at The Triple Door

{The Church is playing a 2nd show tonight, Tues 2/8 @The Triple Door in case you missed last night's show}

I have to admit, I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into when I told my friend that I’d happily take his extra ticket to see The Church at The Triple Door. It was only after I looked at the web site and realized they were playing not one, not two, but THREE albums in their entirety that I thought, “ohcrap. I’m going to be stuck in one place for HOW many hours?”

But the last album was 1988’s Starfish—you know, the one with the song everybody either loves or hates, “Under the Milky Way”— and an album I played so much that my car’s shitty tape deck broke it, which caused me to buy the CD that I still own (the cover cracked and scratched after spending lots of time at the bottom of a messenger bag). And I COULD NOT pass that up.

Billed as The Church: future | past | perfect – Winter Tour USA 2011, the program that accompanied our show was impressively put together and full of more information than I knew about the band’s current projects, history, wardrobe and drinks of choice (I’m kidding about that last part). Original members Steve Kilbey, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper were joined by drummer Tim Powles...

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After the lackadaisical and disappointing Uninvited, Like the Clouds (2006), it was uncertain as to the future of Australian psychedelic group, The Church. The band has reemerged with not only a new album, but with two E.Ps as well, all of which are on their own recently founded record label, Unorthodox Records. The great news is that Untitled #23 is a refreshing return to form after a bit of a slump in their career with the previous studio effort. The new disc reveals that the band still has the ability to craft exceptional music even despite the occasional misstep.

One of the most striking and auspicious aspects of this release is that Steve Kilbey handles all of the lead vocals. With most of The Church’s recent releases, the band’s two guitarists were each granted lead vocal duties on a track and the songs, in addition to their voices, always paled next to Kilbey’s. This alone makes Untitled #23 much more consistent. Aside from that, it contains ten slow to mid-tempo songs that blend together well. In this respect, the record has a similar feel to their 2001 album, After Everything, Now This.

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New York City remix wizard, Pocket, who has previously done mixes for Radiohead and Beck, will be releasing the first of a cluster of singles on Tuesday. The track,"Surround Him With Love," features vocals by Robyn Hitchcock and is a pumping slab of electronics, dance beats and fiery guitars.

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