Godspeed You Black Emperor! - Classic or Dud?

has anyone seen Efrim solo recently? he's in town soon-ish and i am very curious. is he great? terrible? somewhere in between?

i liked that album he put out last year.

Haven't seen him solo but his between-song banter at ASMZ shows is usually great so I would say go for it.

New album April 2nd!

Hope it's better than the last one, which was fine but lacking inspiration. Looking forward to it anyway

Now more than ever

It's out there, and it's really really good. More krautrock like than I've heard them before and the end of the third song is just about the most triumphant, uplifting music they've ever written as a band. Maybe the spirit of Conny Plank was in the studio or something, but this one's got juice. Immediately loved it on first pass, something I haven't really felt with their music since Yanqui.

A Dutch national newspaper published an article about the album, which is basically a long review/description of the music.

there's a very pink floyd moment toward the end of the first suite and it's fucking great

best record since allelujah definitely

I like the new one quite a bit. It's surprisingly uplifting (but maybe I shouldn't be so surprised).

They are selling the CD on the Bandcamp without shipping charges so I picked it up for #BandcampFriday today.

I've only had a cursory listen but I'm enjoying it so far. The production is nice and crunchy. For all I love the first three records, I'm not a massive fan of the production - especially Skinny Fists.

there's a very pink floyd moment toward the end of the first suite and it's fucking great

I've only had a cursory listen but I'm enjoying it so far. The production is nice and crunchy. For all I love the first three records, I'm not a massive fan of the production - especially Skinny Fists.

man i really love this record

fuck yeah!!!! this album!!!!!

Gotta say I read a “premature evaluation” for this on Stereogum and thought it was an April Fools prank

excellent soundtrack for running errands during a global pandemic

octobeard otm upthread, that section near the end of track 3 ("cliffs' gaze" etc.) is quite a blast of overt hope!

surprisingly uplifting was my initial reaction too but now i think its more like accepting what they've known or predicted all along. amazing album

^^^
"this record is about all of us waiting for the end.
all current forms of governance are failed.
this record is about all of us waiting for the beginning,
and is informed by the following demands=
empty the prisons
take power from the police and give it to the neighbourhoods that they terrorise.
end the forever wars and all other forms of imperialism.
tax the rich until they're impoverished."

"OUR SIDE HAS TO WIN"

yes yes lovely sentiment and all

found the album a bit boring tbh. then put on Yanqui UXO again and it was like leaping into 3D

i listened to this and yanqui back-to-back and it reinforced how strongly i feel about the new one

the drone tracks are freaking incredible

I like toying with the listening order.

the riffs in the longer suites are both lovely and unexpected and are impeccably layered with the other elements... the drums are really good... just keep getting transfixed and blown away by this thing

Loving the new album and the broadcast they did the other week of Karl Lemieux & Philippe Leonard's 16mm projections was fantastic.

They just announced a raft of tour dates for early 2022. Ticket bought for the Barrowlands here.

i don't live there so no skin off my back but why is there not a Montreal date lol

Venues are all closed at the moment.

I’m not keen on how this is mixed. It doesn’t sound good in comparison to the BCNR album. I may get over this. I hope I do.

pomentiful, i assume they won't still be closed in 2022? or are they not even taking any bookings?

I thought they weren't but I checked just now and some of them clearly are, so… the plot thickens.

looking at those dates, it seems likely to me they have something in the works for Montreal when they get back ... either a GYBE show(s) they can't announce yet, or maybe there's a festival there that summer or something. idk, that seems to often be the case when bands announce big tours w/ no hometown date.

I didn't know this band *did* anything after Yanqui...

Where to start? Admit that I only really care for the first two records.

Haven't had a chance to play the new on yet, but I highly recommend the 2012 "comeback" record, 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!. That's been my favorite of the new ones, with Luciferian Towers coming in second.

the one they put out after you stopped listening, Yanqui U.X.O., is quite good

Oh, I know up to Yanqui— I was still into them in 2002.

I'll try Allelujah.

The first time I remember crying to music was the first time I heard "Storm."

allelujah is excellent. they played "mladic" when i saw them in 2012 before the album came out and it totally reinvigorated my interest in them

yeah mladic slaps

Cosigned.

In the roll-out to Allelujah I remember thinking I was going to check it out from a sense of loyalty, but that I was probably long past my need for GY!BE in my life. I was quickly proven wrong. Reception for the two following that though, seems a little more mixed. I like both of them, but there doesn't seem to be nearly as big of a consensus on either.

While we're talking about that era, seeing them perform in Big Sur under the stars in front of maybe 200 people at a camp ground, walking to the stage from our site merely a few dozen meters away, is probably a top 3 concert experience. Aidan Girt stopping by our post show camp fire, partaking in our whisky and shit talking the band's experience playing Coachella was absolutely a topper of a memory too

I don't think any music will ever make me feel the way GY!BE did when I was a teenager listening to F♯A♯∞ and Slow Riot... in the dark, but idk I listen to the new album and it's fine I guess?

Yeah, this is great. I think this might be the best of the "comeback" records. Weird to think that they've now put out more full lengths since coming back from the hiatus than they released during the initial run.

The revival has lasted longer than the initial run in terms of years, too.

Not sure anything on the new one pushes my buttons quite the way Mladic does, but that’s a pretty unique thing anyway. New one is very good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UmgDLGpl9ME

For a little context

Bro holy shit. The lost Godspeed You! Black Emperor tape is now available.

A random dude on 4chan dropped the full tape where there are only 33 copies of it left and how it used to be a lost media but now it's here today it's crazy. pic.twitter.com/wTmimhTFBo

— Psycho (Like Limited) Lad (@LadPsycho) February 4, 2022

https://www.discogs.com/release/218865-God-Speed-You-Black-Emperor-All-Lights-Fucked-On-The-Hairy-Amp-Drooling

And from the notes on that Discogs page:

Jeanette Leech wrote in "Fearless: The Making Of Post-Rock" (Jawbone Press, 2017) on Page 302-303:
"Menuck was 'doing this four-track thing in my house, usually at three in the morning, coming home from a bar, just doing something quickly, and then trying to turn it into something the next day'. In 1994, as 'a young man's formal experiment', Menuck self-released a cassette, in an edition of thirty-three: All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling.
'The idea was this would be the last thing I would ever do,' Menuck says. 'A big dramatic gesture that nobody would care about. It was a private thing, let's get this out of my system, and then figure out something else to do with my life. It's pretty ragged, and there are some shared qualities with what Godspeed became, but I don't know if those similarities would be evident to anyone but those of us on the inside.' The tape was mostly just Menuck, but Mauro Pezzente also plays on a couple of tracks; the biggest difference between this material and Godspeed, Menuck says, is, 'There's singing on it. I can't really listen to it objectively, and it's not like I listen to it a lot. I think the last time I listened to it was six years ago. I think it's interesting.' Despite many hoaxes, to date the cassette hasn't been leaked on the internet or offered for sale on the open market. 'For years, I've been saying it's gonna get out there someday, and people are gonna be pretty disappointed, because it's of the time,' Menuck says.

😮