Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band which originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation, an independent record label also located in Montreal. After the release of their debut album, F♯ A♯ ∞, in 1997, the group toured regularly from 1998 to 2003. Their second album, 2000's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, received critical acclaim and has been named as one of the best albums of the decade. This was followed by 2002's Yanqui U.X.O. In 2003, the band went on hiatus in order for members to pursue other musical interests. In the intervening period, the group was occasionally rumored to have broken up, but eventually reconvened in 2010. Since reforming, they have released four more albums: 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (2012), which won the 2013 Polaris Music Prize; Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (2015); Luciferian Towers (2017); and G_d's Pee at State's End! (2021).
Constellation Records is a Canadian independent record label based in Montreal, Quebec. It has released albums by many post-rock bands, including Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band and Do Make Say Think.
All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling is a cassette released in 1994 by Canadian musician Efrim Menuck, using the name God Speed You Black Emperor!. Given a limited release of 33 cassette copies in December 1994, the album quickly fell into obscurity and was thought lost by the band's fans, often described as the "Holy Grail of Post-Rock". Segments of the tape were leaked online in 2013 and the full recording surfaced in 2022, after which Menuck officially re-released the album on Bandcamp.
F♯ A♯ ∞ is the debut studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was first released on August 14, 1997, through Constellation Records on a single LP and on June 8, 1998, through Kranky on CD. The CD version and the LP version have substantial differences between them. Recorded at the Hotel2Tango in the Mile End of Montreal, the album, as became common for the band, is devoid of traditional lyrics and is mostly instrumental, featuring lengthy songs segmented into movements. It was initially released in limited quantities, and distributed through live performances and developed a cult following via word of mouth.
Horses in the Sky is the fourth album by the Canadian post-rock band Silver Mt. Zion, this time under the alias Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. This is the first Silver Mt. Zion release to feature lyrics on every track.
Howard Bilerman is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer based in Montreal, Quebec. He co-owns the hotel2tango recording studio, and played drums for the band Arcade Fire.
"This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing, is the third studio album by Canadian post-rock band The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-la-la Band. It was released August 25, 2003, in Europe and September 2, 2003, in the rest of the world by Constellation Records.
Efrim Manuel Menuck is a Canadian musician involved with a number of Montreal-based bands, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Menuck is also a frequent record producer and engineer, working with musicians from Montreal and abroad.
The Hotel2Tango is a 24-track analogue recording studio situated in the Mile End district of Montreal, Quebec. The current facility is the second to bear the name, and was preceded by a similar operation in the same neighborhood until 2007 when the studio changed locations. The majority of recording projects undertaken at the studio are helmed by one of the facility's four partner-engineers: Efrim Menuck and Thierry Amar, both members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band and Godspeed You! Black Emperor; Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, member of Jerusalem in My Heart; and Howard Bilerman. The Hotel2Tango is often closely associated with Constellation Records, a Montreal-based record label.
Sophie Trudeau is a Canadian musician. She is best known as a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and co-founder of Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. She also plays in a number of other bands, including Valley of the Giants and The Mile End Ladies String Auxiliary.
Thierry Amar is a Canadian musician, engineer and producer. He is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Earthquake Architecture, The Craig Pedersen Quartet and Black Ox Orkestar.
Aidan Girt is a Canadian drummer for the Montreal-based post-rock collectives Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and Exhaust. He is also a solo electronic artist under the names OSB, 1-Speed Bike, and Bottleskup Flenkenkenmike and continues to record in Some Became Hollow Tubes.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra is a Canadian post-rock band that formed in 1999, originating from Montreal, Quebec. Variations of the name used on the band's releases include A Silver Mt. Zion, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band with Choir and Thee Silver Mountain Reveries; the group uses the shorthand SMZ and its name is most often simplified to Silver Mt. Zion. The group was founded by Godspeed You! Black Emperor leader Efrim Menuck, who was joined by fellow Godspeed members Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar. Aside from these core members, Silver Mt. Zion has undergone almost yearly personnel changes, evolving by stages from a mostly instrumental trio at the time of its first recordings into an eight-piece group, and then in 2008 into a strongly vocal quintet.
Jessica Moss is a Canadian musician best known for playing violin and singing backing vocals in the post-rock band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band since 2001. She is a founding member of Black Ox Orkestar.
13 Blues for Thirteen Moons is the fifth full-length album by the Canadian post-rock group Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. The album was released in March 2008. The album consists of an instrumental feedback intro, split into twelve extremely short tracks, and four full songs, which had been played live on recent tours. Band member Efrim Menuck stated that the idea for the 12 short intro tracks initially was suggested because the band wanted the album to start on track 13. The deciding factor for including the tracks, however, was that "if people tried to play it on their iPods, on shuffle mode, it’d blitz their iPod."
Kollaps Tradixionales is the sixth full-length album by the experimental rock group Thee Silver Mt. Zion under the name Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. It was released in February 2010 on Constellation Records. The songs "I Built Myself a Metal Bird", "I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds" and "There Is a Light" were played on earlier tours.
Hot Wax is the third solo album from Grant Hart, formerly of the band Hüsker Dü. It was released on October 6, 2009. The album followed Good News for Modern Man, released in 1999.
The discography of Godspeed You! Black Emperor—a Canadian post-rock musical collective from Quebec—consists of seven studio albums, one extended play, one split single, and two contributions to various artists compilation albums.
Plays "High Gospel" (2011) is the debut album from Canadian musician Efrim Menuck, best known for his work as a founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion. The album alternates instrumental and vocal tracks, an aspect of his work which began with the Silver Mt. Zion album Horses in the Sky. It was self produced and recorded at the Hotel2Tango and various other locations in Canada in 2010.
Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything is the seventh and final studio album by the Canadian experimental rock group Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. The album was released on January 20, 2014 on Constellation Records.
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