Tucked away on their Numbers EP from 2002, it’s an 8 minute proto trippy/baggy/ guitar fest (but don’t let that put you off) with some of Kilbey’s finest stream of consciousness lyrics. It’s ace loud.
I love the Church but I’m a bit nervous about the forthcoming album.
I’m still a bit nervous about the last album.
Good point actually H.P. Not up to much was it? Almost on a par with Magician amongst the Spirits which some aficionados are reevaluating as “actually quite good” recently I notice. Nope it’s not.
“Quite good” is a pretty accurate summation of everything they did post Priest=Aura. Flashes of brilliance here and there over the decades. The same old story for every band that manages to keep going. You hang in there out of loyalty, but the thrill is gone. Those early albums – especially The Blurred Crusade, set an impossibly high bar. That’s forty years old, near as dammit, and it still works for me.
This is the latest thing to appear. Artists have been filmed in empty venues.
Here he is with a popular local singer Kate Ceberano. It’s “ok”.
Kate Ceberano, yikes. I had to buy one of her albums recently, the only way to get a cover version of a song I needed, which meant I had the rest of it, virtually all dross to listen to just the once. Now available at an Oxfam near me.
@retropath2
Come on then! “I needed!” What was the song and why was it needed?
Ps. I think we’ve had a previous discussion re Box of Birds. You’re being a trifle harsh I reck, there’s 3?or 4 decent versions on there…Ok, The Faith Healer and Hiroshima mon amour only.
Angie Hart singing Graham Nash’s Our House. Her accent cuts some of the sugary sap of the original.
The Blurred Crusade. Yep, my go to album on the rare occasions I get my bass out. Great fun to play along to and fantastic songs and guitar. Only their second album! P = A was another high water mark and since then, you’re correct, flashes of brilliance. But I’ll still buy the next album. Just in case.
Junior..,I do have that Kilbey collaboration album (He is very very prolific, maybe too prolific?) …yep, it’s “ok.”
Neither of you have listened to the track in the O.P have you??
If you mean me by neither of you, you have a walrus bottom for a face. I am already familiar with the track. It is in my iTunes collection. I like the video lots, though.
It’s better than the majority of their covers album, Box of Birds. Which isn’t difficult.
It’s no Little Man In A Box.
Nope H.P. No idea what you mean. Same for the Walrus comment.
The walrus comment was a good-natured dig at you for assuming I didn’t know the track already. However, good-natured digs on the internet are immediately read as toxic emotional intrusivity, especially here, where everyone can get a bit too glum.
“Little Man In A Box” cross-refers to the Rob Brydon thread, where I use the phrase in a comment to a Steve Coogan clip. Little Man In A Box is a ventriloquist effect achieved by compressing the larynx, whereby the sound of a little man in a box is heard, rather than a normal speaking voice.
Here, the connection is the word “Box” – note how it appears both in Little Man In A “Box”, and “Box” Of Birds. The humour derives from claiming that a covers album by the popular Australian beat group The Church is not as “good” as a “funny voice” by the beloved Welsh entertainer!
I hope that now, with these explanatory notes at hand, you’re having a right old larf!
My curiosity ignited by your comment, I googled “Walrus bottom” but found no images to give me a clearer picture. Plenty of face and full body shots of walruses, but no specifically bottom-related pics. Clearly a niche market ripe for exploitation.
Thank you very much for your detailed explanation. Rest assured I was taking no umbrage, or any other medicinal linctuses, at your comments and indeed took them as good natured.
I remain etc.
I had an email from Kilbey today, suggesting a skype hook-up. These are a bit tricky to sync, as we’re both clueless about time, but if we manage it, are there any questions you’d like me to put to him that will not make me sound like a total walrus arse-face?
Oooh that sounds good. Alas I can think of nothing more interesting than “how is the new album coming along?” and “when this COVID thingy is done for, Will they be coming back to Blighty?” I imagine you’ll have more interesting things to talk about…please share!
I remain etc.
I’ll let you know. Mostly we talk about painting. Pictures, not houses. He shows me what he’s working on – he’s a good painter.
What happened to the film about him? I saw it at the weekend thing in London a couple of years ago, but it’s disappeared
I’ll ask.
@h-p-saucecraft
Did you get a chance to hook up with the Boy from Bondi?
Apart from a gnomic email today, nope. If we manage to chat you’ll be the third to know.
Pithy.
I believe the Producer is sitting on it. Ouch etc.
Thank you. I’ve seen some of his work on his Time Being site I think. Yes, he’s a talented fellow and seems to keep himself very busy with various musical collaborations. Incidentally I used to like his musings on his blog…not sure it’s been updated recently.
An upvote for Box of Birds over here. Sure, not essential, but a more interesting collection of songs than many other bands would venture. Played articulately and in the spirit of genuine fandom. I think there’s a great playlist to be made from everything after ‘Priest’, though I really rate Sometime Anywhere. Flawed but expansive. A great late-night album.
A more interesting set of songs? More like let’s get stoned in the garage and play whatever anyone thinks of first. Mainly classified under why. Redeemed only by the truly gigantic Cortez the Killer, making almost up for the rest of the album, helping take away the taste of Dudes and Silver Machine.
@retropath2
Grump! I quite like All the young Dudes. And All too much with it’s ad-libbing. You’re right about Silver Machine though. And not a fan of any version of Cortez..too much driftage.
Their natural musicianship puts it way past ‘stoned in the garage’. I love Cortez the killer but, as I don’t really know Neil Young but fear his legend, I’m somehow loathe to recommend the Church’s version for fear of being labelled a heretic.
Thank you @danp!
I agree with your comment about a playlist. I think everyone of their recent (as in last 25 years..) has at least one stone cold classic …I might actually make a playlist myself! I’ll give Sometime Anywhere another go on your recommendation…found it lacking proper songs really but Kilbey wasn’t in a good place at the time was he?
Worth the price of admission for Two Places at once. More of a mood piece album than a song album. Some of the tunes don’t quite come off, but I liked the audible freedom that the two-man line-up seemed to offer. Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream with it.
Yes, SK was in a bad way. Apparently one of the reasons MWP was reticent about PK’s return was having to relinquish his co-pilot role on Sometime Anywhere. I think the unsung hero of their story is Tim Powles (and now I think of it, I’d put Hologram of Baal as part of their canon as a fully realised work.) Apparently Powles joined and immediately realised he’d have to pull much of it together: all members geographically scattered, SK still on the gear, MWP and PK never brilliant mates. An accomplished all-rounder, engineer etc, I understand he assembled and wrangled a lot of it. Come to think of it, After Everything Now This was really good too.
Yep, Tim Powles does get recognised as the glue that holds them together. Musically MWP and KP worked together really really well, shame if they weren’t best of mates but as a live entity, when they’re on form, they’re unbeatable. Of course it’s all change now with both of them gone but I’m waiting for Snr Saucecraft to get the inside story on the new album.
I do think most of their late period albums suffer from a bit too much noodling and driftage. I guess it would be silly to expect another Heyday though.