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

FB page teasing some kind of 'big announcement' this week.

New song:

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

And new album next month. Works for me!

I can't even parse kilbey's blogs. so he's back in the church? are they putting this out themselves?

He's in, Marty's gone, and it does appear to be a self-release.

so they're done with second motion? whatever happened with that, did they sue them?

what's marty up to these days?!

Oh wow, why did Marty leave? Hate to be this kind of fan (or this kind of listener in general) but Marty not being there sucks a lot of the excitement out of this

I will defer to Elvis T on all these points.

well, it's relatively straightforward (for SK anyway):

we realise people disappointed cos MWP not there
he literally never got back to us when we wanted to do a new record
he never even left
he just became unavailable
well thats that
we had a coalition of the willing who did
and ian came onboard
exceeding all expectations one could possibly have
what we have now is all that could have ever been
forget the what ifs
i understand you may be disappointed if MWP was your favourite
it was not my idea for him to not be there
however seeing he wasnt and he isnt
shortly therefore
and in spades to boot
Further/Deeper will be with you soon if you want
after all its only rocknroll nothing to get hung about

I forgot how fun it is to read his blog!

Not saying anything until the album is out.

Yeah, I'll withhold judgement. And my expectations for any band that's been around this long are very low anyway. But this lowers them considerably. Just compare the last Church album, which was incredible, to all the Steve Kilbey solo records released around the same time, which were not. There were some OK cuts on those records, but the spark just wasn't there.

Not as broken up about MWP being gone as I thought I'd be.

Kinda feel like he was responsible for most of the lowlights songwise/soundwise/bv-wise for the last 20-odd years.
Starting with Sometime Anywhere, he started feeling a lil too comfortable showing off his progginess for me. YMMV though, of course.

Still would've liked him to be in the band (and boy will this be interesting seeing them live w/o him), but what can ya do...

i just want to know what he is so busy doing that he can't respond to sk's messages

maybe he's still trying to decipher them?

haha
i like to imagine him being super perplexed for months on end

i still think that long boring live documentary of their gold afternoon fix tour was the best thing ever

me too

I like this band but to be fair all of their albums from the past 15 years sound the same to me. So if this sounds different, that might be good. That new song isn't very good though.

kinda wish they'd have stayed with Second Motion long enough to re-release the Sing Songs/Remote Luxury/Persia comp on CD... ah well.

Priest=Aura'ing it up this am, so fkn good

Dunno. While they're all certainly The Church, there is a bit of variety in the years since Hologram of Baal.

After Everything is chilled out, opiated... Forget Yourself, quite a bit more rough around the edges... Uninvited drags a bit more pop action back in... Untitled cuts back on the prog (mostly)... maybe these are minor differences though? They probably are. haha

I like Uninvited a whole lot, my 3 fave churches are it, p=a and heyday. I haven't heard every album though.

Blurred Crusade has been in constant rotation since I got the LP for $1.99! I can't believe it was priced so low. It's so good!

I think it was $1.99 -- i remember it being insultingly cheap (and in great condition) is what i'm trying to say

I'll give you $4 for it.

Just found Remote Luxury for 5.99 on LP.

That's the one with the tragic digital drums right

As a fan of all things 80s and digital, i'm not sure I can answer that question. Sounds great to me.

You're thinking of Seance, probably.

Yes Seance. Sweet Jesus those poor songs.

oh look, Sing Songs/Remote Luxury/Persia is on Spotify! *listens*

i'm listening to that on Spotify right now too.

The era between Priest=Aura and Forget Yourself is my blind spot. I haven't heard any of those albums; are any of them worth checking out?

Haha, Ripple just came on and I was a bit O_o but then I realized I had it on shuffle. Gonna let it ride though, this is gorgeous.

you're a human sacrifice to the goddess of ice fyi

The era between Priest=Aura and Forget Yourself is my blind spot. I haven't heard any of those albums; are any of them worth checking out?

There isn't one great stand out album among them, but there are some terrific songs
Day Of The Dead
Comedown
Magician Among The Spirits
Tranquility
Numbers
Anaesthesia

Also worth seeking out from that period:

The Time Being
The Further Adventures of the Time Being
Two Places at Once
After Everything
Louisiana
The Great Machine

I love Sometime Anywhere (especially if you add in songs from Someplace Else) and Magician Among the Spirits has a second half that is kinda spacey and awesome in a way that reminds me of Julian Cope's Jehovahkill. I kinda like all these records, to be honest. Haven't listened to Parallel Universe much though.

Nobody repping for Buffalo, The Awful Ache or The Dead Man's Dream??

Magician..., Parallel Universe and Box of Birds don't do much for me, but the rest are all different levels of very enjoyable.

Post P=A ranking (not including all the random mail order/acoustic/soundtrack stuff):

Untitled #23
Hologram of Baal
After Everything Now This
Sometime Anywhere
Forget Yourself
Uninvited, Like the Clouds
Magician Among the Spirits
Parallel Universe
Box of Birds

heh, I love the Dead Man's Dream but just picked a couple off each album.

Back With Two Beasts needs a shout-out here. It's my fave of the secondary albums.

And granted it's not *quite* the Church but surely the Refo:mation's Pharmakoi/Distance-Crunching Honchos with Echo Units deserves mention too.

We should compile a best of the side projects. What's the Mrs song that mentions Robert Wyatt and Andy Partridge? That's a keeper.

Damn autocorrect, MWP not Mrs!

Think that MWP song is "Forget The Radio"

Good article on the state of things
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/special-features/a-broader-church/story-fnknbqfy-1227082651923?nk=d1844cb8ddd8159d308f4b30174a7f81

Cool, will read here...

The piece is very glow-y, and a comment from Marty would have been helpful. I can deal with a band losing a member, that happens all the time, but there's something about the nature of this departure that makes me feel uneasy. "We couldn't get in touch with a founding member of the band so we made an album without him."

Also, the article makes it seem like Powderfinger was a huge rock band. Were they just a U.K. thing?

Australian, and yes, pretty big there IIRC.

startled to imagine where Evan thinks The Church have been from all along!

We got stream

http://rollingstoneaus.com/music/post/exclusive-stream-the-church-furtherdeeper/676