The Church is an Australian alternative rock band formed in 1980 in Sydney, consisting of Steve Kilbey on lead vocals and bass guitar, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper on guitars, and numerous drummer line-ups. Their music and lyrics are focused on surreal themes, along with Kilbey's relaxed, hypnotizing vocals. They were initially inspired by the Neo-Psychedelic and New Wave Music acts of the mid-1980's, but they turned to Progressive Rock and Dream Pop influence since Priest=Aura.
However, they are best known for the One-Hit Wonder "Under the Milky Way."
Membership (Founders in bold, current members in italics.
- Steve Kilbey: Lead vocals, bass, keyboards. (1980-present)
- Peter Koppes: Guitars, keyboards, vocals. (1980-1992, 1997-present)
- Marty Wilson-Piper: Guitars, vocals, occasional bass. (1980-2013)
- Ian Haug: Guitars, vocals. (2013-present)
- Nick Ward: Drums, percussion. (1980-81)
- Richard Ploog: Drums, percussion. (1981-90)
- Jay Lee Daugherty: Drums, percussion. (1990-1993)
- Tim Powles: Drums, percussion. (1993-present)
Discography:
- Studio Albums
- Of Skins and Heart (1981)
- The Blurred Crusade (1982)
- Seance (1983)
- Remote Luxury (1984)
- Heyday (1986)
- Starfish (1988)
- Gold Afternoon Fix (1990)
- Priest=Aura (1992)
- Sometime Anywhere (1994)
- Magician Among the Spirits (1996)
- Hologram of Baal (1998)
- A Box of Birds (1999)
- After Everything Now This (2002)
- Forget Yourself (2003)
- Jammed (2004)
- El Momento Descuidado (2005)
- Back with Two Beasts (2005)
- Uninvited, Like the Clouds (2006)
- El Momento Siguiente (2007) - Acoustic versions plus several original songs
- Shriek: Excerpts from the Soundtrack (2008)
- Untitled No. 23 (2009)
The Church provides examples of:
- Bowdlerize: "Hologram of Baal" was originally supposed to be called ''Hologram of Allah", but that was predictably withdrawn by the record company.
- Cover Album: It is a minor example though, since "Metropolis" was included on the their greatest hits album.
- Epic Rocking: Giving the band's prog-rock influence, this is not surprising, especially after Priest=Aura.
- Their longest track, "The Sexual Act" from the instrumental album Jammed, clocks in at just over 39 minutes.
- "Night Sequence" clocks in at 20 minutes.
- To a lesser extent, their Cover Version of Neil Young's "Cortez The Killer" is just over 11 minutes long.
- Long-Runner Line-up:
- The lineup of Steve Kilbey, Marty Wilson-Piper, Peter Koppes and Tim Powles is a type 2, lasting from 1997 when Koppes rejoined the band, to 2013 when Wilson-Piper left, totaling 16 years.
- The lineup of Kilbey, Koppes, Wilson-Piper and Richard Ploog barely missed being one with a 9 year linup (81-90)
- Reptiles Are Abhorrent: "Reptile", natch, but Zig-Zagged in that there are strong undertones of You Sexy Beast in its metaphors; while she may have been poisoning their life, there's part of him that misses the Femme Fatale.
- Word Salad Lyrics: Being fellow psych-rockers, this is also not surprising.