Easy Action Records have today announced the release of a multi-disc compilation of the work of Jack Frost – the legendary collaboration between The Church‘s Steve Kilbey and The Go-Betweens’ late lamented Grant McLennan.
Entitled ‘As Seen On TV’, the compilation pairs the long unavailable brace of albums by the band.
Both musicians were well-known on the Australian music scene. Coming together in 1990, Steve had recently seen The Church’s international breakthrough with their Starfish album and ‘Under The Milky Way’ single, while on the other hand, The Go-Betweens, recently returned from overseas and frustrated by the relative failure of their 16 Lovers Lane album and attendant singles, had split.
After an approach from Kilbey, the pair began working on a series of songs which, as much as their bands differed stylistically, complimented each other perfectly. Recorded at Steve’s Sydney studio Karmic Hit and released in late ‘90 through Red Eye/Polydor in Australasia and Arista in the US and Europe, Jack Frost brought out the pulsing post-post punk of ‘Every Hour God Sends’ and ‘Birdowner (As Seen On TV)’, the jangling pop-rock of ‘Didn’t Know Where I Was’, ambient enterprise ‘Number Eleven’, the elegiac ‘Providence’ and blissfully acoustic meandering ‘Ramble’ to make a shimmering, cohesive whole.
It took another five years for a follow-up, but ‘95’s Snow Job, released through Kilbey’s own Karmic Hit label, was the match of its predecessor, from the heavy rocking ‘Pony Express’ and the droning psych of ‘Shakedown’ to the Eastern-flavoured ‘Haze’ and the haunting waltz ‘Angela Carter’, a paean to the then recently deceased English novelist. Causing fewer ripples on its arrival than its predecessor, Snow Job was the last time Kilbey and McLennan would collaborate, the latter resuming his Go-Betweens career before suddenly and tragically passing in May 2006. Kilbey, meanwhile, has continued with The Church through many storied decades, their latest configuration seeing the band’s highest profile in years.
Unavailable for several years, Jack Frost (previously only reissued in 2006) and Snow Job (never reissued and for the first time on vinyl) are both presented as part of As Seen On TV, a 3-CD clamshell edition or a lavish 3-LP gatefold set, complete by several rare bonus tracks, including a Santa Monica radio session and a never-before-released live set – featuring two Go-Betweens songs – from the 9:30 Club, Washington in ’91 as part of their only tour.
The result is an eye watering collection of shimmering tracks that put on full display the songwriting talents of two of Australia’s greatest exports, tinged with sadness at the death of McLennan and the nature of the close friendship between the two legends (see my interview with Kilbey).
You can order the compilation here.
CD Tracklisting
DISC ONE 1.Every Hour God Sends 2.Birdowner (As Seen On TV) 3.Civil War Lament 4.Geneva 4 A.M. 5.Trapeze Boy 6.Providence 7.Thought I Was Over You 8.Threshold 9.Number Eleven 10.Didn’t Know Where I Was 11.Even As We Speak 12.Ramble 13.Everything Takes Forever BONUS TRACKS 16.Jack’s Dream 17.Dub Threshold 18.Providence (TV broadcast)
DISC TWO 1.Jack Frost Blues 2.Aviatrix 3.Running From The Body 4.Shakedown 5.You Don’t Know 6.Weightless And Wild 7.Pony Express 8.Cousin/Angel 9.Little Song 10.Empire 11.Angela Carter 12.Haze 13.Dry Dock BONUS TRACKS 14.Persuasion 15.Bad For You
DISC THREE (live/radio) 1.Providence 2.Didn’t Know Where I Was 3.Civil War Lament 4.Ramble 5.The Wrong Road 6.Bye Bye Pride 7.Thought That I Was Over You 8.Every Hour God Sends 9.Number Eleven 10.Everything Takes Forever 11.Thought I Was Over You 12.Didn’t Know Where I Was 13.Providence 14.Civil War Lament
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