THE CHURCH

I started hearing a lot about The Church in the mid-80's.  That's because there was a mini-wave of Australian bands trying to hit over here.  Some of them were pretty good, too.  Australia had a good scene in the 80's, and though I had major anglophobia during that decade, I was always quick to note that the Aussies were a different story.

So anyway, The Church was this band with a lot of buzz, and not a lot else - as in, they had flopped over here.  The buzz was that their sound was very "psychedelic," influences such as Television and The Byrds were tossed around a lot.  Yum yum, said I.

Still it ended up being a while before I actually heard them.  Um, well ...

I ended becoming great friends for a time with a guy who considered them his favorite band.  As a result of same I head all their albums up to then, plus solo albums, plus even saw them one time (their 1988 tour, with Peter Murphy [gag!] and Tom Verlaine [I would say "yay", but ol' Tom played three songs, unplugged, and was out of the way for Mr. Vampire Boy.  Bummer.  He did join them for a jam at the encore.  Anyway, Church cognoscenti apparently consider this one of the band's finest hours).  And, uh, well, I didn't hear it.

At that time they were riding high on a hit album, Starfish, an album I liked (and still like) about half of.  Their early albums suffered mightily, to these ears, from a bad case of "nu-wave" production (flat sounding, esp. the drums) and frankly, being closer to the jangly pop sound that was all the rage early decade (U2, Big Country, The Alarm), rather than the alleged "psychedelic buzz." Starfish had teamed them with an American production team (Waddy Wachtel, X-Pensive Wino and L.A. sideman).  Supposedly the band hated the recording process and the results, but to these ears it opened up some much-needed space in their sound, as well as adding some even-more needed bottom.  They finally sounded like a rock band.  The best tracks ("Destination," "Lost," "Antenna," "A New Season") had real atmosphere and a certain power.  The big hit "Under the Milky Way" has a certain haunting appeal, and "Spark" was catchy if irritating.  Unfortunately, I found the more straightforward songs as unimpressive as I did most of the rest of their catalog.  For all the comparisons to The Byrds and Television, they lacked those bands drive, edge, and in the case of The Byrds, sense of melody.  If anything, the band they most remind me of is The Moody Blues, with whom they share a certain light, sonorous tone.  That analogy will probably make devotees cringe, but it could be a lot worse.  And, though good musicians,  I don't think Wilson-Piper/Koppes had anything on McGuinn, Verlaine/Lloyd, or George Harrison (another alleged, and likely, influence).  And the (admittedly amusing) hallucinogenic lyrics weren't enough to save what was mostly pretty routine-sounding stuff from where I sat.  A Rolling Stone interview where the band claimed their music should be referred to as "Contemporary Intelligent Rock" pretty much sealed the deal on this outfit.  God help us all.

Fast forward many years.  Many things have changed and I haven't heard anything of The Church since the end of the 80's (I had to look `em up to see if they were even still around).  When I did my big conversion to CD in the mid 00's, I found that Starfish stayed with me, and ended up acquiring a copy.  I find I still really like those half-dozen songs, and every now and then wanna dust them off and hear them again.  It's not nostalgia - they're just good songs.  There was also an odd little song called "Texas Moon," which I got on a flexi-disc embedded in an issue of Bucketfull of Brains.  It's a demo and that is a very cool song - it actually does have a sense of the "psychedelic buzz."  I think they eventually re-recorded it, but I'll stick with the rough mix.

I did consider trying to put together a Church compilation CD to couch them in, but a spin through some old tapes, Amazon, YouTube ... I found that my initial judgment still held.  There's not enough there to make it worth my time. In fact, there's nothing.  I remember when their Starfish follow-up, Gold Afternoon Fix came out; I was intrigued since I'd liked half of the previous, hoping they might really hit their stride here.  Instead, it was a huge dud, even according to the band.  The one after that, Priest = Aura is apparently held in high esteem by the faithful, but I'm not interested enough to check it out.  Allegedly in recent years their sound has become more "prog"-oriented.  That's a sign for me to stay away.  But I'll hang onto my copy of Starfish.

The Church Allmusic
The Church Wiki
The Church official website

Essential Listening

The Church have a large body of work.  Obviously, Starfish is the one I favor.  Give it your own listen, and make your own judgments.

Essential Reading

Haven't read Robert Dean Lurie's No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church, but he's apparently a hardcore devotee, so if you're looking for a bio, here's one.  I suspect there may have been other books published in Australia and possibly elsewhere.