Steve Kilbey sings in the video for “Under the Milky Way” by The Church
For those of you who know me, forget everything I’ve ever said about feathered hair being a mistake. Seriously. As you can see in the header image for today’s post, it has its time and place. And that time is 1988 and the place is on Steve Kilbey’s head. Perfection! In fact, this vocalist and bassist of Australian band The Church is one of the songwriters of their beloved hit “Under the Milky Way,” our featured track and video. If you know this song, you know it has something very special. If you aren’t yet familiar with this ditty, you’re in for a treat…
In fact, I used to request the song in the early 2000’s when I frequented a roller rink with a weekly “adult skate” night. It just seemed like the perfect track for those moments when they dimmed the overheads and let the specialty lights glitter across the rink floor. The DJ and manager–a friend of mine–later told me that years after I stopped skating, the song continued to be requested every Tuesday night at the rink. Like I said, the song has something.
A still from the video for “Under the Milky Way” by The Church
Richard Kelly thought so when he used it in a crucial scene for his 2001 cult film Donnie Darko. I’ll never forget that dizzying shot of Jake Gyllenhaal staring into the camera while trying to gain a sense of balance and purpose in a world quickly spinning out of control. “Under the Milky Way” played loudly, and the song’s digital shimmering gave way to the sound of bagpipes as time travel portals sprouted from the chests of characters criss-crossing the screen.
Speaking of those famous bagpipes, there actually weren’t any. The sound was created with an electronic bow on a Fender Jazzmaster. In September of 2008, the track was named the best Australian song of the last 20 years by readers of The Weekend Australian Magazine. Want to read more about The Church? Check out Robert Dean Lurie’s biography No Certainty Attached: Steve Kilbey and The Church. In discussing “Under the Milky Way,” Steve Kilbey has said “I just stumbled upon it and for some reason it has struck this wonderful sense of universality with people that most of my songs don’t.” We couldn’t agree more about the universality, Steve…
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