The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps

Not only is it currently MIFF in Melbourne, but Palace Cinemas are also holding a Music Film Festival at its cinemas around Australia featuring music films from the past 40 years. Tonight was the closing night of the festival with a screening at the Palace Westgarth of the documentary The Chills: The Triumph & Tragedy Of Martin Phillipps.

The Chills are one of the great bands to come out of the Dunedin music scene in New Zealand in the 1980s on Flying Nun Records. The documentary is a brutally honest accounting of the history of the band, which has had 21 different line ups over the years as founder and lead singer Martin Phillipps pursued his musical vision. There are interviews with Martin and many of the former members of The Chills about their experiences in the band and on the road, which for some were still raw and painful. It also showed the highs and lows of the band with the breakout success of the 1990 album Submarine Bells (one of my favorites of all time by any artist) and trying to surpass those heights with subsequent releases.

The other overarching story line of the film was Martin's health issues. A former drug addict and alcoholic, he has had hepatitis C for over 20 years. At the start of the film we watch his doctor give him the grim news that due to his poor liver function he has a 30% chance of dying within 12 months. While put onto an experimental drug treatment to cure his Hepatitis C, the news sets Martin in motion creatively to finish off music ideas and go through the many massive collections of things in his house, some of which fed into an exhibition on The Chills at the Otago Museum. Overall it was a fantastic music documentary with insights into the creative genius of Martin Phillipps and just how much the music industry has changed over the years.

The Chills- Silver Bullets Tour

The Chills burst onto the scene in the US in the early 1990s with the albums Submarine Bells and Soft Bomb and exemplified the sound of the Flying Nun record label. Lead singer/songwriter Martin Phillipps is the sole remaining member of the original band, and after years of dealing with health issues he is back with the fantastic new album Silver Bullets. As a long time fan I was thrilled that they were playing a show in Melbourne, as the last time I saw them live was in Auckland at the millennium concert with Split Enz.

I arrived at Max Watt's (the former Hi-Fi Bar) right before they took the stage. The set list was a mix of songs from throughout their career. They played most of the tracks off of Silver Bullets, including my favorites "Aurora Corona," "I Can't Help You," "Silver Bullets," "When The Poor Can Reach The Moon" (the second half of "Pyramid") and the brilliant "America Says Hello." We even got a new song called "Easy Peasy." Martin sounded great and his guitar work was beautiful on those jangly songs. It was amazing to hear the classics such as "I Love My Leather Jacket," "Pink Frost," "The Male Monster From The Id" and "Heavenly Pop Hit," which closed the evening and had everyone singing along. I'm so glad I got the chance to see The Chills play again and hear these new songs live for the first time.

Here's the animated clip for "When The Poor Can Reach The Moon"

Fave Albums: The Chills - Submarine Bells

Staying in the Southern Hemisphere, my next fave album is Submarine Bells by The Chills, which was released in 1990.  A proponent of Flying Nun's Dunedin sound, this album was their major label debut and got lots of airplay on US College Radio.  The first track, "Heavenly Pop Hit" may be one of the best songs of all time and always makes me happy when I hear it.  There are a variety of song types on the album to keep things interesting, from the urgency of "The Oncoming Day" and "Familiarity Breeds Contempt" to the beauty of "Don't Be - Memory" and "Submarine Bells."  I love the swirling keyboards throughout, and jangly guitar solo on "Part Past Part Fiction" is a definite musical highlight.  Lead singer Martin Phillipps' lyrics are also quite good, and I will never understand how he manages to get all the words out on "Efflorensce and Deliquensce" without getting tongue-tied.

I did get to see The Chills live once when they opened for Split Enz at the Millennium shows (yes, that's right- I went to New Zealand for Y2K and lived to tell about it).  And if you have ever wondered where my Twitter handle (@softbomb) comes from, it is one of their album titles.

Favorite Lyric: Deep and dark my submarine bells grown in greens and grey ("Submarine Bells")

Favorite Song: "Heavenly Pop Hit"