The Time Being | Steve Kilbey

The uncut acceptance speeches and  live footage of the church performing Under the Milky Way and a rockin’ Tantalized following our induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame (on the 27th October 2010)  are now viewable via  our Video page!  On keyboards is Craig Wilson and backing us was the George Ellis orchestral strings. With thanks to Rebecca Shaw for the uploads to YouTube.

Click : http://www.thechurchband.net/video/the-church/

purple sage

excerpt from an occult diary

everything was moving slower

the roads wound away

round the hills n outta sight

in the lovely eastern district of town

oh those loverly frickin’ gardens

oh those wrought iron balustrades

oh those flowery words whispered in the sweetened air

we were sleeping down the main street

we flew over the ground we tripped lite fantastic

we were hurled by the storm churlish n brutal

we stranded ourselves in bullrushes and lemon crushes

the mirror says it all

i dont recognise anything in there

i turn up at a show in a city

my life in park n reverse

distance to empty thats what DTE stands for

ricky left today packed his guitar n was gone

i forgot to mention easter

i forgot to mention to remember

i’m a forgetful man in my fancy mansuit

i forget this i forget that

i cant remember everything at once

one day it will occur to me

im a man on his way to see a film about a traffic jam

and i’m stuck in my car on the bridge

i approacheth my limit i refuseth the truth

love lies waiting patiently for me

imaginary bondi unfolds in sunset deluxe

maybe a dip in the harbour

maybe a quiet hour in the evening shadows

maybe fair to kill time being

hope its gentle

at last

maybe fair kill

oh yes i like things too sweet way too sweet

white sugar honey

oh i like it sweet

you say you deserve it sweet

well yes i do

today i feel kinda light headed

what a dream i had last night

i was wriggling across your lush landscapes

i was a blind eel darting in the glimmering shallows

i was walking down this street i was your lover

i was meeting you somewhere and you held my hand

i was waiting for you outside a shop

and you walked out n kissed me

how can you be so many things

how you can change things in my life

how you can sink down on your bed

how you can be so  smart n so stupid

i never know who i’m talking to

dont you understand me by now

oh youre good yes youre good

you really got me now you really got me going oh

the morning arrives slowly its quiet

where am i this room in shadows

i remember your words

i remember what you said

you told me you told me good

do what you fucking will is the whole of this lawlessness

baby i followed your atmosphere to this door

you reached out n pulled me in

your eyes roll back in your head

you arrange yourself just so

i feel lonely today surrounded by these guitars

you made me feel special you made me feel spacious

you made me feel my crown open up

you made me sacrifice my bishop for your knight

you made me feel like i didnt wanna leave you

nice

yes youre nice

the weather is nice

the world is nice

i cruise thru suburbs on my way to work

my car purrs along

it drives itself wherever i’m going

i steer from behind my haze

i think about you slinkin’ around somewhere

wonder what youre doing in this life

larger than life

oh stay now stay here in this life

look after your self now

if its not alkaline its not mine

oh so soothe yourself

you already proved your self

i drive along everysong makes me dream

left right straight ahead dead end boulevard

is there any more of that stuff

man i need an early night

my eyes are heavy leaden

pleasantly languid

just another dream

grace poole

i jumped ship awhile ago tho nobody noticed

i swam to the blooming horizon i ran to the waiting sea

down by the docks they were unloading a mystery

some one said

an angel they dragged from the water

superstitious fools vicious brutes surly oafs

i jostle thru a crowd

i talk to strangers i talk to journeymen

wickedness wildness woman out of wedlock

wedlock bedlock deadlock

deflower devour desire

the bible in a hotel room

i am just another man at last

how the sea laps the shore

how  sure the lie of the land

how lost the losing hand

i look at you who are so strange to me

i see only mask i see only lovely task

i touch the screen i touch the silk scream

my hard luck as for certain now i am ready  again

oh stream thru the night towards thee

follow the signs follow the stars in your sky

follow the tricks follow the under tricks

follow the first fellow you see

my morning is spent in a blue and white scene

my canteen is empty

my carpark is full

my word is mud

my word

my blood

my world

turns

n

turns

Update 29/11/10 – Shows now sold out: Nov 25th Judith Wright Centre, Nov 26 Joe’s Waterhole, Nov 27 Judith Wright Centre, Dec 5th Notes, Dec 8th Lizotte’s Kincumber, Dec 10th Lizotte’s Newcastle,  Dec 11th Milton Theatre, Dec 17th Thornbury Theatre.

Tickets for the upcoming 30th Anniversary Acoustic Australian Tour are selling fast and close to all selling out. Get in quick for the remaining venues as these are the final ones for this tour. Click on our calendar for the full tour schedule. Included in the ticket price, every ticket holder will receive a complimentary 28 page colour programme with discographies and reviews as well as short overviews of each album written by Marty Willson-Piper. That’s not all. Ticket holders will also receive a free copy of the Deadman’s Hand EP with the title track from Untitled #23 and four brand new tracks recorded specifically for this release. This CD has not been available at retail and comes in a beautifully designed picture sleeve. A selection of church related merchandise will also be available for purchasing at all venues.

http://www.slicingupeyeballs.com/2010/09/30/church-reissues-of-skins-heart-blurred-crusade-tour-dates/comment-page-1/#comment-6779

The Church reissuing first 8 albums, touring Australia to mark 30th anniversary

To mark its 30th anniversary, Australia’s The Church this fall will embark on a major reissue campaign, releasing digitally remastered editions of its first eight studio albums — 1981’s Of Skins and Heart through 1994’s Sometime Anywhere — along with four early EPs and a new 2CD singles compilation.

Those releases come as the band this week announced it will take its “An Intimate Space” 30th anniversary acoustic tour — which hit the U.S. last April and March — across Australia in November and December; the 11-date tour opens Nov. 25 on the Sunshine Coast and wraps up Dec. 19 in Melbourne (Editors note: updated 19/11/10).

As for the forthcoming reissues on Second Motion Records, the first pair — Of Skin and Hearts and 1982’s The Blurred Crusade — are due out Oct. 19. Each are single-disc releases packaged in “vinyl-style soft-pack” sleeves with 12-page booklets filled with photos, lyrics and new liner notes by guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.

Those first two reissues each have two bonus tracks tacked on — significantly less extra material than was included on the 2002 double-disc reissues. While the product description for Of Skin and Hearts on Amazon.com describes that reissue’s extra songs as “never-before released tracks,” that’s not true: “In a Heartbeat” was the B-side to debut single “She Never Said,” and appears on the compilation Hindsight 1980-1987, while “Busdriver” was the B-side on the “This Unguarded Moment” 7-inch.

As for the Blurred Crusade reissue, that album features as bonus tracks “Life Speeds Up,” the B-side to “Almost With You,” and “The Golden Dawn,” the B-side to “When You Were Mine”; both tracks also appear on the Hindsight compilation.

Neither the Church nor Second Motion have announced a release schedule for the reissues, but Amazon.com shows a reissue of 1983’s Seance set for release Nov. 16. The other albums due for reissue, according to Second Motion, are Heyday (1986), Starfish (1988), Gold Afternoon Fix (1990), Priest=Aura (1992) and Sometime Anywhere.

Also due out at some point: reissues of the Tear It All Away (1981) Singsongs (1982), Remote Luxury (1983) and Persia (1984) EPs, plus there will be a “definitive singles collection” that spans “the band’s entire 30-year career from their first single to their latest, “Operetta,” off 2009’s critically acclaimed album Untitled #23.” No tracklist has yet been announced.”

Editors Note: The Best of the Radio Songs tracklist as follows :

1. the unguarded moment
2. tear it all away
3. almost with you
4. electric lash
5. constant in opal
6. tantalized
7. under the milky way
8. reptile (single version)
9. metropolis
10.ripple (single version)
11.loveblind
12.comedown
13.louisiana (single version)
14.numbers
15.don’t you fall
16.easy (sliced mix)
17.deadman’s hand

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

Click here to download the PDF version of the latest newsletter:

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