Godspeed You! Black Emperor (2024)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Background information
Also known as	Godspeed You Black Emperor!, Godspeed, GY!BE, God's Pee, Pee'd Emp'ror
Origin	Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Genres	Post-rock, drone, ambient, instrumental rock
Years active	1994–2003, 2010–present
Labels	Constellation, Kranky
Associated acts	Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Set Fire to Flames, Fly Pan Am, HṚṢṬA, Esmerine, Hiss Tracts
Website	Official website
Current members	Efrim Menuck Mauro Pezzente Mike Moya Sophie Trudeau Thierry Amar David Bryant Karl Lemieux Aidan Girt Tim Herzog
Past members	John Littlefair Thea Pratt Bruce Cawdron Norsola Johnson Roger Tellier-Craig Grayson Walker James Chau Peter Harry Hill Fluffy Erskine

Godspeed You! Black Emperor (formerly known as Godspeed You Black Emperor!) is a Canadian post-rock band from from Montreal, Quebec. They take their name from God Speed ​​You! Black Emperor, a 1976 black-and-white Japanese documentary directed by Mitsuo Yanamigachi that deals with the misdeeds of a Japanese biker gang, the Black Emperors.

The band is usually classified within post-rock, although it has influences ranging from progressive rock to punk, through classical music and avant-garde.

Their albums usually consist of long songs (most, between 10 and 20 minutes) divided into "movements" often specified on the cover.

From 2003 to 2009, the band was inactive, since its members were busy in several parallel projects; All in all, they had made it clear that the band has not dissolved.

In 2010, they announced their return to the stage in a tour of the United Kingdom including a presentation as organizers of the All Tomorrows Parties' Nightmare Before Christmas.

History[]

The group was formed during 1994 with only three members, but its formation has varied frequently, reaching up to fifteen members. At the end of 1998 the band was stabilized in nine members. The instruments have been varying according to the number of members of the formation, but it has tended in general to be based on electric guitars and basses along with a section of cords and percussion. Other instruments such as the French horn or the glockenspiel have appeared more occasionally. The music of some of their records is accompanied by spoken fragments recorded by the band throughout North America, including a street preacher in Providence, Rhode Island, an ad at a gas station, a group of children talking and singing in French, as well as as well as fragments recorded directly from a shortwave radio.

Band members have generally been reluctant to offer interviews to publicize their work, often expressing their dislike of the massive music industry and large corporations.This has made them gain a reputation for dark, even asocial figures and not much is known about their personalities. However, they became known to a wider audience after appearing on the cover of the British magazine NME in July 1999.

The member who interacts most with the press is Efrim Menuck and it is for this reason that he is presented as the leader, a label that he has publicly rejected on several occasions.

The members of the band have formed different parallel projects over time, such as A Silver Mt. Zion, Fly Pan Am or Set Fire to Flames. The band contributed to the soundtrack of the British film 28 Days Later with the song East Hastings, although this can only be heard in the film because it is not included in the commercialized soundtrack.

They released the CD version of their first two albums on the Kranky label having released the LP with Constellation Records. Once the contract with Kranky was finalized, Constellation went on to take charge of the CD and LP versions of his latest work to date, Yanqui U.X.O.

In 2004 the guitarist Roger-Tellier Craig left the band in a friendly way to devote more time to Fly Pan Am.

Among the songs that usually play live but can not be found on any of their albums to date is "Gamelan", although thanks to the fact that the band does not obstruct the recordings in their concerts these two songs can easily be found on the networks P2P. In fact it is usually customary for new material to circulate among fans before going on the market officially. Another of these songs was "Albanian" which was edited as "Mladic" on his album 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!(2012) and which is based on the atrocities orchestrated among others by Serbian-Bosnian General Ratko Mladic in 1995, towards the end of the Bosnian war.

Political hallucinations[]

Several members of the band are anarchists, and their music has an important political component. For example, Yankee U.X.O. describes the song "09-15-00" as "Ariel Sharon surrounded by a thousand Israeli soldiers marching towards al-Haram Ash Sharif to provoke another Intifada", and the back cover of the album contains a picture showing the relationships between several of the main record companies and the military-industrial complex. Several of their songs incorporate fragments with speeches expressing political feelings, among them "The Dead Flag Blues" (on the album F♯ A♯ ∞), "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III" (on the album Slow Riot for New Zerø Kanada) or "Anthem for no State" from their album Luciferian Towers.

In 2003, the band was mistaken as terrorists. While they were stopping to refuel at a gas station in Ardmore, Oklahoma, during their tour in the United States, one of the station employees believed that they were terrorists. This quickly passed a note to one of the buyers who were in the store to give notice to the police. When the local police were present at the scene, they delayed the band for more than three hours until they were interrogated by the FBI, even though the police suspected the anti-government documents and some strange photographs of oil wells that were in the possession of the gang, found no incriminating evidence. After the records of their members were checked, the band was released from custody and they continued on the road to their next show in Columbia, Missouri. During that show in Missouri, Efrim Menuck addressed the crowd explaining what happened and speculated that his race was probably a reason for his quick release.

Members[]

Current members[]

• Efrim Menuck– guitar,tape loops, keyboards(1994–2003, 2010–present)
• Mauro Pezzente– bass guitar(1994–2003, 2010–present)
• Mike Moya– guitar(1994–1998, 2010–present)
• Thierry Amar– double bass, bass guitar(1997–2003, 2010–present)
• David Bryant– guitar, tape loops(1997–2003, 2010–present)
• Aidan Girt– drums, percussion(1997–2003, 2010–present)
• Sophie Trudeau– violin(1997–2003, 2010–present)
• Karl Lemieux–film projections(2010–present)
• Timothy Herzog– drums, percussion(2012–present)
• Philippe Leonard–film projections(2015–present)

Past members[]

• John Littlefair– film projections(1994–2000)
• Thea Pratt–French horn(1995–1997)
• Bruce Cawdron– drums, percussion(1997–2003, 2010–2012)
• Norsola Johnson– cello(1997–2003)
• Roger Tellier-Craig– guitar(1998–2003)
• Grayson Walker–accordion(1997)
• James Chau– keyboards, harpsichord, guitar(2000)
• Peter Harry Hill– bagpipes(2000)
• Fluffy Erskine– film projections(2000–2003)

Discography[]

Studio albums[]

• F♯ A♯ ∞ (1997)
• Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven (2000)
• Yanqui U.X.O. (2002)
• Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! (2012)
• Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress (2015)
• Luciferian Towers (2017)

Extended plays[]

• Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada (1999)

Demos[]

• All Lights f*cked on the Hairy Amp Drooling (1994)

Singles[]

• "Sunshine + Gasoline" (1998)
• "We Drift Like Worried Fire" (2015)

List of Known Tours[]

External Links[]

Official Links[]

Archival Links[]

References[]