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

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!