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

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 :)

i didn't realize he was still at it!

maybe you could give him a one-hour drumming lesson?

No I would prefer to learn guitar. I teach for a living, I’m not paying him to get a drum lesson! :)

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

A few of the Kilbey-Kennedy albums might fit here? They're all pretty good.

Reading between all the lines, I had a feeling Peter was going to split after the last tour.

I would happily pay £35 to hear about LL's impressions of Skype-MWP!

MWP has a new band too - Atlantæum Flood

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8b06eo3BGIU

Sounds kinda like a Greg Dulli b-side on mogadon.

Livestream moment of the week - Kilbey and George Ellis play "Aura"

https://youtu.be/87E7Zxs6pww?t=3180

Someone told me that Steve Kilbey's at home concerts these past few weeks have been a joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVUE6KbEBTs

Good interview with Peter here - gets into his final days with the band

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=juVh2xtX67A

Great find, ET, thank you

best kilbey work in many a year imo https://kilbeykennedy.bandcamp.com/album/jupiter-13

Sounds good!

God, his solo catalog is massive. Could go for a guide or best-of or playlist.

I still rep for Unearthed and The Slow Crack. Narcosis is pretty excellent too, but I lost track sometime in the early 00s.

I gotta break out Unearthed some time soon. Loved it.

Yes I loved that album! Earthed isn't bad but it's no Unearthed! "Judgement Day" is my favorite song featuring a drum machine. It was a mixtape staple back in the day because I didn't know anyone diehard enough to have solo Kilbey albums and it's such a good song :)

Hard to believe it's contemporaneous with Starfish, the yin to that album's yang. "Nothing Inside" could have been a Church single I think, but "Othertime" might be the loveliest song he's written.

I'll take this opportunity to strongly recommend Peter Koppes' latest project, Syncretism. The vocals and lead guitar are by Dave Scotland, who he first worked with in Baby Grande, SK's band prior to the formation of The Church!

Ha, wow, there's some continuity!

More kilbey songs need drum machines, IMO.

you're gonna *love* Remindlessness then

electricsound!!!

That album cover is very stoner rock, reminds me of 'The Black Code' by Wo Fat.

Some good news on the reissue front. Intervention’s 2021 deluxe reissue of Starfish sounds beyond spectacular. If you're on the fence about it, just pull the trigger - it's that much of an improvement over what's been out there.

Really. Very intrigued!

ordered

I purchased the Intervention remaster on the basis of ET's recommendation above, and he's not wrong. Listening to it on my little-used SACD player, there's somehow much more of everything - which shouldn't be possible, but it underlines how superlative the engineering and mixing on Starfish was.

The EMI reissues were a great series, but the remastering on them was a little hot so... I'm in!

Yeah I prefer the original cd of priest=aura to the remaster for sure

The original US Arista CDs in the late 1980s were remastered by Bill Inglot, one of the best folks doing such work at the time -- I specifically remember his prominent credit for doing that, a relative rarity then -- but I forget if he did the original issue of Starfish too but I wouldn't be surprised.

Starfish is guaranteed to sell pretty well, but the real get would be a remastered edition of the Remote Luxury/Persia/Sing Songs CD compilation

Mostly loving the remaster, it's cleared a bunch of the upper-mid congestion which made the tracks sound thick and unfocused - but not too much. The exception is UTMW for which someone has either EQ'd a mid bass hump or added something to goose the kick drum - it sounds like listening to the song while somebody thumps their foot along in time.
It's quite an odd sounding album in its way, I would like to hear these songs produced like Heyday was. Of course Wachtel ditching the band apart from Kilbey for UTMW doesn't help. I think Ploog was sidelined for a lot of it if I recall Kilbey's blog correctly.

Man that was an epic blog post

If you thought Kilbey's was long ... https://martywillson-piper.com/starfish-2/
(only Ploog was ditched for UTMW apparently)

and ther Kilbey one because it's hard to track down these days: https://thetimebeing.com/sel-fish/

just revisited Sometime Anywhere for the first time in a decade and was surprised how good it is compared to my recollection.

with some exceptions