I've always loved the hauntingly sublime Under the Milky Way and finally decided to scoop up the CD Starfish. I've only given it a couple of listens but I'm really enjoying it - reminds me a bit of Echo and the Bunnymen-Lite.
Fans? Detractors? Where to go after Starfish?
I don't have all of their albums, but I got into them a few years ago and really enjoy Heyday and Starfish. There's at least a couple of other albums of theirs that I have on my list to try.
Last edited by Facelift; 03-12-2013 at 08:56 AM.
One of the best bands from that era. I'd definitely suggest getting all of the band's 80's era recordings. I'm not sure if they're still available, but about 10 years ago, EMI Australia issued double CD remastered editions of their four of their pre-Starfish albums, as well as a disc that gathered together all three of their EP's. Each of the albums came with a bonus disc that included the B-sides for the respective singles for that album, as well the videos for said singles. A quick breakdown here:
Of Skins And Hearts: classic first album, though I recall reading that Steve Kilbey wasn't entirely happy with the results. Includes their first Australian hit, The Unguarded Moment, the 7 minute Is This Where You Live, and several other great songs. The EMI Australia edition includes not on the single B-sides, but also all the songs from the Too Fast For You double 7" single. Production is kinda on the rough side, a bit post-punk, I guess you could say.
The Blurred Crusade: second album, more great songs, somewhat better production. Back in the late 90's, Guitar Player listed this as one of the 10 or 20 (or whatever it was) best New Wave albums. A bunch more great tracks, including the 8 minute You Took, which the band still plays regularly.
Sing Songs: Five song EP that was released after The Blurred Crusade. Good cover of Simon And Garfunkel's I Am A Rock, but more importantly, this includes the absolutely brilliant A Different Man, which I think ranks as one of the band's best songs. Unfortunately, Sing Songs was never issued outside Australia, apart from the A Different Man video appearing on Arista's old Goldfish (Jokes Magic And Souvenirs) VHS video compilation, and until the CD release 10 years ago, none of these songs had ever been issued on CD.
Seance: Once again a great album. You might be put off somewhat by the drum sound. The snare drum in particular sounds like a rifle being fired in places. But the material is still top notch. Some Day, Electric Lash, and It's No Reason are all great songs. Also includes the very psychedelic Travel By Thought.
Remote Luxury: Second EP, more really cool songs. The thing I remember most about this one is the title piece, which is a nice atmospheric instrumental. I think I read somewhere that These Boys frequently tops "Worst Church songs" fan polls, and I have to admit, it's not that good of a tune.
Persia: third EP, and this one features Constant In Opal, another trippy song, with a video that surely had been to one of the "bad ones" Marty Willson-Piper was talking about when he and Steve Kilbey sarcastically commented on the quality of their videos on the Goldfish compilation. In the US, Persia and Remote Luxury were combined together to form the band's fourth US album (and you can probably still find the old Arista CD that presents them in that form, that I really think you'd be better off getting the EMI Australia disc, as it also includes Sing Songs).
Hey Day: Fourth album, another great disc. They experiment with string and brass arrangements on some of the songs. Favorites here include Myrrh, Already Yesterday, Happy Hunting Ground, Tantalized, and Youth Worshiper.
You've got the fifth album, Starfish, so that was followed by album six, which was:
Gold Afternoon Fix: a pretty good record despite the turmoil that occurred during the sessions. Though he's credited with playing on the album (and is pictured on the album cover), Richard Ploog's job got poached by a drum machine. Apparently, he had a drug habit and was out of it for most of the sessions. Add to the pressure put on them by Arista to produce "another Under The Milky Way" and you can it wasn't a happy time for these guys. But there's still some good songs here, like You're Still Beautiful, Terra Nova Cain, Russian Autumn Heart, and Laughing. It's also the only album the band has made with no electric 12 string, because Marty Willson-Piper's Rickenbacker 330S/12 and Shergold 12 string guitars were both stolen on tour. Marty says if the guitars were ever to surface, due to the way the US law is written, whoever now owns them would be considered the rightful owner and would be under no obligation to relinquish them.
Priest=Aura: this will be the one that appeal most to "prog" fans or at least psychedelic fans. There's some truly wild trippy stuff on this record, with Marty getting absolutely primal with the guitar feedback on Chaos I think it is. Aura and Ripple are both really cool songs here.
After that, they kinda lost me for awhile. I didn't really like the next album, Sometime Anywhere, and I didn't pick up the one that came out after that. I do have Hologram Of Baal (I got the version with the bonus disc, which is an hour long band improv called Bastard Universe), but I don't rememeber liking that much either. I do like their covers album, Box Of Birds (their choice of cover tunes range include songs from The Monkees, Hawkwind, Television, Neil Young and Ultravox. At LAST, someone recognizes the brilliance that is The Porpoise Song!), and I also liked Uninvited Like The Clouds.
For what it's worth, the second time I saw them in concert, the pre-concert mix CD was comprised of progressive rock material, which I think including songs from Camel, King Crimson, and Genesis (I want to say Supper's Ready was on there, but that was a good 7 years ago). Marty Willson-Piper told me that the PM Gong albums, Gazeuse, Espresso II, and Downwind are amongst his favorite albums by anyone. And one of my encounters with him, he even spotted my Magma necklace!
And a few videos:
Love 'em. Saw them live once a few years ago. Like the early stuff the best. Starfish is a must for anyone's collection, some great guitar work and drumming.
Preist = Aura is my favourite but i have a soft spot for Starfish. One of the funnist speeches i've ever heard was Steve Kilby's after getting i believe a lifetime acheivement award at the Australian music awards.
"The wind is slowly tearing her apart"
Sad Rain
Anekdoten
Saw them open for VDGG, they were very good and had a few of their own fans there.
great band, Heyday should be next
Originally Posted by Father Tiresias
Those albums are among those that got me through some dark musical times! Great, great stuff. Huge fan.
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Was thinking of starting a thread on this great band, so thanks Father Tiresias for doing so.
After only knowing and liking two of their songs (Under the Milky Way and Reptile) for way too many years, I found Priest=Aura and Sometime Anywhere at a flea market (each for under a dollar!). Both albums clicked right away and now I love them both. So I decided to get Starfish a couple of weeks ago, very good album. Still needs a few more spins to set in.
Guitar Geek, thanks for the great info, looking forward to getting home and watching the videos, no YouTube access at work.
Just wanted to give GuitarGeek a shout-out for the excellent consumer's guide above. I've been meaning to add to my Church collection, going to print that out to use as a guide!
High Vibration Go On - R.I.P. Chris Squire
Love "Starfish" and "Aura = Priest" -- fantastic songwriting. Guitarist Marty Wilson-Piper used to have a music review site called Newspaper Taxi if I'm not mistaken; he was cool, he put up a couple-three Mike Keneally reviews I'd written, since lost to the sands of time. Will check out "Heyday"...
Indeed, thanks very much!
[QUOTE=N_Singh;66353]Easy. Heyday.
I agree. Heyday is my favorite, although I like Starfish quite a lot. I don't have everything by them, but am missing only a few things. Nothing that I don't like. Only got to see them twice. Great show both times.
In my view, the Church and Echo and the Bunnymen were my favorite, most inventive bands from the 80s and that entire post punk, post new wave scene. I just listened to *Bring on the Dancing Horses*. Wow. Now that's how you write a memorable pop song.
I just have Starfish which is that rarest of things; an album from 1988 that’s actually good! I think it’s mainly the solid songwriting we have to thank for that, but resisting the awful production trends of the day certainly didn’t hurt.
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MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")
"'Thin Thighs For Your Man.' But I don't *like* men with thin thighs" --Daria
N.P.:“Focus II”-Focus
Even rarer than that, it's an album where the label "interfered", yet they didn't totally ruin the record. Arista summoned the band to LA to work with their choice of producers, which ended up being Waddy Wachtel and Greg Ladanyi, who typically worked with the likes of Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstadt and Jackson Browne. One would think a jangly/psychedelic rock band from Australia and a couple LA pop music vets might not work together too well, but as you point they produced a pretty good album.
Saw both of these bands several times and I would agree they are two of the better bands of that period for me.
There's an REM thread over on the OT forum where yesterday I said something similar about REM's 80s albums. The funny thing was that, as I was writing, I was thinking about what else I had bought around then and The Blurred Crusade was the first thing that came to mind.
Echo and the Bunnymen - there's another band that got me through the 80s. First four albums are classics.
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