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

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

Sounds great on first listen.
More direct? Less proggy? Slightly more youthful?

Sounds very much like The Church, but... doesn't sound much like any of their 21st century albums, I don't think.

I just assumed they were from Utah.

This sounds good on first listen. Kilbey's voice is a marvel, and the straightforward Beatles/Floyd tracks work well. There are some middle and end stretches that lose my attention, but that's not unusual for this band. I expect I'll return to this a lot.

NA tour:

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/6319916/the-church-announce-2015-north-american-tour-dates-celebrate-35th-anniversary

been listening to this for the last few days... it's mixed so beautifully! I lose focus on the songs because the production is so sparkly. anyway, so far it seems a little front-loaded. the first three tracks are all amazing. maybe next time I'll just put on the second half.

just finished kilbey's recent memoir, great read until the end, which handwaves away the last ten years, which was a bit disappointing. the rest was very enlightening and entertaining. i'm guessing there was a very skilled editor involved as well..

i'll second electricsound on the Kilbey bio. really fun read, but he zips from 02 to the present in like 5 pages or so!
would've loved to read more about 21st cent church dynamics, but what can ya do?

buy lots of copies so he writes vol. 2

New album has leaked, who's heard it?

...the one that was released three months ago?

It was? I thought "Deeper Further" wasn't due out until early next month!

Released in America. It's long been released in Australia.

Damn. 30 years into this band and they''ve never sounded better. Without Marty, Peter is now in 100% guitar hero mode - something which was long overdue. New songs sound fantastic live.