Original location (1995–2007)
Future Godspeed You! Black Emperor member Mauro Pezzente and his partner Kiva Stimac first moved into the space that later became the Hotel2Tango in 1995. [2] The loft doubled as a performance space and was dubbed Gallery Quiva, hosting approximately one show per month. However, after less than a year exhaust fumes and odor from the mechanic's garage directly below the loft forced Pezzente and Stimac to vacate the building. [2] Shortly thereafter the lease was taken over by Efrim Menuck, who took the first three letters of the area's postal code, H2T, and used the NATO phonetic alphabet to create the space's new name: Hotel2Tango. Pezzente and Stimac later opened three highly-influential performance spaces on Saint Laurent Boulevard in Montreal: Casa del Popolo, La Sala Rossa, and the now defunct El Salon.
By 1998, the Hotel2Tango had become one of the most popular alternative music venues in the city of Montreal and acted as a hub for a number of projects by members of the local artistic community. At one point the loft acted as a work space for Montreal silk-screeners the Bloodsisters, and as a workshop for a local carpenter. [2] Godspeed You! Black Emperor performed at the Hotel2Tango frequently and used the loft as a practice space along with other groups such as Fly Pan Am and Molasses. [3] Godspeed also recorded the bulk of their first album, F♯A♯∞ in the loft's large main room the previous year. As the band's popularity grew over the next several years, so too did the mystery surrounding its secretive members. Many rumours developed about the group and its de facto home base. At one point it was commonly believed by outsiders that all of the band members were squatting illegally in the loft. [4] Eventually word spread about the shows taking place at the Hotel2Tango and the crowds arriving each evening came to be greater than the facility could handle. Amid numerous thefts by show attendees and a generally out-of-control crowd, [5] shows at the Hotel2Tango became less frequent and eventually stopped completely, effectively passing the torch to a handful of newly opened dedicated concert venues within the city. At that time at least two people still lived within the walls of the Hotel2Tango, including Godspeed bassist Thierry Amar, though he later moved out. [2]
In 2000 Howard Bilerman, then-owner of Mom and Pop Sounds, a small Montreal recording studio near the city's Chinatown, approached Amar and Menuck, who were interested in focusing on establishing a studio in the Hotel2Tango, about combining the trio's equipment to use in a central space. Finding the offer favourable, the group began consolidating their two facilities; building a number of walls within the Hotel2Tango, effectively separating the space into three areas: a control room, a live room and a large common area. Soon after, the three purchased a professional 24-track analogue tape machine, which became the centerpiece of the new Hotel2Tango studio. The studio had a built-in clientele, quickly becoming the studio of choice for most of the Montreal-based artists on the Constellation Records label. For a number of years the studio remained closed to most outsiders, its operators choosing to concentrate mostly on the projects of friends and those groups directly related to Constellation and another Montreal record label, Fancy Recordings, a now-defunct subsidiary of Alien8 Recordings. In recent years, however, the Hotel2Tango has opened its doors to many other bands from Montreal and abroad, launching a promotional website in September 2004.
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a Canadian post-rock band that 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).
Fly Pan Am, or Le Fly Pan Am, are a Canadian experimental rock band formed in Montreal in 1996. They release their albums through the Montreal-based Constellation Records, producing and collaborating on works with Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Shalabi Effect.
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.
Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven is the second studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released as a double album October 9, 2000 on vinyl by Constellation, and November 8, 2000 on CD by Kranky. It was listed on multiple decade-end lists as one of the greatest albums of the 2000s.
Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada is the only EP and second release by Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was released on the Montreal-based record label Constellation Records in 1999, and was re-released by Kranky.
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.
He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms... is the debut album of Canadian post-rock group A Silver Mt. Zion, who now record under the name Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. The album was recorded by guitarist Efrim Menuck and bassist Thierry Amar at the Hotel2Tango in 1999, mostly during breaks while touring with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It was published by the Montreal-based record label Constellation on March 27, 2000.
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.
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.
Ceux qui inventent n'ont jamais vécu (?)(Those who invent have never lived ) is the second album by Fly Pan Am. It was released by Constellation Records in April 2002.
Stem Stem in Electro is the second album by Canadian band Hrsta. It was recorded in the Hotel2Tango, Montreal, by Howard Bilerman, who co-owns the studio with Efrim Menuck and Thierry Amar of Godspeed You! Black Emperor fame.
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.
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.
Mauro Pezzente is a Canadian musician. He is best known as being co-founder of Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
Mike Moya is a Canadian rock musician, who is one of the founding members of post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor. He left the band in 1998 to concentrate on his other bands Molasses, Set Fire to Flames and HṚṢṬA., but rejoined the band during their reunion in 2010. He was part of the live band of labelmate Elizabeth Anka Vajagic. He lives between Berlin and Montreal with his partner Maria Hinze and their family.
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.
Yanqui U.X.O. is the third studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on November 4, 2002 by Constellation. It was recorded by Steve Albini at Electrical Audio in Chicago in late 2001, and was the band's first album released after their slight name change. Lacking both their characteristic interwoven field recordings and specifically named movements, the album was instead described by the band as "just raw, angry, dissonant, epic instrumental rock". Shortly after its release, the group announced an indefinite hiatus so band members could pursue differing musical interests; it was their last album for a decade until the release of 2012's 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!.
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.
Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress is the fifth studio album by Canadian post-rock band Godspeed You! Black Emperor, released on 31 March 2015 by Constellation Records. The album was recorded with Electrical Audio engineer Greg Norman in North Carolina and Montreal, and was the first to feature completely new material since the band's reformation in 2010. It is also, with the exception of the vinyl version of F♯ A♯ ∞, the group's shortest album to date, timing in at just forty minutes.
Radwan Ghazi Moumneh is a Canadian recording engineer, producer, and musician.
