The Church - C or D/S&D/CB&TT

Just ask him when they're finally going to release a live album!

Haha noted.

ask steve about what drugs he was on at that awards acceptance speech, and if he can share w/ all of us

will be interviewing Peter Koppes later today

ahhh fxck me

Nice interview with Steve: http://blog.billkopp.com/?p=453

And new Isidore album out today (Steve and Jeffrey Cain of Remy Zero etc.) -- first part of a two part interview with Cain here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/karen-shepard/jeffrey-cain-isidore_b_1275316.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T22Ozz1ceHI

Okay, so this song "Maybe You" popped up a couple weeks ago and everyone writing about it seemed to agree it's great. Hardly anyone seemed to mention that the twins in question are Elektra and Anna Miranda Kilbey...daughters of Steve Kilbey.

Love how Steve Kilbey sings its praises in the comments on Soundcloud version.

lol I hadn't noticed that.

"reconciling all contradictions. at once modern and classic. following the aesthetic of beauty to an incredible conclusion. subtle. strange. familiar. 2 identicall voices weave in and out of each other creating a delicious silvery feeling. i am shocked at how good this is!"

haha

I have all the time in the world for that guy.

Gotta say I'm really digging that Saint Lou Lou song. It's like the most awesome unpop pop.

Dear brasstax:

We have disabled the following material as a result of a third-party notification from Mirand Kilbey & Elektra Kilbey claiming that this material is infringing

I feel like I've been personally dissed by the twins! The track was originally a free download, after all.

"Long Distance Century Buzzes and Fades"

So, this new Church dvd/download is fantastic: https://sellfy.com/p/iHaj/

Five hours of self-shot footage from the GAF tour. Lots of eating/riding on a bus/shaking hands/getting yelled at by Melody Maker/etc... which is all pretty fun and illuminating, but there's also a mountain of great live footage (including a 'You Took' that is super bananas - as always).

I think Kilbey actually undersold this a bit (which really isn't like him). I've been into the Church for a good long time and I wouldn't hesitate to call this absolutely essential for fans.

Anybody else pick this up?

correction:
bit less than 5 hours - read the counter wrong - looks like 3.5

thinking about it
would sit through 3.5 hours of jumpy VHS for live footage and also to stare at <3 marty <3

Now I know why there's so much of Marty in his underwear/Marty in his bathing suit on the dvd! hahaha - No, serious.
Technical quality of the footage is way better than I expected, btw. Pretty cool editing too. I expected it to be way more haphazard. It ain't at all.

I think the download is like half the price of the dvd. I would've done that if I had known beforehand.

No way. Really?! He is such a dreamboat!!

Oddly enough... yes!
Kilbey kinda can't keep the camera off him. hahaha

he's the one that looks like a magician/hypnotist, right?

ha, i guess so? he has a beautiful face. when i was in high school, i think i just wanted to look like him in this picture.
http://first-avenue.com/files/imagecache/event/images/performer/MartyWillson-Piper.jpg

now he looks like this and he is still appealing
http://thechurchband.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/387604_10150630175315968_385647585967_11564136_2068150739_n-300x200.jpg

this song has been stuck in my head all day so i offer you this, featuring:
* major awesome one-note marty solo
* insertion of a line or two of an aerosmith song in the middle
* 9 minutes of song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_qlpf3Fyi8

my mistake, on the cover of gold afternoon fix they *all* kind of look like magicians or hypnotists.

man I regret not going to see them play so so much. stupid jobs.

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-HV0lbcdK6BI/Ude1j4a_msI/AAAAAAAAAiM/E1cvikoya3Q/w506-h380-o/thechurch.jpg

I have a question, do they have any other songs besides under the milky way? Or. Did they for.m just for that one? Much thanks, I am doing a research paper for my a-levels.

^^ flagged for late nite comedy posting

i've never heard the GAF demos -- is this for real? also, marty is the only one who doesn't look like a mesmerist on the cover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7F5zD8c_pI

i've watched about 45 min so far and i had to take a break -- the poignant mundane details (kilbey filming every corner of his hotel room, then himself in the elevator with his own band's shirt on, the sound guy mooning the camera, the interview with the critic/journalist, the interaction with the fan) PLUS the performances and verisimilitude of being there in the back of some huge auditorium with full light show, i mean, i needed to take a break! not to mention that marty hasn't let me down yet. i also really like the idea that he's only now doing something with this footage. worth every penny for the download if you enjoy time capsules, late 80s/early 90s era things, long shapeless verite documentaries, <3 marty <3, or rock docs of all stripes. it seems to clearly be made for fans (or at least marketed to, right?) but i think it could enjoy a wider audience if properly framed.

I was concerned this video might render inaccessible to me the invisible staircase that leads to the room outside of time and space that is the Church and their music, but it does not.

And the best live clip was "Hotel Womb" about twenty minutes from the end!

FYI, the DVD of the Enmore Theater show with the complete Untitled #23, P=A, and Starfish is due out Aug 1:
http://merch.thechurchband.net/new-the-church-live-at-the-enmore-theatre-dvd/

@ Bee OK - I was at that Wiltern show also! The Blue Aeroplanes opened up...

No, they are still totally trapped in the tower -- I love how extremely far away they seem on stage too. I can't wait to watch the rest. Apparently I'm unable to digest much of this at once.

I watched it in three sittings. haha

Your comment above about it being made for/marketed to fans is spot-on. As a massive fan... it's just the kinda fly on the wall thing I've always been curious to see.

It's also fascinating as a portrait of a band with a certain level of fame. They were well known, but not famous.

Anyone who doesn't have it should acquire the Goldfish (Jokes, Magic & Souvenirs) DVD. Apart from collecting their '81 - '90 videos, it features a lot of great candid-camera footage from, IIRC, the Starfish tour. Much of it is comedy gold.

would sit through 3.5 hours of jumpy VHS for live footage and also to stare at <3 marty <3

I would love, even for one day, to know what it's like to have the effect on women that MWP had back then. I took a girlfriend to see The Church about ten years ago and all she could talk about afterwards was "that unbelievably handsome guitarist".

his frock coat, skinny jeans and beatle boots really did flatter him

I hope that's the one you are all talking about.

Oh stop being coy -- you know who he is! He's the one with the ridiculously beautiful face! (Although Peter Koppes gets a shout out for being muuuuuch more appealing in moving pictures than he is in still ones).
I'd like to know what it's like to be that irresistible/talented/good looking too. Some people are just born with a gift. It must be absurd and probably not as awesome as it seems.

MWP is also damn charming and just naturally inhabits the rock star role. I've chatted with him several times over the years and he can instantaneously switch from music/guitar nerd to Coolest Guy In The Room. I don't know how he (or anyone with that kind of presence) does it.

I think of the Church like ILX, as a gestalt entity with shadowy, changeable faces that speak as one in a multitude of voices. Sometimes Steve, sometimes Marty, and then when you think you have the rhythm of it, Peter Koppes appears and sings As You Will or Transient. And you're unsure of anything again.

Looks like Marty is out of the band... at least for now.
That's a drag.

http://musicfeeds.com.au/news/the-church-announce-addition-of-powderfinger-guitarist-for-new-album/

Oh no! What happened to Marty?!

From Steve:

hey guys
this has been hard to broach and it has been hard to announce.
this is the simple truth.
marty was/is unavailable.
after having secured the funds to make a new church record, marty was not available to make it.
so i asked ian haug from powderfinger if he would like to play on this record and do the subsequent tour. he said yes.
we have begun the new album and let me reassure you it is magnificent. otherwise we wouldnt be doing it.
i will never say anything more about this subject. marty is not available. ian was. and i needed to make this album because we havent done anything for so long.
you'll have to trust me. this step was not taken lightly.
ian is a brilliant guitarist who brings years of experience and a new fresh enthusiasm with him. this is no second rate deal. and nothing is chiselled in stone.
if you cant dig it i'm sorry. this is my fucking band after all and it has existed at times without peter and in the beginning without marty. and for times in between while he went AWOL.
i love the guy. his musicianship is undeniably good. but its over now . the church will have to move on without him or have no church at all. which one did you want?
i am sitting here right now with 16 new incredible songs that we just wrote. its frustrating that it will be a while till you hear it. but the church will ride on. and i hope that when i fall off my perch that someone else jumps in and keeps it going. this is what i was writing about the other day. the church is an ideal that produces a certain type of music. regardless of individuals.
the church will prevail. and our new music is very very fucking cool.
and thats it!

Ya know, Marty always does the things on each of the recent records I'm not as crazy about... all the progginess and whatnot, but this is still mega blah.

Sounds like the new record will be good though. I wonder what is keeping Marty so busy?!

Him and Steve butting heads is what's keeping him "busy," I'd guess?

Hm. That's unfortunate. I love Steve Kilbey's attitude.

Without getting too far into NDA territory, I'm not surprised by this development. I had a feeling the U23/P=A/SF shows were going to be it for the band - even before Steve went public about the financial rift with Second Motion.

I"m also encouraged. I can't think of many other people from Kilbey's generation who've found such creative engagement in middle age. The Kilbey-Kennedy albums are all worth checking out and generally if he's bragging about something on his blog it does live up. Plus if it gets Peter to do more, then I'm all for it. The RefoMation album is very very good,

The three times they came through New England after U23 were three of the best shows I've seen from them.
Nice that they at least ended that phase on a high.

Kilbey is a talented dude. I'm sure the new record will be more than worth a listen. It's still sad though!

i keep reading that piper is a douche.