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

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