The Church : New album March 2009

[Harry Vest]

Good news for fans of The Church (and what self-respecting U2 fan wouldn't be a fan of this fantastic band?)
The album is called "Untitled # 23" and will be out March 2009!!!
Can't wait. March is going to be an exciting month for music.

 

[impy13]

Where's Indra?

 

[lazarus]

Indra probably committed suicide upon realizing this thread was started by someone else.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

And she's still not been here....

 

[indra]

Good news for fans of The Church (and what self-respecting U2 fan wouldn't be a fan of this fantastic band?)
The album is called "Untitled # 23" and will be out March 2009!!!
Can't wait. March is going to be an exciting month for music.

Not only an album but two eps (Coffee Hounds and Pangaea) also.

Various side projects by Steve and Marty are also in the works.

And a US tour is in the planning stages. Of course a US tour was in the planning stages in 2007 but that didn't happen, so I'll believe it when they actually get here.

Where's Indra?

Funny you should ask. indra was on the phone -- with Steve Kilbey (of the Church). Unfortunately, indra was also doing a shocking amount of bitching and whining. Got a few of good laughs though. Apparently I'm funny when I bitch and whine. I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or offended.


BEG -- did you doubt my Church radar? Shame on you.

 

[coemgen]

Indra probably committed suicide upon realizing this thread was started by someone else.

 

[Bonochick]

A thread about The Church not started by indra? This is like a Ryan Adams thread not being started by me!

 

[indra]

A thread about The Church not started by indra? This is like a Ryan Adams thread not being started by me!

I'm also pretty sure it's one of the signs of the Apocalypse. Guess we're all doomed.


And on that happy note... They have one of the new songs ("happenstance") up on their Myspace page now. Link

 

[lazarus]

Yay, Indra's back!!

Thanks for the link.

 

[blueeyedgirl]

BEG -- did you doubt my Church radar? Shame on you.

I knew MY presence would draw you in.....

 

[Harry Vest]

Does anyone know if the two ep's will be released here in North America???

 

[indra]

Does anyone know if the two ep's will be released here in North America???

Second Motion Records is supposed to be releasing the new Church album in North America, so if the eps do get a US release it should be through them also. Here's a link to the Second Motion website. Marty's and Steve's most recent solo albums are getting a US release through this label.

I knew MY presence would draw you in.....

 

[Harry Vest]

second motion records is supposed to be releasing the new church album in north america, so if the eps do get a us release it should be through them also. here's a link to the second motion website. Marty's and steve's most recent solo albums are getting a us release through this label.

thanks!!!

 

[TranceEnding]

I am very excited too, can't wait for a couple of gigs coming up next month


Happenstance is really beautiful

 

[indra]

Since NLOTH just leaked, this probably won't get noticed, but....

The single, "Pangaea", is available for 99 cents on the Second Motion site (click here)

Aussie's can buy (or also buy) it on Aussie itunes.




And a nifty tidbit for those of us in the US (and Canada, if you are willing to travel to the US):

From Magnet Magazine on Feb 15:

Legendary Australian psych-poppers the Church return with the cleverly named Untitled #23 (Second Motion/Orthodox) in late May. A month-long tour with Adam Franklin (Swervedriver) and Grant Lee Buffalo follows

 

[blueeyedgirl]

The Church and Grant Lee Buffalo???!!!!!! Only in the US, huh?

 

[indra]

The Church and Grant Lee Buffalo???!!!!!! Only in the US, huh?

I'm thinking it's in the US because the magazine is based here (and because a little bird often known by three initials told me a few weeks ago a US tour was being planned for our spring/summer ).

 

[mikal]

this leaked. i'm downloading right now. will buy when available (for those who seem to have to crucify anyone for downloading leaks).

 

[indra]

So how are you liking it, Mikal?

I swore I would wait until this was released in the US (in May, I think) to buy it, but then they put a special t shirt and Aussie gigs only slip-cased edition deal on their site and I caved almost immediately. It was sent out last week, so I'm hoping for it today or tomorrow. I'm going to be driving for seven or so hours on Friday, so it would be really great to have it then.

And I'm not sure if the slip-cased version of the album has all the credits and such on it, but I'm dying to read them. I've been told there is something pretty interesting in the credits.


And a tiny bit of US tour info -- Starting June 10 and going west to east.

 

[indra]

The US tour dates have were just put up on the official site. Here's the list (sorry about the all caps -- it's a cut and paste job):

JUN 10 WED BELLY UP TAVERN * SOLANA BEACH, CA

JUN 11 THU THE ROXY THEATRE * WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA

JUN 12 FRI SLIM'S * SAN FRANCISCO, CA

JUN 14 SUN ALADDIN THEATER * PORTLAND, OR

JUN 15 MON THE TRIPLE DOOR * SEATTLE, WA

JUN 18 THU GOTHIC THEATRE * ENGLEWOOD, CO

JUN 20 SAT HOUSE OF BLUES CHICAGO * CHICAGO, IL

JUN 21 SUN VARSITY THEATER * MINNEAPOLIS, MN

JUN 23 TUE SHANK HALL * MILWAUKEE, WI

JUN 25 THU THE MAGIC BAG * FERNDALE, MI

JUN 26 FRI BEACHLAND BALLROOM * CLEVELAND, OH

JUN 27 SAT REX THEATRE * PITTSBURGH, PA

JUN 28 SUN THE STATE THEATRE * FALLS CHURCH, VA

JUN 30 TUE RAM'S HEAD ONSTAGE * ANNAPOLIS, MD

JUL 1 WED THE TROCADERO * PHILADELPHIA, PA

JUL 2 THU SHOWCASE LIVE * FOXBOROUGH, MA

JUL 3 FRI TUPELO MUSIC HALL * LONDONDERRY, NH

JUL 8 WED IRVING PLAZA * NEW YORK, NY

JUL 9 THU THE RIDGEFIELD PLAYHOUSE * RIDGEFIELD, CT

* - Adam Franklin (of Swervedriver) & Bolts of Melody to support


They are calling it the "So Love May Find Us Tour", but they could also call it "The Blue State Tour." There is not a single gig in a state that voted Republican in the 2008 US Presidential election. I love it!



I also thought the following breakdown (by SK) of who's playing what on which song (because they don't usually put that on the album notes) was interesting so I cut and pasted it from SK's blog.


cobalt blue is the standard configuration of the church
it is a wild n bleak song that changes key n minor /major all the time

deadmans hand
thats me playing the guitar riff that you first hear
thats pete playing twelve n other guitars on other side
martys ingenious bassline going up n down
finally at the end of the song
tim wades in with his g harrison guitar solo
i also play female vox n vibraphone on the mellotron
frank kearns on additional random guitar

pangaeas got patti hood playing harp
and sophie glasson playing cello who always comes up
with the right thing
tim does melltron n backing vox
pete plays baritone guitar
marty does ac guitar n solo

happenstance
marty on bass n dark vox
me on ac 12
peter on ebow
me n tim do b vox

space saviour
i play the main guitar bit n keys
marty plays bass n drums
pete on other side guitar
tim sings b vox n keys

angelstreet

me on organ
frank k on bass
tim on mellotron
marty on noisy guitar
pete on sweet guitar

anchorage
me on lead n noisy n vibe guitar
marty on rhythm
pete on double bass guitars
tim on keys n b vox


luna
standard configgeration

sunken sun
me on lead guitar n keys n bass

operetta
me on piano
tim on mellotron n bvox
marty on bass
peter on sweet guitar
frankie k on random lovely guitar

 

[blueeyedgirl]

Frank Kearns? Frank Kearns of Cactus World News? Frank Kearns as in Larry Mullen Jr's childhood friend???? Will wonders ever cease???!!!!

Looks like they've moved on from laundromats too....

 

[indra]

Frank Kearns? Frank Kearns of Cactus World News? Frank Kearns as in Larry Mullen Jr's childhood friend???? Will wonders ever cease???!!!!

Looks like they've moved on from laundromats too....

Yep! That Frank Kearns.

SK and he were working on a project called Coral Kingdom sometime in the 90s, but it didn't pan out. SK wasn't the most reliable fellow in the 90s. There were a couple of songs or partial songs on Kearns' recording studio website a few years ago, but they are gone now.

If you ever read Steve's blog Kearns is Dublin Frank.

 

[indra]

Found this fun interview with MWP. I love the last quote -- it really does sound like Steve.

Accidentally Eternal.

By Michael Dwyer

The Church have concocted a seemingly endless creative chemistry, writes Michael Dwyer.

Anyone who has followed the Church this far is entitled to greet their new album, Untitled #23, with a quiet spell of finger-counting. Can that be the right number since Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Marty-Willson Piper released album #1, Of Skins and Heart, in 1981? The short answer is it depends which albums you count.

It certainly makes 10 since drummer Tim Powles consolidated the band’s most cohesive line-up - unless you count that remix album, the second B-sides one, or their current soundtrack album, The Shriek.

But mathematics, like rules of any kind, are irrelevant to the Church’s apparently endless trajectory though space and time. The only hanging offence during their freewheeling acts of album creation, Willson-Piper reveals, is one that most rock bands commit as a daily act of faith.

"Bluesy stuff. Anything that is rooted in tradition tends to get sneered at. Having said that," he adds, "on the new album, ‘Space Saviour’ is basically E-A-B (a standard blues sequence). But I’m playing drums on that song. So I don’t know who came up with the chords."

The guitarist also plays bass on much of Untitled #23, presumably leaving the bassist, Kilbey, to play something else, or to "just get down there and start scribbling away like a madman" on another spontaneous flight of surreal lyricism.

"The records take on a life of their own," says Willson-Piper, "once they’ve got over the initial improvisation process, which is always the same. It’s funny how they go off in different directions when it’s the same people using the same system. We get on the same bus but go to different places."

The trip is more harmonious than usual on Untitled #23, both in a musical and personal sense. Perhaps the quartet’s renewed melodic chemistry has something to do with Willson-Piper shouldering the prickly roles of manager and label overseer for their new company, Unorthodox.

"I try to have a very practical side of me as well as a creative one," he says. "My role in the band is to be positive and find solutions, as well as chord sequences and song ideas.

"Creatively, we have no issues. But it is difficult to work out how to be comfortable in a band these days. We sell a lot less records.

But who doesn’t? I was just reading that U2’s sales are down 74 percent!"

The Church’s absurdly prolific release schedule would appear to fly in the face of economics. Apart from Untitled #23 and The Shriek, this month brings two new EPs: Pangaea and Coffee Hounds. But they didn’t call the label Unorthodox for nothing.

"When you get us together, we never stop creating," Willson-Piper explains. "We spew out ideas like a burst dam. It can take a long time to put them together, then they can all appear at the same time.

"But it doesn’t stop there. Just because we put four things out in the space of 10 minutes doesn’t mean that we haven’t got another couple that we’re madly trying to finish. Because we have."

Will we hear any of them on the radio? No chance. Willson-Piper insists that the Church were on a different wavelength since they made that first album, 28 years ago.

"I can honestly say it was never about hits," he says. "We had hits by mistake. All of them. Certainly ‘Under the Milky Way’ was a mistake. ‘Unguarded Moment’, ‘Almost With You’, ‘Metropolis’, ‘Reptile’, all mistakes. When we did have hits and had more money, there were just more people taking it from us."

He agrees that with more records, more harmony and less expectation than ever, it’s never seemed more likely that this most unlikely of rock bands might go on forever:

"Steve was recently joking that whenever he tells me he’s had enough, I just tell him what the next dates are."

Untitled #23 is out now on Unorthodox through MGM.

link

 

[blueeyedgirl]

It sure does, lol. I'm still giggling about the Frank K connection....

 

[Harry Vest]

Has anyone heard the epic track "So Love May Find Us"?
It's 17 minutes plus and is available on the Pangaea E.P.
A great long Church epic. The new album is good too!!!

 

[indra]

Has anyone heard the epic track "So Love May Find Us"?
It's 17 minutes plus and is available on the Pangaea E.P.
A great long Church epic. The new album is good too!!!

Yes! I love that song. Apparently they like it too, because they have named their tour the "So Love May Find Us Tour."

The album -- wow! I'm really enjoying the album. It's good -- really good.

And they have a lot more music from the sessions that spawned Untitled #23, so there could well be more stuff released soonish.

 

[Harry Vest]

Yes! I love that song. Apparently they like it too, because they have named their tour the "So Love May Find Us Tour."

The album -- wow! I'm really enjoying the album. It's good -- really good.

And they have a lot more music from the sessions that spawned Untitled #23, so there could well be more stuff released soonish.

No doubt. These guys just can't stop - it's amazing. Really, U2 should bring them on tour and re-introduce them to the masses. Although I doubt the music would be as good in a stadium...is it ever?

 

[indra]

Yeah, I've been very pleased with their recent output -- they are just bursting with creativity. And although what reviewers say about an album doesn't affect what I think about it, I am delighted to see them getting the really great reviews they deserve for this album. Maybe some of the people who have just dismissed them out of hand will give them a look based on the reviews they are getting. I know I shouldn't care, but it's frustrating to know that if this album was released by a new band or one of the "cool" bands, much of the music press and the hipsters would be fawning over it, but the Church mostly just gets ignored.

Hey Steve complimented U2 in his blog today! Ok, it was a grudging, backhanded compliment, but Steve complimenting U2 at all is pretty damned rare. Here it is:

i loathe U2 but at least they keep trying to be new....

I couldn't help laugh when I read it!

 

[indra]

I probably shouldn't post this particular review here given the first sentence (although in B&C it doesn't matter so much...plus not a whole lot of people are going to read this thread anyway), but I just love that they are getting such great reviews. What I think is really cool is that they are getting these great reviews when they are making music for it's own sake. Yeah, they are happy when their fans like what they make, but they aren't trying for the youth or nostalgia markets or anything like that. They are putting out what they want to put out without any concern about it fitting in with what is currently fashionable and just letting the chips fall where they may. It makes my non-conformist heart proud.

ROLLING STONE - Australia
Article in June copy of RS out now.

A Renewed Crusade

The Church return to form with a stunningly
ambitious album of shimmering rock

The Church *****

Untitled #23

While many of their contemporaries are coming out of retirement and dusting off their Eighties hits for reunion tours, the Church, like Nick Cave, have never called it quits, instead continuing to evolve and experiment with music in a way that puts “cutting edge” rock dinosaurs like U2 to shame. The band have deftly kept the key elements of their trademark sound constant, allowing them to try all manner of experiments around the edges without ever alienating or confusing their die-hard fans. Untitled #23 is their most accessible album in recent years, but it’s no less ambitious than recent efforts. Marty Willson-Piper and Peter Koppes’s guitars bubble, scrape and swirl in layers so dense that it takes multiple listens to appreciate the complexity of the arrangements. Amazingly, Steve Kilbey’s instantly recognisable voice and off-kilter phrasing cuts through even the most murky passages, showing studio-smarts that are seldom seen these days outside of Sigur Rós recordings. Like My Bloody Valentine and the aforementioned Icelanders, the Church know that even the most sonically extreme psychedelia needs to be anchored with a solid melodic idea, and this is where Kilbey earns his stripes as one of the country’s most underrated songwriters. You have to admire the Church’s stubborn refusal to cash in on their early success and do the whole nostalgia rock circuit thing. By hanging everything on the faith that their best work is still ahead of them, the Church sound every bit as relevant now as they did way back in 1987. Their new songs sound emotional, raw and at times even scarily angry, without ever sounding like they’re trying to conjure up demons-long banished by years of comfortable living and golfing trips. Even those with a short attention span will find enough immediacy in their sound to remind them that the band that penned one of Australia’s unofficial national anthems “Under the Milky Way” won’t be appearing at a leagues club near you anytime soon. - MATT COYTE

Key Tracks: “Happenstance”, “Operetta”

 

[indra]

I just got my real copy of Untitled #23 (I had one of the early, unadorned copies that were sold at Aussie shows) on Friday and was finally able to see the list of thank yous. My name's in that list. I look a lot like this smilie right now. I'm not green, but otherwise the resemblance is remarkable.