The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

crumble down

pluperfect for you

the island nights

some force picks us up

some thing takes root

some spirit comes thru

we crash on this side of universe #23

wrecked in a flowerbed rolling over in poppies

hurt in every feeling there was

a little evening music pumps my jumper

i release the weeks surrounding me

and i plummet down in time burning air live

i drive in my gold flash i fishtail through a bend

i end up sending a tender legal friend a good mend

the music we make compensates me sates me uncomplicates me

the music we make slakes me shakes me almost mistakes me

the music we make forsakes me bakes me rakes me over shoals

i sit down in front of a screen

the sea appears a sailing ship

a cargo of spices

the prince of this realm in his educated sphere

the merchants dressed in their satin n tat

the colliers who mine deep in the earth

the prisoners who groaning beyond all these walls

the silence of midnight amongst  the graves

the future of silence when everything stops

the  end of the sounds the end of the noise

i’m under this tree i’m under this branch

i wait in this room its all white n controlled

waiting n waiting inside all the words

my hotel is a spartan affair

i post you a postcard that never arrives

i pop on a stamp a picture of queen

i lie by the pool with sun on my arm

i hide in the gloom of arbours n fog

i walk through your dream incessantly smug

mid tempo

the strings pull me to extremes

i find purchase in your sky

i climb on backs of clouds

i reach up for a place

give me what i need then give me what i want

a cottage by the rolling ocean the grass grow lush

a magic been

a golden goose

a giantess on the loose

or no use

no excuse

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Newsletter 24 Nov 2010

Fricke’s Picks: High Holy Daze

Aug 8, 2009

“Please check the contents of your head,” singer-bassist Steve Kilbey of the Church announced in his slow-rolling-wave baritone during the Australian band’s New York gig on July 8th. “Items may have shifted during flight.” Only for the better. For nearly 30 years, the Church’s heavenly-treble raptures – driven by charter guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper – have been one of rock’s most dependable and still-evolving trips. The set list that night captured the constancy and mutation, going deep into the gothic-Byrds peal of 1982’s The Blurred Crusade amid the stately-reverb suspense of “Deadman’s Hand” and the creeping-pop poise of “Pangaea,” both from the new untitled #23 (Second Motion). A hypnotic enigma of measured pace and mounting-ring dynamics, the album is, in fact, the group’s 23rd – a genuine milestone in longevity and psychedelic invention.”

http://www.expressmilwaukee.com/blog-4654-my-favorite-albums-of-2009.html
My Favourite Albums of 2009 – Evan Rytlewski

“Old dogs can teach themselves new tricks. Thirty years into their career—and 20 years after their brief commercial peak—The Church have recorded one of their most striking albums yet, a genuine psychedelic masterpiece. Untitled #23 retains all The Church’s hallmarks—the warm, effusive melodies; the complex guitar interplay; the surprising tangents—but it strikes a tone distinct from anything else in their discography. The band resists playing to their usual strengths for shimmering guitar-pop or grandiose, surround-sound rock, and instead attempts something less immediate. Untitled #23 is resigned and melancholic, its guitars restrained and its hooks hidden behind a shadowy, psychedelic haze. It’s a Rorschach inkblot of an album, and each listen lends itself to new discoveries and interpretations.” – Dec 11, 2009

http://www.billboard.com/#/news/the-church-launch-acoustic-tour-for-30th-1004082710.story

The Church is celebrating its 30th anniversary with an acoustic tour featuring songs from throughout its career, and the Australian group’s Steve Kilbey says he and his bandmates are proud and pleased to have gotten this far.

“I feel a bit like a very old man looking in the mirror saying, ‘I’m still handsome — but I’d rather be a young man,’ ” Kilbey tells Billboard.com with a laugh. “At least I can say we’re still trying. We still have integrity. We’re not on some kind of cabaret circuit going around in matching suits and playing on cruises. We’re still a rock ‘n’ roll band.

“The Church is a funny band because we’ve sort of gone off the map,” he continues. “There are no other bands like us, no bands from 30 years ago who sort of…they either got really famous on some mega level, like The Cure, or they cease to exist. But the Church as kind of kept going on the same level.”

And, he adds, the Church’s modest level of success has actually contributed to the band’s longevity.
“Anybody can cop a bit of luxury,” Kilbey explains, “but I think that kind of thing can put a lot of pressure on a band and a band breaks up because of that. We never really made a lot of money, so there was never a lot of greediness or arguments because of money. That kind of left us free to actually concentrate on the music.”

The Church’s show, dubbed An Intimate Space 30th Anniversary North American Tour 2010, features the group playing unplugged versions of a song from every album, in reverse chronological order and encompassing both rare tracks (“Ionian Blues” from 2005’s “Back With Two Beasts”) and the quartet’s lone U.S. hit, 1988’s “Under the Milky Way.” All fans attending the shows are given a free EP featuring “Deadman’s Hand” from the Church’s latest album, 2009’s “Untitled #23,” as well as some songs recorded since then.

Kilbey says the group hasn’t started working yet on its next album but is buoyed by the positive reception to “Untitled #23.” “It got really good reviews,” he notes, “so we’re thinking very carefully before jumping in to make our next one. We’re trying to compute all the data and try to figure out what people liked about it and try to take that into consideration when we start writing again.” Meanwhile, the Church’s current label, Second Motion Records, is working on getting some of the group’s older titles back into print and is also planning to release a box set of Kilbey’s solo material, titled “Monsters and Mirages,” in May, with a bundle of his side projects planned for 2011.

The An Intimate Space tour wraps May 1 in Atlanta. Kilbey says the group is then talking about going out on an electric tour during which it will play “Untitled #23” and 1988’s “Starfish” in their entireties.”

28 October 2010
by Jason Treuen
The Music Network

“How do you squeeze 50 years into five minutes?” music/television icon Johnny Young wondered aloud upon accepting his ARIA Hall of Fame induction.

Of course, it’s an impossible task for an awards ceremony but last night’s event, overflowing with rich rock ‘n’ roll stories and candid anecdotes, got as close as it could. As fellow inductees, ‘60s icons The Loved Ones, observed in their speech: “The true beauty of the Hall of Fame is the history it brings with it.”

Moving from its traditional home of Melbourne to Sydney’s Hordern Pavilion, the ceremony combined a new Rockwiz format with a night of touching speeches, live tributes and standing ovations. Lots of standing ovations and deservedly so.

After a quick trivia game hosted by Rockwiz’s snappy duo of Julia Zemiro and Brian Nankervis, the night officially opened by ARIA Chairman Denis Handlin (AM) who welcomed the night’s inductees – Young, The Loved Ones, The Church, Models and John Williamson – as artists who “have truly taken their place in Australian music”.

Models kicked things off with a gritty version of their hit I Hear Motionbefore being inducted by former bandmate Wendy Matthews. She recounted meeting them for the first time playing indoor cricket in the studio, that they were “exquisite to look at” and deemed them her “merchants of happiness”.

The band (sans Jame Freud who’d had another “bicycle accident”) took the stage, acknowledged the traditional owners of the land and thanked pretty much everyone – former band members, former labels, media, roadies and the public – before playing their songEvolution.

Industry icon and promoter Michael Chugg spoke candidly about his love for The Loved Ones, confessing they were the reason he moved to the mainland from Tasmania aged 19. “They grabbed me by the balls!” he proclaimed.

The band accepted the accolade, thanked many and oddly argued for a better broadband network in Australia. Diesel saluted them with a rocking version of their seminal hit The Loved One.

Sara Storer performed John Williamson’s Mallee Boy while Greens senator Bob Brown seemed more nervous than his usual self as he inducted his mate. “His music makes us all feel good under the Southern Cross,” Brown declared.

Williamson was equally edgy on stage, stating: “I didn’t think I’d be shaking as much as I am” as he praised the music industry he’s spent 40 years in. He performed Raining On The Rock with the “best guitarist he’s ever played with”, Col Watson, and then did his classicTrue Blue solo, urging the audience to sing along.

Short Stack rocked out Johnny Young’s 1966 hit Caralyn. Amusingly, the Budgewoi pop-rockers were born more than twenty years after it was released.

Tina Arena flew in from Paris just to induct her Young Talent Time founder, mentor and “adopted father” Johnny Young. In a tender and teary tribute, she quoted ‘60s English icon Lulu, asking “How do you thank someone, who has taken you from crayons to perfume?”

A visibly touched Young spoke of length of his long career, a recent interview with a young journo, his favourite film (As Good As It Gets) and Eckhart Tolle’s motivational book The Power of Now. Then ‘Tiny Tina’, as she used to be known on YTT, sang Here Comes The Star, the 1969 song written by Young for Ross D Wylie.

Last but not least came The Church. Megan Washington joined the Rockwiz Orchestra to perform their classic, Unguarded Moment, while SBS presenter George Negus spoke highly of the band who’s “supplied thirty years of memories.”

“Wow, thanks George,” said Church frontman Steve Kilbey. “Next time I appear in Waverly court can you be my character witness?” referencing his recent court appearance after a domestic dispute.

Kilbey spoke animatedly and passionately about the many Aussie bands that came before them and heaped praise on his fellow inductees. About The Loved Ones, he said “even though I was 12, I knew there was something rude going on.”

Enthralling the audience for over twenty minutes, he also recounted great rock ‘n’ roll stories about signing with Chuggi in 1981 “because they were too scared to say no”, black eyes and getting flashed with “Tassie tits”.

“And I’m still amazed by Richard Wilkins‘ hair,” he beamed. “From behind, he looks like a schoolboy!”

“Well, that’s really demystyified us,” said bandmate Marty Willson-Piper when he finally got to talk. “For thirty years, we’ve tried so hard to be aloof.”

And lastly we’d like to thank God,” said the show-stealing Kilbey, reclaiming the mic, “for giving this country so much unbearable talent”. The band then hit the stage to play Under The Milky Way andTantalise before Johnny Young closed the night with his traditional send-off “Good night Australia”.

when i wake up with my kissed back someone hassles me over insurance

yeah the sacred river alph lady can you dig it indeed can you really dig it….?

we float through the cool roots of mountain

underground past the red n green lanterns where we swiftly drift

and it rains gently and the hissing drops melt on your skin

well we were making a movie werent we

i was trying to learn my lines

i was lucky to have got this role

i was playing this guy i guess

he wasnt that different to some version of myself

some kinda singer he had gone into hiding

in some foreign land

i sat in my caravan in my gown

my ipod oozing music

there was a knock at the door

spring had opened herself right up

i felt softly happy  for a little while

the wild raspberries with their certain scent

the calm warm feeling a kind of composure

david neil says man this is 1973 again

just before it all died

david neil carrying his guitar in its subjective case

david neil died so young now he’s singing a sad song

david catch up with me in hawaii

just before our show yes this was true

our show we had booked at the kon-tiki club

i was only 19 years old of course

i flew here on demetrius airlines

playing bass with davy neil at the kon-tiki bar

how wild that must have sounded to kathy and dad

boy how they musta teased me only i was never there

kathy came in smiling the kon-tiki hut has sold out

wow i said as i sat up suddenly

david was swimming in the pool

he’d been working on hollywood ending

it was the beginning of his magnum hopeless he said

a whole suite of songs it was supposed to be

david played it all to me one day

i was fucking gobsmacked

a blue crane flew overhead at that moment

i shivered even though the evening was transparently warm

i walked through that clear air towards you

kathy you were a sister to david too

or maybe you n he were lovers

dad said he liked david

he said david was an alright bloke

kathy said more than alright dad

dad said alright is alright

kathy said dad david is kinda….

dad said hes kinda alright

kathy hugged dad then

kathy said yes dad david is kinda alright….

when david passed away kathy never cried

the mornings just grew somehow shorter for her

she huddled down low to be so unnoticed

david never recorded hollywood ending suite tho

only the title song still remains extant in this universe #23

its a real fucking rocker

it travels past like a wild rhine-oceros

like a nibelung spell

like a strumpet from lyonesses old town

david what went on in your head

where did all that music go?

i pour thru davids record trying to find some answers

david took off my bass guitar parts replaced em with double bass

why did we have to argue man?

because steve you let me down

we stayed at a hotel called neptunes apts 13 strickland ave just by black sand beach

the morning we arrived

and the vista of fruit trees

we rehearsed cross legged under the lemons in the courtyard

i slapped my bass david strummed

the magic comes

holly wood end ing

we have a good fucking laugh right then

the future is obvious oblivious

the sunshine will last forever

the wheeling gulls echo in the sky

the fresh sea breezes

the honeycombed domed tower where we called home

kathy and dad stand waving goodbye against a whitewashed wall

david neil n his band of 2 aboard a ferry for illyria

lady is this illyria ..? david  would joke to kathy as they stood on the beach

now he was finally going there

the elysium club in the underworld district

where he had procured a long engagement

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18 Nov 2010 Newsletter

RAVE Magazine
November 16, 2010

hono lulu leilani tahiti seeker

hawaii is a b n w photo in my seaside hotel

i turn from a hundred sunsets red in the dying glow

the palm trees and the canoes

i was christian fletcher i was wandering your virgin soil

i was paulie go-gan i was painting your marvels in my image

i was some hippy surfer with a golden body and water on the brain

i was some fuckin’ buccaneer lucking into this isle

oh hawaii oh fiji oh suva oh bikini

the islands eruption red hot ash deep in green sea

but im down on a black sand beach waxing my fin

im shooting down the pipeline into a lemon juice future

i’m washed up in the ionian tropics cut by a hundred shells

i’m cast up on some distant strand rescued by an alien creature

we do not talk the same language

we do not see the same things

all my worries pull me to the floor

i wake up at a heathen ceremony

the aztecs cut the beating heart from a man

god damn you white man you always intrude

wait a minute where am i …..?

i wake up gasping in my hotel room

listen to them ukeleles in the darkness

listen to them maidens singing to the old dead gods

listen to the surf pound 7 mile beach

listen to your friend whose asleep

light up yer hawaiian spliff

snort yer crystalline love

shoot yer warm desire

the boards creak in the hold

i whip up some lash

the harpoons hideous barb

the shout the shot the ball crashes through rigging

the blue sea opens up to swallow

i see the sand at the bottom each tiny grain is different n counted

my hotel with its quik-chek out

neptune parade number 456

air condition

kava kava gets me all numb n stoned

i spear a fucking fish i cut my ankle open

the piano plays in a bar as the fan spins

jungle juice and indonesian cigarettes

i dance with some blurry woman

her breath is warm as she whispers in my ear

your ship has gone down again

i lurch about on a hopeless deck

someone chucks a bucket of water over me from the wings

oh yeah i’m an actor too, didnt you know

and i’m marooned 5 years to the daylight

and im understrung on the heliotropics bloomin’ in my head

and im funfreaking sun-hit like a coco cane baby in mirror

and im saint to fire fly all nightridden

and who is the neutronic lagoon boy

and among the cults of islet chicks tricked into lovelife

so i wander the way key ki

and my hotel casts a fortune

my card bounces in a cave casino and i bet all my clams

ok thats enough i suppose for now

its not often i get a chance to speak