commercial terms were one-hit wonders here back with that album and song in just pre-interzone days who still have it, pull in a crowd and just keep releasing all kinds of things.

I remember feeling that The Church really were ahead of the curve on so much stuff

Me too. Although I liked the records that REM and U2 were releasing at the time, I thought that The Church were way better than the two of them put together. It seems like an archetypal case of cosmic injustice that, Starfish aside, the commercial returns for their extraordinary creativity were so meagre. (My CD of Hologram of Baal came with a bonus disc entitled Bastard Universe, which sums it up.)

Speaking of MW-P and meagre returns, I caught up on his blog a few days ago and was sorry to see him mention that he got divorced in November. He's living alone in Portugal and appears not to be in a great place financially. Not much of a reward for a life spent in the service of great music.

A great musician and friendly guy when I met him a couple of times in the late 90s with the band, though I seem to recall some of his more recent solo work seemed a bit off, for lack of a better word.

I was reminded the other week that Hologram of Baal is one of my favourite sounding guitar rock albums of all times, the ember glow and sheen on tracks like "Tranquility" and "This Is It" and "Another Earth" is unbelievable, just a pinnacle of rock production.

I could well imagine Sonic Youth having taken cues from it for Murray Street and Rather Ripped.

So wild to see and hear Marty WP and Kilbey promoting "Sometime/Anywhere" - with an added bonus Jack Frost song - as an acoustic duo. Great set.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz7ARBOu-zQ

My first time seeing the band in any form was a stop on the tour they did that way in OC in the mid-90s. Remarkable performance.

Yeah I saw them play the Uni Bar in Hobart on that tour. Absolutely no memory of it … for some reason.

The two Jack Frost albums are a fantastic side project for Kilbey...

Love the first Jack Frost album. I never gave the second much of a listen. I should do that.

(xpost)

That acoustic duo tour was also my first Church live experience. They were performing in a small club and I remember that SK seemed somewhat despondent. The part I recall most clearly is that they finished with a cover of "Cortez the Killer". It built up to an astounding solo by MW-P with his Takamine 12-string and a distortion pedal, that pretty much peeled the paint off the walls. One of my all-time greatest musical experiences.

The Jack Frost catalog is getting a reissue: https://thesoundofvinyl.com/collections/pre-orders/products/as-seen-on-tv-3cd

Welcome news indeed. Wish they said what exactly the third disc was!

Yeah I really love the first one and struggle to remember the second. I even got to interview GMcL and tell him how much I loved “Trapeze Boy”.

“Trapeze Boy” is wonderful, very evocative. The first Jack Frost was always my favourite too, but I remember back in the day, the cognoscenti opinion was that Snow Job was superior to it. I'd hazard a guess that was because it occupied a more familiar sonic territory for fans of The Church, being primarily built around electric guitars. In comparison, when they made the debut, SK was still keen on electronic arrangements (cf. the Hex albums) and sound-wise, it's all over the place. Which is a great thing, obviously. You've got the eerie synths of "Number Eleven" as well as the emotional and musical directness of GMcL's "Thought That I Was Over You". "Every Hour God Sends" reminds me of BAD's "C'mon Every Beatbox".

The third disc is a live gig from 1991

new song!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPcXgw8W9yg

His voice has been a little odd the last few albums. Age or dental surgery?

I like the song!

seeing them tonight! keen!

this was great, was a "singles" show and highlights for me were all the post-Metropolis cuts - Kilbey palpably more engaged for the more recent stuff & fair enough too - I regret sleeping on some of those recent albums so was nice to hear stuff like The Hypnogogue and Realm of Minor Angels - new single was very strong also

was of course happy to hear some of the warhorses as well - particularly cool to get Constant in Opal!

upthread I called the Church inessential, since catching them live last year and then taking a deep dive into their back (and front) catalogue I gotta say that for me they hit a place no other band can hit - so maybe... essential after all?

Very!

It’s been a long strange trip

Turn down the gravity, this is all too heavy
I'll show you how the ancients once traveled
They used to call this a Chevy