Se press Release hd steve Kilbey (The Church) New Zealand tour July 07
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The guitar-army sound of the Blue Aeroplanes, which opened, was sprightlier than the headliner's, but the finest moment was also owed to the CBGB's club scene: a cover of Tom Verlaine's "Breaking In My Heart." IPD
REVIEW Subjects: Music The Church AN Document wp00000020011116dm6b00mfj SE Features Music HD Aussie talent a disappointment on stage The Church fails to deliver BY ALAN NIESTER CR Special to The Globe and Mail WC 502 words PD 18 July 1986 SN The Globe and Mail SC GLOB PG D8; (ILLUS) LA English CY All material copyright Thomson Canada Limited or its licensors. All rights reserved. LP Special To The Globe and Mail AUSTRALIA'S young rock quartet The Church may be the single most underrated recording outfit around these days. Since it began recording in 1981, it has released just three albums and a handful of singles, but its most recent album, last year's Heyday, can justifiably be called a minor gem. TD
Heyday and, to a lesser degree, its predecessors Remote Luxury (1984) and The Church (1982) are chock full of audio nuggets. The band's influences are all classic. The Byrds' ringing 12-string-guitar sound cuts through the instrumental side. The Beatles and, perhaps (although to a lesser degree), early David Bowie traces can be found in the structure of the melodies. The vocal harmonies, again, suggest The Byrds, but with a darker element reminiscent of Psychedelic Furs' Richard Butler. All these elements mesh to form an appealing, intelligent and unique whole. So if the bands' recorded outpourings show so much promise, why did its performance at The Diamond late Wednesday night fall so incredibly flat? There were a few extenuating circumstances that indicate it may have been an off night. The sound system seemed out of balance, leaving Steve Kilbey's vocals to drown in a rising tide of guitar backwash. There had apparently been some trouble at the border earlier in the day, which may have left a bitter taste. But it's likely the problems go deeper than that and suggest that, without some sort of major re-evaluation, The Church is destined to be a band that never fulfils its promise. For one thing, Wednesday night's performance indicated a rather restricted song-writing formula. The Church did more than recreate its albums on stage; it attempted to add a harder edge. Unfortunately, giving a Ramones treatment to stylish numbers such as Myrrh and Tristesse stripped them of the subtleties that made them interesting in the first place. The Church performed with almost a punk- style aggressiveness, which in most cases added nothing. But more damaging still was the band's failure to connect with its audience. The only nod to the crowd was the occasional song-title introduction muttered in a monotone. And not one member of the band seemed willing or able to grab the spotlight, to give the audience something to hang onto while the set unravelled. In his own way, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper is as unique a guitarist as U2's The Edge, but he certainly lacks the latter's flair. This all made for a performance that quickly became tiresome. One thing the show did prove is that producer/engineer Peter Walsh deserves a lot of credit for The Church's classy sound. But unless he can bring some of that production gloss to the stage, The Church will soon be back chasing Midnight Oil and Men At Work on the Aussie rock circuit. AN
Document glob000020011119di7i012ai SE Arts and Leisure Desk; 2 HD Hard-Rock Commonplaces With a New Spin BY By JON PARELES WC 1127 words PD 10 April 1988 SN The New York Times SC NYTF
ED Late City Final Edition LA English CY Copyright 1988 The New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved. LP
WHEN LATE-1980'S ROCK seems to be humorlessly high-minded, slickly synthetic, tiresomely pandering or so implacably conceptual it's just no fun, there's an alternative: Australia. Heard from across the Pacific, against the background of American and British rock, Australian rock can sound like a wallaby of a different color; rowdy, guitar-driven, solid on the backbeat and tuneful, too. WHEN LATE-1980'S ROCK seems to be humorlessly high-minded, slickly synthetic, tiresomely pandering or so implacably conceptual it's just no fun, there's an alternative: Australia. Heard from across the Pacific, against the background of American and British rock, Australian rock can sound like a wallaby of a different color; rowdy, guitar-driven, solid on the backbeat and tuneful, too. TD
While Australia has its share of internationalized Top 40 contenders (notably INXS, now in the Top 10 with the album ''Kick,'' a virtual anthology of borrowed funk and rock licks) and can also be held accountable for a virulent strain of easy-listening pop (the likes of Olivia Newton-John and Air Supply), a goodly number of Australian rock bands still put together songs that crunch and stomp while they speak to 1980's listeners. One factor may be the example of a longtime Australian success story: AC/DC. Since the mid-1970's Angus Young's guitar has supplied blunt, distorted hard-rock riffs behind singers who sound like tires squealing on broken beer bottles, as they sing about sex, drink, rock and roll and other excesses -nothing abstruse or elaborate or uppity. ''Ain't met no one who told me I got class,'' Brian Johnson sings in ''Meanstreak'' on the new AC/DC album, ''Blow Up Your Video'' (Atlantic 81828 LP, cassette and CD). The lyrics on ''Blow Up Your Video'' talk about living on ''the danger line'' while steering clear of self-destruction; ''This Means War'' describes a battle zone and insists, ''Ain't no place for kids!'' The music doesn't bother to break new ground; arrested development is what AC/DC is all about. But the guitars sound rude and unstoppable, and AC/ DC does coin at least one new metaphor for the same old thing with ''Heatseeker.'' AC/DC's unvarnished thud and screech reverberate across Australian rock, a stomping foundation on which other bands add their own varieties of finesse. In the Divinyls, a major Australian band still hoping for an American foothold, wailing guitars and a pounding backbeat support Christina Amphlett, who has one of the most distinctive voices in rock. Ms. Amphlett mixes Edith Piaf's throatiness, AC/DC's raspiness with Buddy Holly's quirks; she's likely to bend a sob with a hiccup or something like a yodel. The new Divinyls album, ''Temperamental'' (Chrysalis LP, BFZ 41627, cassette BZT 41627 and CD ZK 41404) is a set of songs about battling lovers: ''Better watch your step in the dance of love,'' one chorus advises. The ideas are hard-rock commonplaces, but they're usually delivered with a new spin. In some songs, anger lends heat to passion, as in ''Fighting'' and the sardonic ''Dirty Love''; elsewhere, a straying lover goes too far and gets bounced out, as in an inspired remake of the Syndicate of Sound's ''Little Girl,'' retitled ''Hea Little Boy'' Ms. Amphlett can sound tough and breathy and good-humored all at once, and she's got rock-ribbed melodies to play with. ''Temperamental'' is what mainstream rock might sound like if the scourge of the 1980's, the ''power ballad'' (a la Van Halen, Cinderella, Bon Jovi et al.), had never come along. The Church, formed in Sydney in 1980, is a guitar band that prefers subtlety to brute force, and it has slowly built an American cult following via college radio and assiduous record importers; only half of its albums have been released here. In most Church songs, Steve Kilbey sings ambiguous, imagistic lyrics in a gruff voice as the band's two guitarists, Peter Koppes and Marty Willson-Piper, entwine riffs behind him. Although the band is steeped in 1960's folk-rock and psychedelia, it sounds far less antique than most psychedelic-revival bands. The Church's current album, ''Starfish'' (Arista 6521 LP, cassette and CD), revolves around images of loss, absence and uncertainty - between lovers and between the singer and the universe. ''Starfish'' was co-produced by the band and two Los Angeles folk-pop mainstays, Greg Ladanyi and Waddy Wachtel, and it often sacrifices impact for clarity; compared to the sound of the Church on stage, the album is a letdown. Given a few chances, however, the songs and their circular guitar riffs insinuate themselves enough to keep a listener coming back. Even high-mindedness sounds different in Australian rock. Midnight Oil's bald, 6 foot 6 lead singer, Peter Garrett, has a voice to rival his appearance - a dry, quavery, cutting anti-croon - and an explicit political agenda that led him to run for the Australian Senate. ''Diesel and Dust'' (Columbia 40967 LP, cassette and CD), timed for Australia's bicentenary celebrations, insists in song after song that the land belongs to the people who lived there before it was colonized: ''This is not our land,'' declares Mr. Garrett, who is white, in ''Wara Kurna.'' ''This land must change or land must burn.'' ''Diesel and Dust'' rounds off some of the rough edges of Midnight Oil's earlier albums; where the band used to clank and crunch like an Australian heir to Britain's Gang of Four, it now leans a little closer to folk-rock. But in songs such as ''Bullroarer'' and ''Sometimes,'' there's enough discordant vigor to mark the album as made in Australia. Even INXS has its moments; ''Kick,'' despite its formulaic music, is almost singlemindedly dedicated to hedonism. And INXS's lead singer, Michael Hutchence, lent his efforts to the 1987 movie ''Dogs in Space,'' a tribute to Melbourne's late-1970's punk scene. The soundtrack album (Atlantic 81789 LP and cassette) is rightfully raucous, juxtaposing influences (Iggy Pop, Gang of Four) and late-1970's songs. Still, it's conceivable that the success of INXS will defang Australian rock; American record companies have already turned up such forgettable bands as Noiseworks and Boom Crash Opera. But with the garage-rock of the Hoodoo Gurus, the hard-rock of Died Pretty, the noisy pop of the Saints and the punk-rock of the Celibate Rifles - as well as bands that have yet to be heard outside Sydney and Melbourne, Australian rock will be making a racket for a while.while. Photo of Christina Amphlett (Star File/Chuck Pulin) NS
gent : Arts/Entertainment | gmusic : Music | nrvw : Review | gcat : Political/General News | ncat : Content Types RE austr : Australia | ausnz : Australia and New Zealand IPD MUSIC ROCK MUSIC PARELES, JON PUB New York Times Digital (Full Text) AN Document NYTF000020050427dk4a01djf SE LIFE
HD Down Under rockers make a big noise in the USA BY Edna Gundersen WC 869 words PD 23 August 1988 SN USA Today SC USAT
ED FINAL PG 04D
LA English CY (c) 1988 USA Today. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved. LP You can't pick Australian rock out of the crowd these days. It is the crowd. And as the sonic thunder from Down Under rumbles across the continents, no umbrella is broad enough to define it. The current diversity of Australian music is astounding, given that its early rock contributions consisted of squishy mellow fare from the Bee Gees and Olivia Newton-John or peculiar culture shocks (Men at Work singing about Vegemite sandwiches in 1982). TD
These days, Aussie bands - almost indistinguishable from their well-established counterparts in England and the USA - prove as wide-ranging as the Aerosmith-to-Zappa conglomerate here. A host of Australian acts are homesteading on Billboard's pop chart this year: - INXS tops the list with its hook-happy, chart-clinging Kick LP (Atlantic), flush with USA-borrowed funk guitars and galloping rhythms. A year after its release, Kick is No. 16 this week, with more than 2 million copies sold. - Decade-old Midnight Oil, distinguished by the riveting growl of bald and lanky Peter Garrett, had its first USA hit with Beds Are Burning, an anti-colonial, pro-aborigine call to arms from its Diesel and Dust album (Columbia). - Fans and critics are warming up to Icehouse and its lustrous Man of Colours (Chrysalis), which entered Australian charts at No. 1 and became the second-biggest seller in Australian history. - The refurbished psychedelia on Starfish (Arista) is drawing a new flock to the Church. Three members, Marty Willson-Piper, Steve Kilbey and Peter Koppes, took sabbaticals for solo projects. Guitarist Willson-Piper's new Art Attack (Ryko), eerie, folk-flavored songs strongly inspired by Pink Floyd, includes the radio-friendly She's King. - AC/DC, the world's best punk-metal band with its exuberant arrested adolescence and Angus Young's bludgeoning guitar, renewed its passport to the big time with Blow Up Your Video (Atlantic). - Aussie obscurities like Big Pig (one keyboard, one harmonica, five percussionists) and Celibate Rifles are creeping into college radio playlists. What's ahead? Singer Peter Blakeley, whose Capitol debut is due in early 1989, is causing an industry buzz, as are blues-based Johnny Diesel and the Injectors, the target of a recent bidding war among five labels. Johnny Diesel exemplifies the Australian allure. Long before the band entered a studio, its live performances were legendary. In Europe, TV appearances and media attention are vital to a rock act's success. In the USA, radio is the critical hurdle. But in Australia, one of the world's most lucrative concert markets, live shows are the lifeblood of a rock career. On any night in Sydney, a city of about 3 million, an average of 200 bands hit the stage, about 25 drawing crowds of more than 1,000. ``Any band that gets signed is already making a profit playing live,'' says John Woodruff, director of Australia's 12-year-old Dirty Pool Management, whose artists (including Icehouse) collectively delivered 57 million-selling LPs. Australian record sales are hardly phenomenal (a release selling 150,000 copies is considered successful), so bands earn their keep on the road. ``You end up with new bands that can play well live, which gives them an edge over most English and American groups,'' Woodruff says. Still, inexplicable failures crop up. Angel City, after nine multimillion-selling albums and 1,500 concerts in Australia, hasn't captured an audience here. Several factors keep other Aussie rockers at bay: the tyranny of distance, the financial gamble of promoting and touring and a clinging stereotype that Australian acts, like koalas and kangaroos, are novelties. The recognition factor also hinders Australian access to radio and record shelves here. When Man of Colours was released here last September, Icehouse was one of few unbroken acts to rise in the charts, struggling alongside dinosaurs like Mick Jagger, Michael Jackson and George Harrison. With such immense rewards in their own back yard, why do bands like Icehouse and Angel City buck the odds for acceptance in the USA? To swim beyond the little pond. Australia accounts for only 5 percent of the world's record market; the USA grabs 50 percent. ``Economically and egowise, it becomes a necessity to make it in America,'' Woodruff says. ``When you make it there, you've really made it.'' CUTLINE:ICEHOUSE: From left, Bob Kretschmer, Paul Wheeler, Simon Lloyd, Iva Davies, Stephen Morgan and Andy Qunta. The group is one of the few little-known acts to rise on USA charts last year with the LP `Man of Colours,' the second-biggest seller in Aussie history. CUTLINE:INXS: Clockwise from top, Garry Gary Beers, Kirk Pengilly, Michael Hutchence, brothers Jon, Andrew and Tim Farriss. The band has staying power with the 2-million-selling `Kick' LP. CUTLINE:PETER GARRETT: Midnight Oil singer has a riveting growl. RF
Ribbon Label:THE AUSTRALIAN INVASION:2 ART PHOTO;b/w(FP,Musical Groups,Icehouse,Bob Kretschmer,Paul Wheeler,Simon Lloyd,Iva Davies,Stephen Morgan,Andy Qunta,O);PHOTO;b/w(FP,Musical Groups,Inxs,Garry Gary Beers,Kirk Pengilly,Michael Hutchence,Jon,Andrew and; Tim Farriss,O);PHOTO;b/w(FP,Peter Garrett,O) IPD ROCK MUSIC CELEBRITY FOREIGN COUNTRY TREND PROFILE PUB AN Document usat000020011118dk8n017pr SE CALENDAR HD THE CHURCH GOLD AFTERNOON FIX ARISTA BY Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff WC 181 words PD 22 February 1990 SN The Boston Globe SC BSTNGB ED THIRD PG 6
LA English CY (c) 1990 New York Times Company. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All Rights Reserved. LP Success sure can bring on a bout of despair. At least, musically. Listen to the last Cure album, or this new one, "Gold Afternoon Fix" by Australia's The Church. Then again, both groups have often paddled in that pool. The Church's breakthrough, "Starfish," was, like the Cure's breakthrough, a more upbeat affair, melodically anyway. This one is more muted and minor key, introspective as always. Side two's titles alone include "Transient," "Disappointment," "Fade Away" and "Grind." You think "Laughing" is the up song?. No, folks, "they" in the song are "laughing at you." Side one is slightly more shimmering, as the overall feel is one of haunting beauty. Disillusionment hovers in the gentle washes of sound. An acoustic guitar underpins much of it; electric guitar arpeggios as in the gorgeous "Metropolis" lend the hook; vocalist Steve Kilbey weaves the sad songs.This is a gentle, agitated, ingratiating record. It's moody charm grows with repetition. JFSULL;02/15 LDRISC;02/23,20:10 CHURCH RF
RECORD REVIEW IPD RECORD REVIEW PUB Boston Globe Newspaper AN Document bstngb0020011115dm2m005vr CLM RECORDS, ETC. SE LIFESTYLE / ENTERTAINMENT HD THE BANDS FROM DOWN UNDER FIND THEIR MUSICAL STARS RISING BY By Barbara Jaeger, Record Music Critic WC 1229 words PD 17 March 1988 SN The Record SC REC ED All Editions.=.Bergen South. Bergen North. Bergen.; Passaic-Morris. Passaic-Essex PG e10 LA English CY (c) 1988 North Jersey Media Group Inc. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights reserved. LP
The Aussies are coming. The Aussies are coming. While the flow of Australian rock-and-roll bands to American shores hasn't quite reached the proportion of the British musical invasion of the Sixties, the number of Australian bands showing up on record charts and in record-store bins is increasing daily. TD
INXS, which has three sold-out shows at Radio City Music Hall this weekend, and Icehouse are the best-known of the recent crop of Australian bands, but there are a number of groups from Down Under clamoring for an American audience. Here are several of them and their latest albums. Midnight Oil, "Diesel and Dust" (Columbia) @@ 1/2 Midnight Oil is probably the only band to feature a former candidate for the Australian Senate as part of its lineup, but that's not the only thing that is different about it. The quintet has used its music to address injustice, to speak out against nuclear weapons, and to draw attention to environmental problems in its homeland. And the five members have backed up their lyrics with numerous benefit concerts throughout Australia. "Diesel and Dust," the group's strongest album to date, continues Midnight Oil's tradition of politicized rock. But while some of the themes _ especially those concerning the aborigines _ might, at first listen, seem uniquely Australian, the problems are universal. While the subject matter may be serious, the music is never dour. There's a vibrancy to such songs as "Beds Are Burning," "Sell My Soul," and "Put Down That Weapon." In "The Dead Heart," the mix of drums and acoustic guitar combines for a hypnotic effect, while cascading rhythms lend a light, airy touch to "Dreamworld." In Peter Garrett, the former Senate candidate, Midnight Oil has a competent lead vocalist. He can be powerful when a song such as "Beds Are Burning" demands it, but Garrett can just as quickly drop his voice to a commanding whisper ("Put Down That Weapon"). Big Pig, "Bonk" (A &M) @@ 1/2 The group's name is a bit strange, but then so is the band. With neither a guitarist or bassist among its seven members, Big Pig relies on three drummers, two percussionists, a keyboard player, and a harmonica player to create its music. Add to the unique musical mix the sultry voice of Sherine, who shares lead vocals with Nick Disbray, and the total effect is mesmerizing. Sherine sounds very much like Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics, particularly when she transforms her soft, silky voice into a sensuous growl. But Sherine's own style is in evidence on such songs as "Tin Drum," where she adds a bluesy touch, and "Money God," where her soulful vocals float though the finger-snapping beat. Big Pig deftly mixes blues, jazz, and pop for its repertoire _ and sometimes the different musical styles can be found in one song. Standout cuts on the 11-song collection are "Big Hotel" and "Devil's Song." Both would be at home in an old-time Broadway musical. "Big Hotel," with its jazzy big-band sound, would be the play's show-stopping production number, while "Devil's Song" would be the vamp's theme song, the one Sherine would sing while sashaying her way across the stage. Noiseworks, "Noiseworks" (Columbia) @@ The cover photograph of Noiseworks' self-titled debut album is not the only thing reminiscent of INXS. The 10 tracks _ including two top 10 singles in Australia _ show traces of INXS' musical and vocal style (particularly on that group's pop-influenced "Listen Like Thieves" album). A pervasive drum beat drives most of the songs, particularly "River of Tears," "Edge of Darkness," and "Little Bit More." Guitars skitter through "Love Somebody"; horns embellish "Only Loving You" with a funky R&B feeling, while keyboards add sparkle to "Welcome to the World." Lead vocalist Jon Stevens seems to have patterned his style after that of INXS' Michael Hutchence, but Stevens lacks the smoldering, sensual touch that Hutchence employs so effectively. Noiseworks, which came together in 1985, shows some original promise, though. In "River of Tears," a sweet-voiced _ and uncredited _ female vocalist is used wisely to offset Stevens' deep, soulful singing. If it added more touches like this _ and abandoned the repetitive lyrics that mar several of the songs _ Noiseworks might make a little more noise. The Church, "Starfish" (Arista) @@ 1/2 The Church _ in one form or another _ has been around since 1980, but the group's debut Arista album should attract a new flock of fans. Many of the songs exhibit the same shimmering sound that made the pop-rock tunes of the Sixties so special. But the quartet is not so solidly rooted in the past that the songs sound like retreads. The instrumental emphasis throughout the 10-song collection is on guitars, both acoustic and electric. But the band also uses the sounds of mandolins ("Antenna"), bagpipes ("Under the Milky Way"), and tambourines ("Reptile") to brighten the music. Steve Kilbey is an expressive lead vocalist who stamps each song with its own character. Whispery vocals over the sparsest of instrumentation lend a somber air to "Destination," while a soft vocal style gives a folk flavor to "A New Season" and "Hotel Womb." Quick Spins: "An Evening With Frank Zappa" will be the first concert staged at the Rothman Center on the Teaneck campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. Zappa, on his first tour in more than three years, will cover material spanning his 23-year career. The show is 7:30 p.m. Sunday. 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