Oh, how I remember the sweet strums of that guitar opening. It was celestial melancholy, and it would burrow into my mind for days. “Under the Milky Way” by The Church is, in my humble opinion, one of the most timeless songs of the 1980s. It was the song that broke the band into the mainstream after eight years of kicking around in their native Australia.
The album, Starfish, was a staple at high school parties. Unfortunately, The Church would never reach the heights of Starfish again, although they did come close with the mindbending Priest=Aura four years later. Despite the lack of commercial success, however, the band has actually managed to stick around for the past 20 years, releasing an album as recently as 2006.
At the same time, guitarist Marty Willson-Piper has been recording solo albums. His latest, Nightjar, is still fresh on the shelves. It was produced by none other than Dave Mason, the music legend from the band Traffic and originator of that “Feelin’ Alright” song you hear on every other commercial these days.
Currently on tour to promote the album, Willson-Piper will be stopping in at the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, N.H., this Saturday, May 24. He’ll be performing with a strange-sounding backup band called The Electric Mood Maidens, and opening the show will be Boston folkie Dan Cloutier. The fun starts at 8 p.m.
