If there are only a couple of things you about me that you had to take away from this site it’s probably this – I’m an obsessive fan of The Verve, who I caught live during their last reunion tour in 2009 and of The Church, who I’ve caught during their Past, Present, Future tour in 2011 and during their last stop in NYC a few months ago. And in the case of The Church, more than 30 years since their formation, the Australian quartet have continued to write and record work that manages to be as vital, complex dense and challenging as ever. The albums that they’ve released over the past decade pair eerily gorgeous atmospherics with surreally poetic lyrics that describe natural phenomenon and the human world. Interestingly, the Melbourne, Australia-baesd have managed to walk a careful tightrope between profound artistic statements and the accessibility of pop – and in an effortless, seamless fashion.
The band has been touring to support their latest effort Further/Deeper and they recently announced that they are embarking on a Stateside tour with fellow beloved post-punk rock band, The Psychedelic Furs. Originally, both bands had planned to tour together back in 1988, as they both had achieved more success in the States they had in their native countries Australia and the UK respectively, and aesthetically was a good fit; however, the tour was aborted and The Church wound up touring with Duran Duran, which seems to be one of the strangest tour pairings of that period. So as far as the tour, they’ll be in the NYC area for two dates – August 18 at Irving Plaza and August 19 at the NYCB Theater at Westbury.
Along with that momentous announcement, The Church released the official video for “Laurel Canyon,” the latest single Further/Deeper. The song continues the band’s reputation for a moodily, atmospheric sound, primarily based around shimmering guitar played through reverb and gentle distortion paired around deeply introspective lyrics around reminiscing about the past and slowly moving forward. Interestingly, the video is gorgeous and cinematically shot and features surreal imagery – a rope that leads towards a woman in the protagonist’s past; living rooms and parlor rooms set in the forest; repeated imagery of Laurel Canyon’s ZIP Code 90046; and more.
