Music Spectrum

In the days before restrictions on using electronic devices during takeoff, I would cue up the Church’s Starfish as we taxied to the runway. Fast-forwarding through the leader tape, my Walkman would be ready to play the first notes of “Destination” as soon as the pilot started to rev the engines. Because if I timed it right, and depending on the size of the aircraft (747’s were perfect), the opening sequence of “Destination” lasts the length of the takeoff run, with the drum kick into the verse hitting just as the wheels leave the ground. Then the rest of the first side of the album continued to be great company and travel music (i.e.: “North, South, East, and West”).

The Federal Aviation Administration has done away with my ability to enjoy the Church on takeoff, but the Church has in no way been shut down. Celebrating their 30th anniversary, the Future Perfect Past tour brings Steve Kilbey, Marty Willson-Piper, Peter Koppes, along with drummer Tim Powels, to deliver three albums in their entirety—Untitled #23 (2009), Priest=Aura (1992), and Starfish (1988). Future Perfect Past, indeed.

Catching the show at Park West in Chicago on February 11, I was amazed at the ferocity of the show—how this band wasn’t just playing their albums note for note but rather showcasing the music as intense, wide-ranging, orchestrated opuses.

Untitled #23
While I wasn’t impressed with this vision of the Future, the band’s portrayal of Untitled #23 did have its moments of clarity and brightness. The driving rhythm and chiming guitars showed up on the second song, “Deadman’s Hand.” Invoking the name of the land mass before the continents split apart, “Pangaea” is musically a bit of blob of sound until the bridge kicks things apart with Willson-Piper’s acoustic picking. “Space Saviour” has a rockabilly core underneath the Britrock/space rock, a bombastic song built on Powell’s shoulders. “On Angel Street” features Kilbey taking a theatrical turn without guitar in hand as he sings, kind of like Bryan Ferry leading the band. The track itself brings out a Roger Waters sound including Koppes’ guitar solo, and the song grows to its very rich instrumental ending.

While it meanders somewhat, “Sunken Sun” has a spring-like, uplifting sound amid the heaviness. “Anchorage” jams out through the psychedelic rock with Kilbey in guitarless preacher mode.

For its moments of quality and spark, Untitled #23 felt a bit like the opening band. We were waiting for the Perfect and the Past.

Priest=Aura
Having the moniker of Perfect because both band and fans alike consider it to be the magnum opus, Priest=Aura as an album comes across as quite dark. Playing it live, the Church brought out a lightness in the music that tends to get lost in the recording. It made it all the stronger candidate as the Perfect album by the Church.

Where Untitled #23 meanders, Priest=Aura kicks off right away with direction on “Aura” which saw Willson-Piper really starting to get a workout on guitar. Both “Ripple” and “Lustre” have a real urgency, especially the latter’s drums coupled with Willson-Piper’s stifled, screaming guitar. After the waltzing “Swan Lake,” the band picks it back up with the chiming guitar, Britrock meets space rock of “Feel,” picking you up in that transcendent way of the Church, catching you looking upwards to sky? Stars? God?

Kilbey introduced “Mistress” as a song “set in some dark century on some dark continent,” but there was a groove to the song even in the darkness. That combination of darkness and brightness continued on “Kings,” where the sounds of Wire’s post-punk angularity meet the Church’s chiming guitar. “The Disillusionist” is where strangeness prevails, but the crowd knows all the words (from the era of the cassette where you didn’t skip over even the strangest songs). The song itself is a slideshow of odd images over blistering guitars and smashing drums.

Even though it’s the second to last song, the high point of Priest=Aura came in watching the band deliver “Chaos” in all its messiness where the rhythmic sections and the picked bass line are all that more incredible for the way they bring it back together.

Starfish
The most accessible album, the most widely recognized Church album in the USA, played here it felt as the band was mainly just having fun. The theme of this album became watching Willson-Piper play that guitar, although for “Under the Milky Way” it was Koppes who shined amid the disco ball’s turning. “North, South, East, and West” features Willson-Piper playing those arpeggios, which fueled my memories and fueled the enjoyment of the song, although Powell also did incredible work on the drum break.

When Willson-Piper took lead vocals on “Spark,” you can hear the precedent of his later solo work, Art Attack. Here it was jammed out again on a rocked out song. In fact, that’s what dominates my notes for the rest of the night—Willson-Piper’s guitar. “Watch Marty!” is what I wrote for “Reptile” and “Hotel Womb.”

I drove home with all of the sounds echoing in my mind, but especially the line from Starfish on “Lost”: “Follow her down to worship some god/Who never speaks to me, I wonder if that’s odd/Then he says you’re never listening.” To me, that’s always been the key line. The Church are definitely interested in the transcendent, spiritual, other-worldly things, but in the end, it comes down to whether we’re really listening for God, listening to what He has said. The Church and I may come to different conclusion spiritually speaking, but I appreciate the searching, the looking skyward, the recognition that they need to be listening.

The Church
Second Motion Records

While Jonquil may proclaim themselves as “Paul Simon’s take on the Smiths,” what I hear on the One Hundred Suns EP is an Afrobeat take on XTC. You can imagine the indie pop’s chiming guitars and incessantly interesting drums being inspired by Congrotronics after also listening to XTC’s sunny album, Oranges & Lemons. The vocals are falsetto harmonies akin to Bon Iver.

I don’t think I hear the Smiths in the sound, but is Paul Simon present, then, as they describe themselves? I suppose in that Graceland connection. For me, though, they might be better served on One Hundred Suns to describe themselves as an Afrobeat XTC played by Bon Iver.

Jonquil
Dovecote Records

Reissue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs

Because Hand in Glove – The Smiths Tribute is actually a reissue of a previous release by 24 Hour Service Station, cut down from two discs to one, you won’t be able to find many of the indie bands featured here doing their turn on classic Smiths tunes. Yet, if you missed the first release, this reissue is definitely worth its price for any Smiths fan who wants to revisit those songs in a fresh haunt, an askance glance at what has become so familiar.

However, one new song was added to the re-packaged set—“Hand in Glove” by the Vanilla Swingers. It’s a melancholic haze take on the song, drenched in acoustic guitars and featuring lead singing trade-offs by Miles Jackson and Anne Gilpin. It’s true to form even as they give it their own stamp. It’s a song sung from deep within being claimed by the song, Morrissey, Marr, Rourke, and Joyce.

Elsewhere, though, check out the now nostalgic tracks by artists who may or may not be working under the same names anymore. True Tone lays down resonator guitar for “Paint a Vulgar Picture” with vocals, backbeat, and horns that all seem inspired by the Texas-Mexico border. Vampire Slayers lay down a swing horn version of “What Difference Does It Make?” which on paper sounds terrible but in the end really works—a jazzy tilt to the uncommon brood of Morrissey. Home brings on the psychedelic acoustic guitars and vocals in the style of the Cure. “Frankly Mr. Shankely” bounces on a beat for Questionface—a faux-rap with 80’s pop keys.

Pulse takes on “Last Night I Dreamt Somebody Loved Me” and Loomer goes with “The Death of a Disco Dancer,” and both bands let the tracks play out in their grandiose stretch-out-and-wait style. Pulse ups the ante of “Last Night” by letting a saxophone vamp on the tune. Then there’s the Just Jack-like rap-singing of “Handsome Devil” by I Buried Paul with a drum machine beat and sampling.

Finally, I really like the beat laid down by Q-Burns Abstract Message for an instrumental, electronic version of “Reel Around the Fountain,” complete with sweeping keys and crunchy fills.

24 Hour Service Station (Label)
Vanilla Swingers
Home (band)
Questionface

If you’re in need of Muse-like Britrock anthems—but aren’t sure you want to keep up with the mega-sized band, call up the Black String Theory—an independent band on the verge of breaking open new territory in this realm. Their 2010 self-titled EP begins with the very much Muse sounding “Young and Free.” “From Where I Stand” chimes in with guitars seemingly inspired by the charming moments of the Smiths. The EP closes with the resonating piano of “Too Late,” echoing vocals like the empty room sound of U2’s “October.”

The Black String Theory

While the members of the short-lived Freebass hail from other places in the great world of rock ‘n’ roll, there’s an air of the Cure throughout the walking basslines of It’s a Beautiful Life. Formed by Mancunian Peter Hook (New Order & Joy Division), Gary “Mani” Mounfield (The Stone Roses & Primal Scream), and Andy Rourke (The Smiths), with Gary Briggs (Haven & the Strays) handling vocals, Freebass brought together three influential bass players and saw them have a go at making some catchy, Britrock tunes with hints of Europop keys (Phil Murphy) thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, the guys also apparently had a good at each other and have broken up even before It’s a Beautiful Life could be released.

However, what’s fortunate for the music world is that the album was written and recorded. It’s awash in atmosphere as the Cure created on early albums while also recalling some of Disintegration. Yet, tracks like “World Won’t Wait” groove with a dose of Madchester. That groove gets even more funkified and hip-shaking for “She Said,” featuring a lyrical mash up of the Clash and INXS: “When she comes knocking,/How ya gonna come/With your hands on your head or on the trigger of your gun?/When she comes knocking,/are you gonna run/into the arms of your suicide blonde?” The driving pulse of “The God Machine” accompanies an introspective, searching lyric (“I can’t see the light, see it anymore”).

Much more than Freebass’ earlier EP, Two Worlds Collide, the album hangs together cohesively, especially due to the choice to keep Briggs on vocals whereas on the earlier material it was lead vocals by committee of guest stars (Tim Burgess (Charlatans UK), Pete Wylie (The Mighty Wah!), Howard Marks (Mr Nice) and Hook). Still, It’s a Beautiful Life comes equipped with a bonus disc of extras from the EP and other remixes. The instrumental mixes especially showcase the work of Hook, Mani, and Rourke without the vocal distractions.

Freebass
24 Hour Service Station
FAC 51 The Hacienda

A brooding cello, bell-like keys, and plaintive vocal grace “Joy to the World” on Future of Forestry’s Advent Christmas EP Vol. 2, but that is all backed first by electronic noise and beats before yielding to full, pulsating drums. It’s a tremendous arrangement that also brings in Francis Assisi’s “All Creatures of Our God and King” for spot-on blend with Isaac Watts’ “Joy to the World.”

Sounding a bit like Jon Foreman, Future of Forestry’s Eric Owyoung brings out both melancholic of “Do You Hear What I Hear?” before the song is crashed up by big guitar riffs to raise it to an electric middle before Owyoung’s vocal fades out the song. “Angels We Have Heard On High” keeps the brooding air, a pulled-back version that keeps an urgency through the percussion accompaniment.

Future of Forestry
Credential Recordings

I have often associated certain kinds of music, and sometimes specific artists, with seasons. The Church has always been more about autumn than anything else. This was probably more due to the fact that I got turned onto the Church and their album, Starfish, during marching band season, but there’s a way in which the spacious guitars and spacey rhythms resonate with the change of seasons. Then they released Gold Afternoon Fix with the song “Russian Autumn Heart,” and the seasonal connection was complete.

So this fall has come to mean listening to [the] caseworker and their EP, Boats. The music has much in common with the Church—spacious guitars, spacey rhythms, and spaced-out vocals. You might call it psychedelic if it didn’t also come with some pop sensibility. It’s music for driving after dark, preferably on country highways. It’s music for headphone listening on long bus rides, picking up on the subtle fills and effects that make the music so rich. It’s music for sitting in the bay window watching the wind blow at a tremendous clip, rain and leave pelting the panes, and you’re wondering how you batten down the hatches of a house. It’s that kind of music, of which the title track may be the strongest with its chiming guitars, slide guitar effects, and well-placed percussion inflections.

[the] caseworker
Indiecater Records

Jody Porter (Fountain of Wayne) released a solo album this year, Close to the Sun, that’s very reminiscent of Robyn Hitchcock. It’s Porter’s voice and a Beatlesque approach to pop rock. However, unlike Hitchcock’s normal approach, Porter’s album is much more guitar-centric and a lot less obtuse lyrically. Still, as Porter growls “never you mind the weather” on “Waiting for the Stars,” you can hear Hitchcock’s breathy vocals all over the place.

Close to the Sun, though, comes with its various shades, an album richly produced and well laid out. “Aurora” surprisingly has this Old 97s/AltCountry backbeat within the Beatlesque Britrock milieu. Although maybe that shouldn’t be surprising considering that the album opens with a riff on “Twilite” that’s reminiscent of the swagger of the Katie Todd Band, a Country-influenced Rock outfit.

There’s also a throwback sound recalling the psychedelic-tinged swirl of School of Fish, a 90’s Guitar/Garage Rock, especially on the cosmic “To the Moon” and the urgent “Cars on the Motorway.” “You’re Not Alone” shows off Porter’s guitar pyrotechnics. Then on “Hide in the Light” comes a disco ball rhythm which is equipped with great effects and fills. Towards the close of the album, the Stonesy “The Kids Get Higher” swaggers with a bluesy stagger.

Jody Porter
Engine Room Recordings