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Godspeed You Black Emperor

NME.com feature on Godspeed You Black Emperor including news, reviews, biography, youtube video, audio, concerts, tour dates, photos, pictures, commentary, album reviews and live reviews and cool facts.

Godspeed You Black Emperor News

Godspeed You! Black Emperor quit over Iraq

Godspeed You! Black Emperor quit over Iraq

Existential freakout claims post-rock pioneers

GODSPEED BACK TO THE UK!

The indie rockers come back to Blighty...

  • Dec 6, 2001

BLACK CELEBRATION

Surprise, surprise - It wasn't all three-minute chirpy pop songs...

  • Dec 8, 2000

'...HEAVEN' IS HERE!

They'll be raising their skinny fists soon...

  • Aug 9, 2000

GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR - 9PM FRIDAY

The Canadian apocalypse rolls into town...

  • Apr 8, 2000

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Godspeed You Black Emperor YouTube Videos

Godspeed You Black Emperor - The Dead Flag Blues

Godspeed You Black Emperor - The Dead Flag Blues (09:23)

Another apocalyptic montage, made in the summer of 2005. This was the prelim opening sequence of the apocalypse film that we never made. Not exactly the best thing we've ever done, but it's okay I guess.

Sleep: - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Sleep: - Godspeed You! Black Emperor (09:57)

From the CD Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls

Godspeed You Black Emperor - Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls (09:52)

This is how i see that musical section. Enjoy while the rockets falls slowly and horribly... PS I don't hate scientist or science, I hate assholes and megalomaniacs. I should have choose my words wisely. maybe "I Hate...

east hastings-godspeed you black emperor

east hastings-godspeed you black emperor (08:12)

East Hastings By Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Yup, Its a little shortened due to time restrictions, but still a damn good song.. I think the imagery just goes with it.. Anywho, enjoy.

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Godspeed You Black Emperor Reviews

Godspeed You Black Emperor : London Hackney Ocean

Godspeed You Black Emperor : London Hackney Ocean

You go for a piss and hear people whistling their tunes...

  • Apr 4, 2002

Godspeed You Black Emperor! : Boston Somerville Theatre

It is, for the most part, thrilling, a surge of energy and a satisfying release...

  • Dec 4, 2000

SAN FRANCISCO GREAT AMERICAN MUSIC HALL

Like the darkest trance and deepest house, however, Godspeed has those towering, glorious climaxes.

  • Nov 2, 2000

Seattle, The Crocodile

Passionate and intense, [a]Godspeed You Black Emperor[/a] are back...

  • Oct 30, 2000

London Highbury Garage

Strange, unnerving instrumental band from Montreal who boast one of the year's best names...

  • Nov 1, 1998

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Godspeed You Black Emperor Biography

Disenfranchised Canadian outsiders Godspeed You Black Emperor! appropriate their lengthy moniker from a Japanese motorbike gang, probably via Mitsuo Yanagimachi's documentary Buraku Empororu. The collective was formed in Montreal, Quebec, in 1994 by Efrim Menuck (guitar), Roger Tellier-Craig (guitar), Bruce Caudron (drums), Aidan Girt (drums), Mauro Pezzente (bass), Thierry Amar (bass), Norsola Johnson (cello), Sophie Trudeau (violin), and David Bryant (guitar, tapes). That year's "All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling" was a cassette-only release, with a print run of just 33 copies and, notably featured track titles such as "Revisionist Alternatif Wound To The Haircut Hit Head" and "Perfumed Pink Corpses From The Lips of Ms Dion". Portentous by more than one definition, the collective creates romantically pessimistic music that is pretentiously weighty and full of unspecifiable significance.

Finding the world we live in "lost, violent and obscene", they explore eschatological concerns through atmospheric, apocalyptic rock. Importantly, their music is under-pinned with political intent (although they claim to encompass disparate opinions and standpoints). Unusually for such a politically-motivated band, Godspeed You Black Emperor! forge lyric-free music. Rather, they frame their compositions with field recordings and tape manipulation to create ad hoc narratives: on "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III" (from the Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP), an increasingly agitated invective reads "I don't like the way the country's ran, don't you know? The American government, they're sneaky, they're very deceitful, they're liars, they're cheats, they rip-offs". A repeated, manipulated folk sample at the close of "Providence" (from F#A#") asks simply 'Where are we going?"

These monologues foreground the collective's latent anger and despair although whether such rants are intended to be taken as documentary or opinion is unclear. They are astute enough to find contradiction in Radiohead's anti-corporate politics while signed to a subsidiary of EMI Records and, equally, highlight their own short-comings in their decision to create music rather than pursue more direct political action: "I think there are forces of evil in this world", Menuck has stated in esoteric music magazine The Wire. "I think that global capitalism is just one inch away from being everywhere. I think that now is not the time to be frittering away playing in a silly-assed post-rock band." That said, permutations of the collective also create music under a number of different identities including A Silver Mt. Zion, 1-Speed Bike, Exhaust and Fly Pan Am.

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Godspeed You Black Emperor Discography

Godspeed You Black Emperor albums.

  • All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling - 1994 (Own Label)
  • F#A#" - 1997 (Constellation/Kranky)
  • Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada - 1999 (Constellation/Kranky)
  • Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven - 2000 (Constellation/Kranky)
  • Yanqui U.X.O. - 2002 (Constellation)

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