Altar-native Rock: The Church

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THE CHURCH IS 29 years old. While that's a drop in the bucket compared to many European houses of worship, it's forever in rock 'n' roll.

"I always said this is a very special chemistry which works beyond the logistics of surviving, beyond the occasional personality conflict or philosophical disagreement," said guitarist Marty Willson-Piper.

"All that is irrelevant. ... There's something that we do that you can't just hire somebody to do. So, if that's the truth, you want to be holding onto it really, really hard."

But it's been 21 years since the Australian band's "Under the Milky Way" was a mainstream hit for the former college-radio faves, and that has meant the Church has had to learn to work smart.

"We try to be as in-house as possible," Willson-Piper said. "As soon as you get somebody outside involved ... it gets expensive. ... We have to do our own artwork, manage ourselves, produce our own records — then we can survive."

All those skills came into play for "Untitled #23," the Church's 23rd full-length in its Australian discography.

The CD is another lovely disc of melodic haziness that's focused by bassist Steve Kilbey's deep, whispering voice. The songs are not totally removed from the sound of "Under the Milky Way" but they're also not in debt to that folk-rock anthem. Rather, the record explores the sort of pastoral psychedelia that has long been the subject of many Church sermons since the early 1990s, when the group embraced self-reliance and stopped worrying about trying to create another hit.

"We do embrace the idea of being able to cherry-pick our history and confidently go forward with the future without feeling like people are being bored and only want to hear the hits," Wilson-Piper said.

"Because we're just not that kind of band. We're not a retro band — we're a band, full stop."

» State Theatre, 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church; Sun., June 28, 6 p.m., $25; 703-237-0300.

» Rams Head OnStage, 33 West St., Annapolis, Md.; Tue., June 30, 8 p.m., $30; 410-268-4545.

» RELATED: To read an interview with The Church's opening act, Adam Franklin (Swervedriver), click here.

Photo courtesy Tiare Helberg