Godspeed You! Black Emperor | Artist
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian experimental music collective formed 1994 in Montreal, Quebec. The founding members are Efrim Menuck (guitar), Mike Moya (guitar) and Mauro Pezzente (bass). There are nine members in all, including a film projectionist. The band has a dedicated cult following and is renowned for being influential in the post-rock genre. Their music, mainly instrumental in nature, has been noted for its contrasts between ambient soundscapes and chaotic crescendos; use of field recordings and spoken word monologues; and focus on dystopian, anarchist and anti-war themes. Among their many side-projects is the group Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Their string of four albums between 1997-2012 are masterpieces of the post-rock genre: F#A# Infinity (1997), Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven! (2000), Yanqui U.X.O. (2002), and 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (2012). Other outstanding albums include the EP Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada EP (1999) and the albums G_d's Pee AT STATE'S END! (2021), and their most recent release "No Title as of 13 February 2024 28,340 Dead" (2024). The's band's music elicits a wide range of responses from listeners, but for those willing to set aside preconceptions of traditional rock sounds and structures, the music can be extremely rewarding, as noted by the following reviewer from RYM for the album Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven!: "The only thing that I can be completely sure on is that this artefact can take me by the throat and drag me, sometimes against my will, through every aspect of the human condition; with it playing I can feel every emotion that our forefathers felt before The Event. Rather than just fear and hunger I can feel the human response to beauty; sometimes during what we have come to call "World Police and Friendly Fire" every hair on my body pricks up on end and I feel for a moment the electricity and the rush of absolute terror.." The Guardian wrote that Godspeed You! Black Emperor "don't simply espouse anti-capitalism but embody it, rejecting the selfish individualism at its core", pointing out how the band's operation as a collective challenges traditional notions of hierarchy. In a 2012 interview, Menuck said, "All music is political, right? You either make music that pleases the king and his court, or you make music for the serfs outside the walls ... We started making this noise together when we were young and broke. Whatever politics we had were born out of living through a time when the dominant narrative was that everything was fine." The group was once misconstrued as being a band of terrorists. After stopping at a local gas station for fuel in the town of Ardmore, Oklahoma, during their 2003 tour of the United States, the station attendant working that day believed the group of Canadians to be terrorists. She quickly passed a note to another customer asking them to call the police. When the local police appeared, the group was held until it could be questioned by the FBI. The band took its name from God Speed You! Black Emperor, a 1976 Japanese black-and-white documentary by director Mitsuo Yanagimachi, which follows the exploits of a Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors.
Artist Website: brainwashed.com/godspeed
Featured Albums: Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Related Artists: GY!BE, A Silver Mt Zion, Thee Silver Mt Zion
