The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-heyday-second-motion

After putting out a pair of EPs in 1984 that would be combined into the LP Remote Luxuryin the States, the Church released its fourth full-length album, which would be its last for its then-patron EMI. Produced by Englishman Peter Walsh, chosen by the band for his recent work with Simple Minds and Scott Walker, Heyday gives the quartet a brighter, more lush sound than ever before, with strings and horns enhancing a few tracks. The band responds to the shiny presentation with a strong set of tunes that show a tight creative unity, as this is the first LP on which the songs were composed as a band.

Heyday is more dominated by up-tempo pop tunes than anything the Church has done outside of its first album. “Night of Light” and the glorious single “Tantalized” make excellent use of horn bursts and string arrangements, two things one would think the Church would never need. “Myrrh” and “Columbus” keep the caffeinated jangle pop vibe going, both tunes a swirl of ringing 6- and 12-string guitars and Steve Kilbey‘s laconic mystery. “Disenchanted” and “Tristesse” bring the energy level down for a more midtempo introspection, without stinting on hooks or drive. The single “Already Yesterday” puts strong hooks into a moody arrangement that likely killed its chances on the charts. “Youth Worshipper” rides a descending melody armed with keyboards, strings, saxophone and a lyric decrying plastic surgery, while “Roman” burns down its arrangement in an album-ending flurry of interlocking six-strings. In the midst of all the crash and clang of guitar rock, “Happy Hunting Ground” stands out, a gentle, misty instrumental that’s like a pause for breath.

This reissue is particularly generous with its B-sides, all of which are worthy additions to the catalog. “As You Will” and “The View,” written and sung by guitarists Peter Koppes andMarty Willson-Piper respectively, are both guitar pop gems, tight and tuneful. “Trance Ending” lives up to its name, a drifting wash of psychedelic mystery that’s a better ending to the record than “Roman,” its original stopping point. Practically overflowing with memorable hooks and ear-caressing textures, Heyday is one of the Church’s most well-crafted and accessible albums.

b and b

i would like to thank the people who’ve written on here

their lovely words of encouragement i thank you

i thank you all

last night was a heartwarming gig up here on qlds sunshine coast

a very nice sold out crowd

a few singalongs

the band played much better than the night before

tim n i got some good rhythm section things happening

peter k is amazing on piano harmonica mandolin n guitar

marty is marty is marty

now slimline and kicking bottom on his 12 string guitar n ricky bass

me ?

i sang n ponced around

a few minor mistakes perhaps

a memorable night

we stay in a b n b place which is superb

in the morning as i eat my breaky

(muesli fruit n soy milk)

a few shy couples also staying here thank me for last night

one guy has been following us since he was 12

almost with you was a song he heard at school n it did the trick

he bought the b. crusade it was his first record ever

i got all kinda misty hearing that…what an honour to be part of peoples lives

yes a real honour

i have been making music to selfishly satisfy myself

and then this wonderful unseen side effect

that people out there are digging this whole mess

people listening to us for over 30 years now

a real soundtrack of their lives

oh my friends you make my stupid old heart swell with pride/humility

yes you are all so important to me

we are really all in this together

if my music can be there for you

punctuating yer lives , in yer memories

in yer good n bad times

its so much much more than i ever expected

(n maybe deserved)

so ok

tonite the judy wright centre again

(judy judy judy)

it will be good i know it will

everyone in our crew is the nicest person

sweet tiare never losing her patience

jorden brebach our most learned sound guy n 5th member

wesley our stage manager who never puts a foot wrong

my 3 co-horts who are diamondish geezas

ok let the good times roll

ps all my strength n prayers to a dear friend of mine

sam

who is undergoing some nasty treatment for a nasty thing

i believe in you , ok?

xxx

sk

http://www.last.fm/user/MaxFactor81/journal/2010/11/26/42g8t4_the_church_@_judith_wright_centre

Tonight’s sold out show sees Australian legends the church take us into An Intimate Space, playing one song from each album in reverse chronological order as befits the opening of their 30th anniversary acoustic tour. The band – currently riding a new wave of recognition following Steve Kilbey’s notorious ARIA Hall Of Fame acceptance speech – are having a ball, engaging with the audience in a warmer-than usual manner and playing their hearts out (later, we even get a non-rehearsed Girl From Ipanema).

Starting with Untitled #23’s Pangaea, the song selection is near-impeccable, spanning acoustically re-envisioned fan favourites and certified classics including the jazzy Reptile, The Unguarded Moment, Under The Milky Way, Metropolis, Fly, Almost With You and the church‘s first EP highlight Tear It All Away. In great spirits tonight, Steve’s banter brims with trademark comedy gold (“That T-shirt design and the church condom were a mistake”, he quips before launching into Hologram Of Baal’s Louisiana), with Marty Willson-Piper and the normally-reserved Peter Koppes not far behind.

Yet it’s the four-piece’s stellar music that ultimately steals the night. A stone-cold cult gem, Ionian Blues is given a stripped-down piano treatment; Peter sings the mantra-like Appalatia and Steve takes After Everything Now This’ Invisible to the moon and back. From 1992’s “magnum hopeless” Priest=Aura, Mistress tugs on the heart strings while an upbeat Comedown and the gorgeous My Little Problem get respectively plucked from the mid-’90s “wilderness” albums Magician Among The Spirits and Sometime Anywhere.

As we enter the pre-Starfish domain during the second half, a magisterial Already Yesterday takes hold of one and all. With drummer Tim Powles unleashing some levitating percussion work, Marty and Steve create a dense 12-string storm on the former’s 10,000 Miles. Because we don’t want the the church to leave just yet, we get a killer cover of The Smashing Pumpkins’ Disarm, a rocky Space Saviour and the cathartic, “Elizabethan” Grind for the encore. A truly magical evening at the Judy.

Rave magazine

yeah we were kinda good

yeah we played kinda well

sold out great audience n all that

but my head n guts are churning with a million other things

stupid things ive done n said

all my private life drama baby (leave me out!)

i stand on stage yeah i do my thing

but all my turmoil replaying in my head

look i dont know what i’m doing or where i’m going

i’m 56 but i got the brain of a 5 or 6 year old

none of you know the bullshit ive been thru for the last 6 months

yeah some of it was my own doing

a lot of it wasnt

is it your business?

i dunno i lost track of whats public n private

i got people writing to me here about nk this n nk that

but none of ya know really whats going on

you interpret my nebulous stuff i write here

nk n i hurt each other n we hurt each other bad

i did my thing she did her thing

now shes there where she wanted to be

she can cool her heels wherever the hell it is

i know i dont wanna fucking be there

my kids are in sweden jetlagged still n with the fucking flu

they are in the bosom of a lovely fambley there

and they deserve a bloody break

i love them more than everything else

and they will/ should be my main concern

when they come back in 2 months i will hopefully be rested

then we can start all over again

in the meantime i’m upsetting a load of other people too

all my relationships are fraught with argy bargy n malarkey

just so ya know im a judgemental hypocritical old bastard

n i fight n struggle with everything

i keep eavesdropping n then i dont like what i hear

i keep it all going n it then always turns around it bites my ass

as nk n many others tell me

i can write a song but in most other ways i fall short of the mark

i’m a one trick pony

ask me to be useful or patient or compassionate

n i cant seem to manage it

i am selfish n narcissistic i am cruel

and i embrace every double standard known to man

i demand everything

i give very little back

i hurt you but i dont like to be hurt myself

so great

the people on here who love me love my music

n i’m very appreciative of that

yeah i am australias best songwriter of my type

fuck i’m a second tier rock genius yet my lyrics are second to none

but can i be nice

can i be kind

can i even be reasonable for one minute

can i shut the fuck up n live n let live

no folks

your humble hero is a fucking ninny

and today i am in more useless states of regret n trying to dodge my bad karma

i stand outside myself n i am amused bemused confused

my deck chair  on the titanic has been changed

but i still the ships going down

why should you care?

i dunno

ok

its 8 30 in the morning here in brissy

gonna get up do my yoga

n drive to the next place on the map

keep my head down if i can

but i dont like myself very much

and thats a sad way to be

maybe next time round i wont have to be such a nong

but i doubt it

losing streak

http://timeoff.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7548:-the-church&catid=11:features&Itemid=29

“CHURCH WITH NO MAGIC

THE CHURCH have just been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame and are about to spend a month revisiting their entire catalogue in concert. MATT O’NEILL catches up with vocalist STEVE KILBEY to discuss the band’s considerable legacy.

If history is kind, The Church will go down as one of the most gracious and idiosyncratic acts to have ever been inducted into the ARIA Hall Of Fame. In a year where the awards ceremony proper was largely ridiculed by the public, frontman Steve Kilbey’s monumental 15-minute acceptance speech – a torrent of wit, gratitude, words and memories the likes of which podiums were practically built for – should stand as a reminder of why musicians deserve recognition in the first place.

“I got lucky. The band had told me we didn’t need a speech and I’d naively believed that because I didn’t know what to say but, as the night wore on, everyone else who was accepting an award had a speech,” the vocalist reflects. “I realised I was going to appear completely churlish if I didn’t have a speech. Why did we even fucking bother to turn up if we were just going to stand there and go, ‘Thanks’ and walk off?
“I realised I had to say something so I was sitting there working it out, [former Go-Betweens drummer] Lindy Morrison comes over and tells me to relax but, each time she says relax, I freak out more. I ended up just standing there and getting lucky. A few vague ideas came to me on the way up but I was mainly just lucky. I could have just as easily gone, ‘Okay…’ and just choked – but I seem to have gotten more attention for that speech than ten years of making music.”

Strangely, though, the moment of truth in the band’s collective acceptance emerged not from Kilbey’s marathon efforts but rather guitarist Marty Willson-Piper’s reaction to them: “I wonder if anybody thinks if Steve has managed to demystify us,” the guitarist quipped with bemusement. “We’ve worked so hard to be aloof and enigmatic – aloof no more. All ruined in 15 minutes….After 30 years.”

The guitarist was, of course, incorrect in claiming Kilbey had ruined the band’s image as mysterious craftsmen but there can be no denying that the band’s vocalist altered the public perception of his band. For the better part of 30 years, The Church have been forced to contend with numerous misapprehensions about their work and philosophies. Depending on whom you ask, the band could be described as one-hit-wonders, art-rock experimentalists or Australian pop legends.

“I would like it if The Church had more attention but, in regards to deserving it, I think we’re a little bit too subtle and left-of-field for most people,” Kilbey reflects of the band’s ambiguous status as under-appreciated luminaries. “I always think it’s a shame, though, because I think there are a lot more people out there who would really like us – people who think there isn’t a band out there doing what we do.

“If they could discover us, they would be a lot happier and we would be a lot happier,” the vocalist laughs. “It’s a shame that it can’t happen. Over the past 30 years, it’s occasionally looked like it’s going to happen and occasionally started to happen but we’ve never managed to sustain it. I always feel there’s got to be more people out there, though. I’ve just run into too many people over the years who have said things like, ‘I wish I’d known about you guys all along’.”

While lamentable, the ambiguity of the band’s public profile is nevertheless not in the least bit surprising. Glancing over their career, one would be hard-pressed to find a unifying theme to the band’s work. There have been pop crossover tunes (1981’s The Unguarded Moment), prog-rock explorations (1994’s Sometime Anywhere album), electronic albums (1996’s Magician Among The Spirits) and, over the past decade, a series of improv-heavy Internet-only releases.

“We have always tried to be more than just a rock band – that’s the way I’m trying to push the band all the time,” Kilbey explains. “But, the forces out there that want The Church to be a rock band and do the things rock bands do, they’re hard to argue with. It isn’t as easy as just being more than a rock band all the time. Sometimes you have to do these other things as well. It simply isn’t always possible for us. I know other bands have pulled it off but we haven’t as yet.

“I wish I was out there in some weird place doing some experimental show every night – never doing any old songs or anything. I wish that was what the demand was for me to do but it isn’t. People appreciate the innovation of The Church but they also appreciate some of our traditional values and they kind of want that as well. You know, a legacy is a good thing and a bad thing for a band to have – it restricts you but it also enables you.”

The perception that Kilbey’s speech altered was that the band’s ambiguity and mystique was in any way deliberate. It’s been easy to believe, over the past 30 years, that The Church’s development has been the product of craftsmanship and forethought – if nothing else, Kilbey is an naturally precise songwriter – but the vocalist’s wild explosion of sentiment and recollection revealed the band’s key inspiration has never been considered refinement so much as chaotic vitality.

“I don’t like to look back on what we do. If I had my way, there would never be any retrospective stuff ever,” Kilbey announces. “It’s not really me. As an artist, I abhor it and I want to keep moving forward all the time. It’s our thirtieth anniversary but, really, I’m not the kind of guy who likes anniversaries either. I don’t like any of that stuff. I’d rather be out there chipping away at the coalface of new ideas rather than looking back at what we did 30 years ago.”

In a way, the group’s forthcoming set of shows is the ultimate demonstration of their restless approach to creativity. While retrospective, the band’s shows will celebrate their thirtieth anniversary not with greatest hits sets but with a set of acoustic renditions of songs drawn from each of their 23 full-length albums – beginning with 2009’s Untitled #23 and working backwards toward 1981’s Of Skins And Heart – performed in venues more associated with classical music than rock performances.

“It’s a wonderful showbiz package. It’s got an intermission and everything. We’re actually importing this intermission from overseas. It’s been designed by Swedish designers and it’s covered in stamps from customs,” Kilbey says with a laugh. “We’re basically taking a song from each album and working backwards – except acoustically. You get a program and a free CD as well, which basically means anyone who doesn’t come to this show should be dragged from their home and executed.

“You know, I don’t like anniversaries, but I feel there’s a pressure for us to do it and I think we’ve done it pretty tastefully,” the vocalist reflects. “It’s weird to think about it. As an institution, The Church has weathered 30 years and the nature of the universe is usually bound up with things closing down or falling apart, so to keep a band of largely the same guys for 30 years is quite a feat.”  – Matt O’Neill

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-seance-second-motion

“the church‘s third album, 1983’s Seance continued the band’s rapid evolution into the psychedelic powerhouse it would become. But an odd mix also makes it a sonic anomaly in the band’s catalog. While the band self-produced the recordings, then-engineer Nick Launay was brought in to mix, which he did without any input from the group. Launay would go on to produce several landmark recordings by the likes of Midnight Oil and Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, but in 1983 he was as enamored with high-tech mixing and production techniques as everyone else. The result was twofold: a smoky, almost Gothic atmosphere that ends up serving the band’s increasingly abstract vision quite well and a horribly dated, gated reverb/triggered drum sound that sticks out like a preacher at a porn convention. Love it or hate it, the sonics of Seance make it an album that’s one of the band’s most distinctive.

Fortunately, the songs themselves are strong enough hold up under an outsider’s treatment. “It’s No Reason,” “Now I Wonder Why” and the lyrically eccentric “Electric Lash” solidify the Church’s penchant for jangling folk rock. “Dropping Names” and “Disappear?” fulfill the group’s quota of psychedelic anthems, while “It Doesn’t Change” is another of its building epics. The acoustic guitar-driven “Fly” opens the album with a breath of fresh air before the smoke sets in, while “One Day” makes brilliant repetitive use of a ringing 12-string riff even as it fights a bizarre, box-walloping drum track. The LP’s only group composition (the usual touring/recording grind forced the band to rely on Steve Kilbey‘s overachieving songsmithery), “Travel By Thought” attempts to be a space rock epic, but the uneasy marriage of Kilbey’s spoken word rambling with the band’s majestic psychedelia prevents it from truly taking off.

Two more B-sides appear as bonus cuts here: the pleasant but fairly non-descript folk rocker “Someone Special” and the gorgeous, chiming pop tune “Autumn Soon.” Due to a mix obscured by clouds and the band’s continued drive towards mood over meaning,Seance is a polarizing album in the church’s lineage. But the band’s evolution as writers and musicians gives the record enough artistic weight to give it quality even for those who think the production is a disaster.” – by Michael Toland

ascent of man

lamb

i am so angry

i ve been a stupid ive been a clown

i ve been trapped in my story

while scarlet stares at the ice on hornsgatan

and the christmas stars

its 5 am there lamb

what is she dreaming in her warm little bed

wheres my pet foot ? i ask her

its gone to sleep ….she says dreamily

hello i’m saying down a phone on a little beach

the ionian sea wraps a double bay

my shipwrecked posse gone down jammin’

i washed up on this career strand asking for help

we sit in the bath soaking in missions lotion

is anything happening to you ?i ask kathy

i look at her breasts in the dim candle light

i watch the warm glow hug at them

her nipples remain raspberry like

i sink down deeper into a suitcase with a false bottom

i buy some new shoes these will look good my sister had said

she could wear the same size as me

she found a shirt for me to wear

i put in on lamb

i looked in the mirror at some old cat in shorts n a fancy shirt

oh that looks good kathy said but i couldnt be sure

we walked around a bit together thru the monaro mall

what year is this mister someone asked me in thetis court

i turned to kathy but she had wandered off

the bathwater grew cold i climbed out i left her in there

my head was clouded my eyes all misted

i had displaced my weight in water

the front door was open

i stood in the night quite nude and innocent

the warm water turned cold on my skin

my skin moved over my bones and my flesh was as stone

kathy i said on the phone on the beach

but as i woke up my hair was full of sand

an old morning had dawned all sold or pawned

a tired grey sky

the same drab planes were coming in from hypothetical city

the sea churned and sloshed at the razor sharp shells

a fishermans boat a lone gull

no mermaids no mermen no treasure no exotica

a yacht on the horizon

a couple of the opera house sails

premature evening hovers like an ardent suitor

i see you in the darkness then lamb

i see you before me wandrin’ the fertile night

i still hear kathy splashing in her bath

i still see dad fighting in his war

the cards were to tell my fortune

and they did in spades

more ardent suitors on the phone for lamb

who followed me to school one day it was against the fucking rules

gee my new shirt looks good tho i say to my ‘maginary audience

kathy says theres skulls on yer shoes

boy she got things done fast

i forget how everything works

i cant find the instructions for my particular model

the fragrant evening caresses my tingling hide

music smeared across silence

flowers started to fade

alright

lets talk tomorrow

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-the-blurred-crusade-second-motion

“Originally released in 1982, The Blurred Crusade, the second album from the church, takes the guitar-heavy new wave sound of its debut Of Skins and Heart and reshapes it, beginning the process of evolution into what would become the church‘s sonic signature. The first major difference is in the singing; Steve Kilbey has modulated his thin baritone into the relaxed croon that is his signature sound, and the lack of strain improves his vocals immensely. The second is that the band reins in its youthful energy, not to diminish its power, but to focus it, resulting in more evenly-paced, steady performances. New drummer Richard Ploog is less of a basher than original skinsman Nick Ward, more versatile and nimble. Guitarists Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper (who uses a 12-string as his main axe at this point) mesh even better as a guitar team, sounding as if they’re adapting the tactics of Television tag team Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd to theByrds‘ elegiac folk rock. Fresh from working with the Rolling Stones, big time producerBob Clearmountain gives the band a clear, crisp sound without running roughshod over its creative instincts. (That would happen on the next record at the hands of a more respected producer.)

The one-two pop punch of “Almost With You” and “When You Were Mine” open the record with the most explicit recollection of the fizzy power pop of the first LP, but trades the youthful exuberance for a keener sense of craft. “Just For You,” the brief “Don’t Look Back” and “To Be In Your Eyes” add more acoustic guitars for lush, irresistible midtempo folk rock that’s beguiling in its casual melodic flair. “Field of Mars” features Willson-Piper’s lead vocal debut on a spacey ballad that sounds like it really is being beamed in from the titular planet. “A Fire Burns” boasts an unusually muscular guitar crash, almost as if the band was subverting the Aussie hard rock tradition by filtering it through its own sensibility.

Most significant, though, are “An Interlude” and “You Took,” the two group-composed efforts. Up to this point Kilbey wrote nearly all the material solo, though the individual musicians certainly were allowed to imprint their own personalities. But “An Interlude,” a jangled journey into the inner/outer space dichotomy in which the band would soon become comfortable, and “You Took,” a perfectly composed and arranged epic anthem, sound truly like the products of a group mind – you can really hear the church’s sonic aesthetic taking shape on these tunes. Indeed, “You Took” stands as a high-water mark in the band’s catalog to this day.

The new edition adds a pair of B-sides. The instrumental “The Golden Dawn” is entertaining but fairly inconsequential, at times sounding like the band has been listening to a little too much Alan Parsons Project. But “Life Speeds Up” is fantastic, a long track that begins as a punky pop tune and evolves into a dynamic anthem with soaring lead guitar and an almost casual ability to fill a stadium with sound. Both tunes enhance an already strong record, one that holds up as one of the very best in the church’s long, fruitful catalog.” – by Michael Toland

http://www.bigtakeover.com/recordings/the-church-of-skins-and-heart-second-motion

“While the group never truly gained the popular acclaim many of us thought it was due, the church has still managed to carve out a consistently interesting career for itself, moving from underground sensation to (briefly) popular mainstream act to legendary veterans, all while never resting on its own laurels. In celebration of 30 years of existence, the band has begun a reissue campaign for its major label work, most of which is inexplicably out of print. A reassessment of the Australian quartet’s early LPS is especially useful considering how well it displays the band finding its way toward its signature sound, a swirl of psychedelic rock that contains familiar elements but that sounds like no one but the church. The reissues also include bonus tracks, plus historical liner notes from guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.

Fans who entered the Church following the international success of its fifth album Starfishand its career-defining hit single “Under the Milky Way” might be surprised by the forthright sound of the band’s debut album Of Skins and Heart. The gauzy psychedelia for which the group would become known appears only in hints and glimmers here. Instead the band – bassist/singer/songwriter Steve Kilbey, guitarists Peter Koppes and Piper and drummerNick Ward – boasts a rocking sound that’s more in line with the rising tide of new wave. It sounds like a young band with talent to burn eager to get its ideas down on vinyl as quickly and energetically as possible.

The snarling postpunker “Fighter Pilot…Korean War,” the straightforward ballad “Don’t Open the Door to Strangers” and the bombastic “Memories in Future Tense” sound very different from the band with which most people would become familiar – the guitars are much more muscular and less pretty. Kilbey had not yet found his style as a vocalist, pushing his natural croon into an urgent yelp influenced by his 70s glam rock heroes. It mostly fits but he occasionally sounds like he’s straining beyond his comfort zone. Sprightly pop rockers like “She Never Said,” “For a Moment We’re Strangers,” “Chrome Injury” (which is marred by a dated electronic percussion thwack) and the Australian hit “The Unguarded Moment” show some of the group’s hallmarks – the uncommon chemistry between Koppes and Willson-Piper’s axes, Kilbey’s enigmatic lyrics – but also have a stripped down, propulsive power folks rarely associate with the band now. The leisurely epic “Is This Where You Live” and the jangling “Bel-Air” give hints of what was to come, but overall Of Skins and Heart sounds like the work of a different band than the church we all know – though quite a good band, to be sure.

This edition comes with a pair of B-sides as bonus tracks, and, not uncommonly for bands of this era, they’re both as good as anything else on the main record. “Busdriver” achieves a jagged, melodic drive very familiar to fans of today’s neo-new wave crop, while “In a Heartbeat” mixes an almost strident wash of chords, soaring lead guitar and a particularly catchy melody into a near-classic that the band should consider reviving. Indeed, it would be interesting to hear how the mature, experienced Church would handle these songs today. Even if little here sounds like the church we all know and adore, Of Skins and Heart is still a strong debut by a band full of ideas that would be more fully developed as its career progressed.” – Michael Toland

airfix hurricane

when i get you home

stumble through the door

waiting waiting in some soft sunlight i drift away

i have a dream

oh no not another dream i gotta stop having

something says but have this dream

some soothing voice some golden tone

anyway as well as everything else

my dream kissed my parched lips

i watched thru my brains mirror

every reflection distorts and ripples away

the future rips apart

underneath song after song after song

naked song flung headlong all wrong

we wrestle like angels for a while

the sky turning angry hurls darts of cloud

come crashing down

all  falling apart

then  running to me

i underwater with this

i move slowly thru dense green days

i move thru silent house empty headwise

numb in a cold shower

still the wondering sun

i adjust

i go on

deeper in time

am i a head or be hind

am i be fore or for ward

this cant make sense

life doesnt why should this i’d like to know

life somewhere else

power flows thru us

sublime cosmic energy oh ha ha can you feel it

take your time take your place

events continue to warp out of time

the  time being on your hands

the time being for now

the time being a tamed blamed   creature

ok i gotta get back into it here