The Church

I just caught them there Church on the tour for the new album three weeks ago -- great show, third time I've seen 'em. The new songs were especially entrancing live, and they played some stuff I thought they'd never do again ("A New Season," "Metropolis," even "Under the Milky Way"). So classic, and the covers album is great.

And yeah, them other threads are around. Love the archives, the archives luv you. ;-)

Every single solo record done by any of the Church members should be avoided like the plague.

Your feelings are unclear.

marty wilson piper always makes me think of richie sambora.

A comparison worthy of Dave Q!

For better or worse, Heyday was the album that made me pick up the guitar for the first time. I was in Edmonton at my grandparents' place, and I spotted my grandfather's old acoustic guitar, which he played in his barbershop quartet. I sat down there in the basement, plunking away at it until I'd figured out how to play the opening lines to "Tristesse". To this day it's remained one of my favourite albums of all time...you can verify that here if you insist (partly out of date, but that one's still in there).

Definitely go, Tim, I think you'll like it a lot, especially knowing how you felt about Hologram.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, nearly every last AMG album review by the Church is from, uh, me...

Okay I'm tired of being virtually the only one who wants to talk about the two El Momento discs, El Momento Descuidado & El Momento Siguiente. I honestly do not think they have been this good since Hologram of Baal,
but I admit the discs are spotty so I have made a comp. of my fave tracks:

1. Wide Open Road (I love how he goes "NOW! You can go anywhere..." it's the perfect romantic heartbreak song, that thing of being in the now and facing a future even though you're stuck painfully in the past)

2. 0408 (I like this one almost as much as "Invisible"...the piano is killer and the acoustic guitar riff is nearly as infectious)

3. That new version of Reptile (oh my god that little scat vocal thing he does at the end is priceless! And the fact that he starts it off with a HISSSS like a snake is fucking classic on top of it)

4. November

5. Chromium (some nice falsetto work from Marty)

6. Song In The Afternoon

7. A New Season (better than the original, maybe not, but damn close)

8. Appalatia

9. Bordello (god, this one is weird, have they ever sounded *that* rock and roll before?? That is some bad ass shit, you half expect Steve to start wearing spandex and rock star sunglasses)

10. Tristesse (every bit as enjoyable as the original, I think)

11. Invisible (my favourite of the lot and a riff that as a tendency to go around and around in my brain incessantly)

12. NSEW (North, South, East, West)(nah, not as good as the original, but it's interesting to hear the lyics clearly)

13. Between Mirages

14. Comeuppance

One complaint with these two discs: the version of Grind pales in comparison to the "Acoustic Version" found on the Terra Nova Cain U.S. promo 12". Available on the internet like everything else.

I'm a little distracted by searching for a thread for a band i've only just come to fully appreciate and finding the last post to be from Bimble. RIP, you are missed. Ugh. Fuck it, I can't even go through with my question now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D89Y-MMWa5s

Looking forward to seeing them in a week.

I had no idea when I began rebuying vinyl records a couple years back that The Church would be on the most expensive end of things. Especially Of Skins..., Blurred Crusade, and Seance. Frustrating!

some years ago i picked up 3 or 4 of the 2CD remaster/rarities releases for a few bucks each - they're also fetching decent money these days

i don't always feel like listening to the church but the other day i heard priest=aura in unexpected circumstances (driving back from the beach, randomly served up by my car's antiquated CD stacker) and it hit the spot bigtime

wow really? i have found a handful of the older Church records in the $2-$3 range.

i really want a copy of Gold Afternoon Fix but haven't record shopped in ages, maybe there is one waiting for me nearby and i don't even know it

Bookmark this page: https://www.oldies.com/search/results.cfm?q=gold+afternoon+fix&results=

They had new old stock sealed copies of Gold Afternoon Fix as recently as early August when I bought some other stuff there. They're out now, but they may put some more up for sale?

I feel like Gold Afternoon Fix is one of the most findable Church LPs, due to following up Starfish but getting a cool reception. Also, they all look the most like magicians they ever have on the cover!

i have never seen one but i try not to buy used records online -- just if i run across them in a store (unless it's something i feel crazy strong about)
i had a GAF tshirt and it smelled like burnt rubber

I had a Xymox t-shirt with that weird rubber smell, Skinny Puppy too... had that real rough silkscreening, reminds me of high school. One of my favorite lyrics is on Gold Afternoon Fix, from Monday Morning, where he sings "dice rolled, double six double six double six" but it's really mostly the delivery

oh man i love that part
that song too

i like the "at least it's artistic, i guess...i guess" in "You're Still Beautiful"
love the groove of this song too
takes me back!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxX-6ZRrjsE

but "Metropolis" is one of my fave all time Church songs and nobody can take that away

They're both examples of their epic, wide-screen style that is rarely approached.

I love GAF, I think it's really underrated. It's intensely melancholic, strangely so when you consider that it was recorded in the wake of a longed-for commercial breakthrough. It's as if Kilbey instinctively knew that it wouldn't last.

You had an idea that you won't have again
She's forgotten your name and hopes you'll do the same
Start of the ash and the end of the flames
Burning you, turning you around.

hahaha, I forgot how much I loved the vocal delivery on Transient's chorus. It's like they were sitting around and decided to record another Heyday song but couldn't play it straight

also the delightful Australian "wondering if the leaves will fall in May/only know if I decide to stay"

I had a Xymox t-shirt with that weird rubber smell

It was the Phoenix one with lots of yellow and blue ink! That whole era of late 80s/early 90s tour t-shirts was rife with that weird smell. Had a Bowie one from the Sound + Vision tour that was the same.

Heads up: the recent Priest = Aura LP reissue is apparently another piece of shovelware taken from a CD master. Only the German LP from 1992 is an actual vinyl master. This knowledge has become important...

I think I posted this on the other Church thread, but the recent KEXP sets on YouTube are worth watching if you haven't kept up with them. This song is great:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJUiOLfnqD0

was shopping for clothes at a thrift store today, and gave the CD shelf a quick once-over... found a copy of Remote Luxury! and then Russian Autumn Heart came up on random play in the car on the way home.

similar story! I have been waiting for a copy of Gold Afternoon Fix to cross my path for years since I had the shitty Columbia House cassette back when it came out and never replaced it. On Saturday I was at a friend's single release show/in store and I didn't really look around the store at all bc I was socializing. There was also a VU cover act playing and I was standing by the bargain CD bin and was browsing when I remembered to look in the Cs, as I always do. There it was!

So I finally listened to the whole album after all this time and guess what -- there are some boring songs but overall, I still really like it! Surprise favorites because I had forgotten about them completely and always liked them back when: Fading Away and Grind (the guitar parts on this are so good!!)

These lyrics in particular melted my brain because I remembered liking them way back in another lifetime when I was a young person. I love this band!

Who's there to say that we're living this moment
Feels like I'm in a play
The sets and the props of this, your apartment
Seem to be fading away, fading away

So I wander through these rooms
I feel the orbit of the moons
And I dream what I become
And all's forgotten by the sun

Those are righteous

Bumping Seance and the Remote Luxury EP this evening, first time in years, I'd forgotten how mesmerising and brilliant this band is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga5KYeJA1u4

Steve Kilbey doing his run of the first four albums, solo on 12-string with anecdotes, the YT channel has the other three,