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.

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

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

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

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/

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

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Newsletter 24 Nov 2010