tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14663639430800013402024-03-13T13:23:28.623-07:00Drums & Bellsa song by song tribute to The Churchfandorinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06507099771869890868noreply@blogger.comBlogger110125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-77682965374638356782023-12-06T21:44:00.000-08:002023-12-06T22:49:06.588-08:00priest = aura
while this could be a straight forward narrative lifted from the pages of homer's distant mystical cousin kilbey, there's something ambiguous and allegorical about the words.
i speculate.
the band drained and spent of energy in america, touring and meeting the demands of record companies, (the war) the very anathema to the creative process. they have already won a battle with the commercial captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-21841172658359199502023-09-14T10:19:00.002-07:002023-09-14T10:19:17.003-07:00DEHYDROGENASE ELUVIUMS AVOUCHDEHYDROGENASE ELUVIUMS AVOUCH1354 ADErskine I(1287 - 1372)Table of Contents:I: Prelude to Unseen Reveries II: A Dance of Fading Stars III: Enigmatic Serenades IV: Whispers of Lost Days V: Secrets Bound in Moonlight VI: Echoes from the Abyss VII: Epilogue - The Unveiling of Dreams VIII: Arcane Reverie IX: Dreamscapes Uncharted X: Celestial Mark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-69500262978859536392021-11-22T18:50:00.000-08:002021-11-22T18:50:12.436-08:00deadmans handonce again. the history of civilisation in a pop songthrough the eyes of a tuned in, turned on, druid in a uniform, who can't drop out of the clusterfuck. 'empires got you by the balls,' every foot soldiers lament. this song leaves me breathless, it's a stomping rock song with penultimate musicianship and craft that is driven by steve's words and phrasing. let it speak for itself captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-45438936217800449352018-08-01T17:54:00.000-07:002018-08-01T17:54:27.645-07:00'night friends' from after everything now thissometimes, just a single element has enough power to change everything, such can be said for david lane's contribution to the song night friends. haunting and simply perfectly in tune with its companion elements that fluid piano trickles along in the shadows, the after midnight atmosphere, like some old blues when the bar is empty and the floors are being mopped but no one is sitting on the captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-16524196269850209352018-04-26T16:41:00.000-07:002018-04-26T16:41:56.133-07:00so that love may find us -
love will find us when we find love
listen.
cosmic in scope, it's not music but a philosophical muse. it's beyond normal parameters of rock and roll, a quest for meaning perhaps. wherever this stuff comes from it's asking the right questions.
it may well be clutching at straws hoping for elusive answers but the fact it's stretching out in the first place, one captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-38453215563063249022018-04-06T23:55:00.001-07:002021-11-27T13:01:55.920-08:00Paradox
You are a paradox to me, a senseless maze
I run around, I'm looking for you all of my days...
I cannot bear to share you, we can't be alone...
Opiates suck. Yet there is a purpose to everything and if you can't see it, you better find one fast--because even the shit that has no purpose.... the tragedies of ALL that should happen but doesn't... and the senselessness of ALL that thatMark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-79740576580850924572017-06-03T19:38:00.000-07:002017-06-03T19:38:33.398-07:00love philtre by the church from further deeper'our minds are made up'
musically i don't know what's going on, all instruments blend into something with the complexity they say makes up a good wine. i'm not a drinker of the wine but i am a thinker of the wave, water or sound, and here is subtle tones filled with a sensual beauty that appears immediately elegantly simple. yet put your finger upon it and it's gone. like that quantum captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-26518309290754713032014-12-30T15:43:00.000-08:002014-12-31T14:39:46.732-08:00'june' from forget yourself
the floating world, disembodied we pass over the ancient lands into a youth filled body that looks out over the horizon, from towering cliff tops as the deep blue mediterranean breaks upon rocks below. a sailed vessel heads towards shore, the oars synchronised and the sail comes down like an elegant origami in reverse. brown skinned men working under a suspended yellow sun.&captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-18146607119212856952014-11-18T02:38:00.000-08:002014-11-18T02:45:34.277-08:00DELIRIOUS
so the day breaks and
i'm fated to be seriously
delirious
it's not far
with all my
...heart
and i can even
understand a thing or two
what you going to do?
***
if anyone thinks this is easy
and everyone thinks it's
deliberately done
these pieces are easy
but try to put them
all together
it's impossible
do you think Mark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-76325269012217716612014-11-09T21:44:00.000-08:002014-11-18T02:55:24.871-08:00Pride Before A Fall (Further Thoughts)
There are songs in dreams and you're sometimes here, and you may not know the song but it's there and it reminds you of this other time. I hear this song moving over the airwaves, over the hills and valleys of southern California moving eastward crossing the atlantic, echoing in some remote home in Edinburgh, through the streets of London, a bright DJ spinning a re-mix in Germany, Mark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-44246983255052696292014-05-02T22:31:00.000-07:002014-05-02T22:31:02.575-07:00On Angel StreetWhere else do we go?
So many other places, but why go there? Where does it lead?
How many other times have I been here?
Esoterically?
Literally?
Meta-for-whatever reason-cally?
If you read these words you might already have an idea
what is said, unsaid, or left
undone..
othertime and places
familiar faces
so much and
so far to go..
Mark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-66048040464777328922014-01-08T02:15:00.001-08:002014-01-08T02:15:38.630-08:00after everything now this - numbers
obtuse lyrically yet the thematic narrative seems to portray a type of meditation on death, when your number is up, its up baby. there's no bargain one can make with the universe, no deals done, exchanges or plea bargains, no escape. you are born and die, that's the ritual i think steve hints at.
and then within the chorus a stream of consciousness assault upon how we are all equal in captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-83466873911699395562013-11-04T14:26:00.000-08:002013-11-14T02:26:36.356-08:00shriek an afterwardhttp://www.shriekthemovie.com/shriek/shriek/Shriek-Medium.html
for a band that writes such visual music i long wondered why the church had never written soundtracks for film and thus many years ago while wandering aimlessly through the back streets of glebe (inner city sydney) one languid summer afternoon i bumped into the tall ethereal guitar player peter knoppes and asked him about captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-2594725673536559552013-11-04T13:38:00.000-08:002013-11-04T13:38:23.986-08:00the sexual act from 'jammed'
the sexual act
captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-6752877375309609322013-09-29T00:08:00.001-07:002013-09-29T00:08:30.107-07:00stardust from the deadman's hand ep
for anyone who doubts the versatility of the two guitar players and the brilliant progressive nature of the church as musicians, 'stardust' hosts and holds the essence of the bands masterful ability to create something akin to sublimation (technically passing from solid to a gas but also emotionally as something unacceptable into something more acceptable) and then there's the lyrics and captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-61522559262213212682013-09-29T00:05:00.000-07:002013-09-29T00:05:06.990-07:00the great machine from hologram of baal
i was in a cafe with a girl with red hair, drinking a coconut juice drink while she had a moroccan iced tea, which looked lovely, all those dark green mint leaves floating amongst the crystalline ice cubes.
we were thinking about a future together, something i seldom do but it seemed appropriate given we in love, she had galaxies in her eyes and i could spend my whole life just lost incaptain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-42490329247505358012013-08-19T02:20:00.001-07:002013-08-19T02:20:38.350-07:00parallel universe disc one
impossible to describe this music, it's the 'after everything now this' cd recorded by the bands double from a parallel universe, a universe where the same attention to details resonate as a fixed law as much as in this universe where 'the church' are a space rock band but there's an ambience here that is unique as far as church recordings go, an inner space rock band with an electronic dance captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-48742999483286392532013-06-22T15:16:00.001-07:002013-06-22T15:16:44.767-07:00reward from parallel universe disc two
holograms enable three dimensional images to be made, and wikipedia informs us it involves a laser, interference, diffraction, recording and light intensity and suitable illumination of the recording.
the image itself is not an image, it's random structures of varying intensity and density.
'reward' to me is a hologram of sound, there's so many intensities in this, the strange rhythmic captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-33395711192750261992013-05-10T15:39:00.000-07:002013-05-10T15:39:08.195-07:00espionage from parallel universe disc two mixture by captain mission
in a perfect world this would be the theme song for the next james bond film, directed by the wachowskis, the one where bond discovers his esoteric nature while dropping acid and reading the bhagavad gita, the one where he understands the nature of his service to queen and country is all a charade and he gains insight into the laws of moral causation. the one where mid mission he knows he will captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-2765419387160935572012-03-14T01:54:00.002-07:002012-03-14T01:59:04.811-07:00As You WillAll 3 bonus songs of Heyday are more like sketches for the soon-to-happen solo careers of the 3 writers. The View is clean jangly guitar pop by Marty, Trance Ending is a dense, brooding and slightly oriental oddity by Steve and As You Will by Peter is quite simple and driving guitar pop with a bit cheap sounding now dated keyboards. Later on all 3 went on to do their solo albums which had same chrome3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04576475963450286806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-20602291433824252442012-03-05T10:28:00.000-08:002012-03-05T10:28:42.835-08:00Mark Ezra Merrillhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06436376956719546332noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-80008435392887243012012-02-15T22:39:00.004-08:002012-02-15T22:46:38.822-08:00The View"Polish your window, don't block out your view"The View has always been my favourite from the 3 b-sides of Heyday. It's a giddy and optimistic classically constructed jangle pop song that is hard to resist. Later on Marty would do more of this kind of songs but this must be one of the first. Still this song feels very mature and ready despite it's place as a b-side. There is the intro with the chrome3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04576475963450286806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-86412822365967151852012-01-31T05:33:00.000-08:002012-01-31T05:40:47.304-08:00TantalizedOriginal photo by Lenscreep.Heyday is often described to be a hypnotic album. Would it be called like that if Tantalized was not on it? Maybe, but not that much. This is the real snakecharmer of a song on this album. It is said to be started by Marty jamming in the studio and that's what it sounds too. Most of the songs of the church have developed from jams but the melody has been refined a lot.chrome3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04576475963450286806noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-33395141189442247092012-01-19T23:02:00.000-08:002012-01-19T23:07:59.139-08:00Youth WorshipperIn the past few years the church (now all lower case) has had a few new official histories written about them: No Certainty Attached-biography and Marty's liner notes for the early period 30th anniversary reissues. It's interesting how Youth Worshipper is mentioned in both in almost same way: "...a fairly topical commentary on those who use cosmetics and other means in order to prolong their chrome3dhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04576475963450286806noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1466363943080001340.post-5923493995992401872011-11-06T04:26:00.000-08:002012-01-02T01:37:47.452-08:00NIGHT SEQUENCEnight sequence, an element of something bigger than we can know, what happened before or after this sequence? times arrow meets memory, all part of some cinematic or theatrical event, where the actors are unmasked, where the drama steps off the screen or stage, and the boundaries are dissolved, where the film stops being a film and the participants are the audience, the listener and the actors captain missionhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13465482384803674356noreply@blogger.com0