YOU MUST LIKE THE CHURCH!

YOU MUST LIKE THE CHURCH!

FEATURES

(OR PERISH TRYING)

Dave DiMartino

Let’s get the easy part over with first. •The Church are great.

•They have been putting out wonderful records since 1980.

•There is every chance in the world that you’ve never heard them.

•There is every chance in the world that, if you did hear them, you would think— as I do—that they may be the best rock ’n’ roll band you have heard in many years.

•In many, many years.

OK, now that we’ve established the they are great concept, let’s play around with it a little bit. First of all, you’ll need a little background information. Here goes:! Three of them are from Australia: Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes, and Richard Ploog. One of them’s from England: Marty Willson-Piper. Steve writes the songs, sings and plays bass; Marty and Peter play guitar; Richard is the drummer. Got that? Two guitars, bass & drums.

THE CHURCH = CLASSIC ROCK BAND INSTRUMENTATION

More background: their first album came out here in 1982. On Capitol Records. I think I read a grand total of one (1) review of it, and that was by Wayne Robbins, who listed it as one of his faves in the Village Voice's monthly Pazz & Jop critic’s listing. Blammo. That was it.

Summarizes guitarist Marty W-P: “That was a record company who’d thought they’d got onto a good thing, because they thought ‘Unguarded Moment’ was a hit. So they took hold of it, edited a minute out of it without letting us know anything about it, put it out, put no promotion into it, and came up with 10 stupid religious slogans that had nothing to do with the band. And consequently the single bombed, the band bombed, and they dropped us after one album.”

THE CHURCH = CLASSICALLY MISHANDLED BY UNSYMPATHETIC RECORD CONGLOMERATES.

I need not add that said LP was indeed very fine; I might, however, mention that you may have seen the video of its opening track, “The Unguarded Moment,” on MTV. Right when MTV started, in fact. Right when nobody was watching it.

STEVE KILBEY: GROWING UP AUSTRALIAN

Was it easy for you, growing up in Australia, to get records in the first place?

To buy them? Yeah, there was always a good import shop in Canberra. And I was friends with the guys, I used to go there every day. Every week I got my pay packet, and I’d go in there and buy like, 10 records. The problem was, getting records that you want—like in the mid’70s, I used to go in the shop with $100 in my pocket and think: “What am I gonna fuckin’ buy?” I ended up buying Hall & Oates, because there was nothing else to buy.

I sort of lived in my own little world. This was in Canberra—I lived in my own little world and used to spend most of my time just listening to records and talking to people who liked the same music I did. It didn’t even occur to me that I was in Australia.

What kind of stuff did you really enjoy back then?

Be-Bop Deluxe and Cockney Rebel. I used to like Jobriath, actually—because hq was sort of an elegant failure, (laughsl Actually, his second album had some really good tracks on it.

OK, whatVbben established1 so far: the Church are great, they put out a great first album in 1982, and Steve Kilbey was forced to buy Hall & Oates records against his will. Big deal.

So, like, what happened next, right?

Glad you asked. Capitol dropped ’em. There were a few things you could only pick up in import stores. On about 20 different labels, 30 different countries. Too confusing to go into here. Let’s just say that my copy of their next album, The Blurred Crusade, is from France. Furthermore, it has no pants. And it was not released in America. It was their bestselling LP in Australia, but you, American reader, are probably not impressed—and you surely would be, were you to put this magazine down and rush out to the record store and buy it.

Next up came a five-song EP called Sing-Songs, which featured the dandiest “I Am A Rock” since the Hollies covered it on some tape I’ve got. Need I add that Sing-Songs was only issued in Australia? On EMI? I thought not.

Let’s let the guys summarize their plight:

STEVE: Basically, our whole recording contract situation is...

MARTY: Is a total joke.

STEVE: ...is totally confusing, due to the band’s gullibility and naivete and a few bad decisions.

MARTY: Yeah.

STEVE: We’re just mixed up in this web of...things. It’s just a mess—we’re just with different companies, and everyone releases what they like, in what form they like, and when they like it, and...no one...I mean, Warner Brothers is great.

MARTY: Yeah, Warner Brothers is fantastic. They’ve been really, really good.

Warner Brothers?

What’s the deal? How’d that happen? And hey, how come I’m interviewing these guys in the first place?

I forgot!

No, wait—there’s a history here that must be told, and this shall be it! After this Sing-Songs EP came Seance, which was my bonafide, honest-to-goodness, favorite album of 1983. I have an Australian copy; I think one came out in England as well. Several months after the fact. And speaking of facts: Seance was never issued in the United States even though it was better than every other album you heard that year.

Another in a string of Church tragedies.

Steve Kilbey: “Seance I was proud of, but the rest of the band weren’t so sure about it. And the Australian critics just fucking hated it.”

THE CHURCH = UNDERDOGS EMERGING TRIUMPHANT IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY.

After Seance came another Australian EP, Remote Luxury. And it is here where the Church and Warner Brothers joined hands in prayer (11th stupid religious slogan)—for Remote Luxury is also the title of the Church’s brand new American album!

“If we’d have known that we were gonna get signed by Warner Brothers,’’ explains guitarist Marty W-P, “Remote Luxury probably would’ve been a proper album. The only reason that was put out as as an album here was because they heard the first five tracks, liked them, and said, 'Well, go back into the studio and do another five tracks like them and, we’ll put them together.’ And that’s exactly what we did.”

If you were Australian, you would realize that the five new tracks on the American version of Remote Luxury are also available on a new Australian EP called Persia. But there’s every chance in the world that you, dear reader, are not Australian.

"It was good for us," summarizes guitarist Marty, "because we could release another EP in Australia. So there is a certain lack of continuity on the album, which I have heard, more than I would like. People say that they think it’s not as good as our second and third albums. I think one of the major reasons for that is that it isn’t an album. ”

TURN TO PAGE 62

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

THE CHURCH = RELEASING ALBUMS WHICH ARE NOT ALBUMS.

Suddenly the question arises: just what, pray tell, does this Church band sound like, anyway? And how come you didn’t tell us earlier?

For kicks! And also because—structurally speaking—as a writer, I found it more convenient to do so here!

The Church sound like lots of people. Honest. The thing is, though, they sound like precisely the right people, and in 1985 they are sounding that way precisely at the right time, and, best of all, they are the only band that sounds that way.

It’s difficult to pinpoint and harder to describe, but a few names that’ve come to mind while listening to the Church since their very first album back in ’82: the Byrds, Pink Floyd, Starry-Eyed And Laughing, Cockney Rebel, Tomorrow and a few other people you may or may not know. You’ll hear your own batch of bands when you hear them— maybe—and that’s one of the reasons you’ll like them so much.

THE CHURCH = EVOCATIVE OF AN AGE LONG PAST—YET CONTEMPORARY AS HECK! HONEST!

☆ ☆ ☆

EVERYBODY’S A ROCK CRITIC, PT. 8

When people say that you sound like those bands I mentioned earlier, does that bother you?

STEVE: Well, when you describe someone to someone else, you have to use a sort of reference point—you can’t...

MARTY: It’s always been difficult for people, though, with us. Because we’re not like Steve Harley, we’re not like R.E.M., and we’re not like the Byrds.

STEVE: The R.E.M. one is a bit disappointing—it’s a bit disappointing when people say, “You’re like R.E.M.” Because I think we were going for about two years before I’d heard of them.

Oh yeah, absolutely.

STEVE: And now people are gonna probably think, “Oh yeah, they’re just copying R.E.M.” Or Big Country or somebody.

I really hate to dwell on old stuff, because I do think your stuff is very contemporary—but it reminds me a lot of older things. Are there any unsung classics you especially like?

MARTY: Oh, Big Star is the one.

STEVE: Do you want to hear my list of classics?

Yeah, please.

MARTY: Raspberries.

STEVE: No. They’re not classics, not the Raspberries.

MARTY: I think there’s fantastic guitar in the Raspberries stuff.

STEVE: Big Star’s three albums are all classics. A song called “I Am The Cosmos” by Chris Bell. “My Flamingo” by Nick Kent & The Subterraneans. It’s a good song, a real good song. “Porpoise Song.”

By the Monkees?

STEVE: Yeah.

We were just talking about that last week in the office.

STEVE: That’s a fantastic song.

What else?

STEVE: Diamond Dogs. Which Lester Bangs gave a really bad review in CREEM— I couldn’t believe it, I thought wow, Diamond Dogs, Lester Bangs is gonna like this album, you get home and CREEM says “Bowie Swandives Into The Mung.” (laughs) I couldn’t believe he got a bad review.

MARTY: Marquee Moon.

STEVE: Marquee Moon, yeah. Marqueee Moon definitely.

MARTY: Patti Smith.

STEVE: Oh, Patti Smith definitely, everything—especially the first one.

MARTY: John Cale.

Oh yeah, especially his early stuff.

STEVE: Paris 1919. And Parachute by the Pretty Things.

Those are some of my own favorite records— which explains a lot, I guess.

MARTY: Well, of course—it’s pretty obvious. You can tell what we’re into if you look—I mean, we’re not like any of these bands, but it’s just...Meddle, Pink Floyd, you know.

STEVE: Yeah, Obscured By Clouds, too.

I was wondering if those Pink Floyd compassions might’ve bothered you.

STEVE:: Well, it depends what Pink Floyd you’re talking about—because there’s sort of three periods of Pink Floyd. The first two, yeah, but the last one, nah.

MARTY: There’s a few Amon Duul records—do you know Amon Duul?

Amon Duul II?

MARTY: Yeah. I’m really into them, and Can—German groups, we all just absolutely adore. We all—well, Peter and I are really into Can. [fo Steve] You’re into Can too, aren’t you?

STEVE: I’ve had Can albums for about 12 years.

MARTY: Well, the whole band’s into Can. ☆ ☆ ☆

Well, there you’ve got the coolest band of the ’80s talking about Can and Amon Duul II. Surely nothing more need be said.

Except:

THE CHURCH =

IMPECCABLE TASTE

...and have you seen the way they look?

THE CHURCH = BEST LOOKING BAND OF THE ’80s!

Hey, the bottom line here is that the Church have everything in the world going for them. And until now, not many people in America knew it. Buy Remote Luxury, pester Warner Brothers to release Seance and Blurred Crusade, tell everyone you know that the Church are the heppest band in town, and make this country strong and proud once more.

Do it for the Pope!