(((folkYEAH!))) Presents Godspeed You! Black Emperor plus Jessica Moss
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
at The Chapel San Francisco, CA March 13-17, 2023
Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a string of albums from 1997-2002 widely recognized as redefining what protest music can be, where longform instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance. The band's first four releases--especially F#A#? (1997) and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)--are variously regarded as classics of the era and genre. Godspeed's legendary live performances, featuring multiple 16mm projectors beaming a collage of overlapping analog film loops and reels--along with the distinctive iconography, imagery and tactility of the band's album artwork and physical LP packages-- further defines the sui generis aesthetic substance, ethos and mythos of this group. GY!BE has issued two official band photos in its 25-year existence (the second, left, a 2010 recreation of the first from 1997) and has done a half-dozen collectively-answered written interviews over that same span. The band has never had a website or social media accounts. It has never made a video. Few rock bands in our 21st century have been as steadfast in trying to let the work speak for itself and maintaining simple rules about minimising participation in cultures of personality, exposure, access, commodification or co-optation.
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More about Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE) is a Canadian experimental music collective 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 in 1997, the group toured regularly from 1998 to 2003. Their second album, 2000's Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven, received great critical acclaim and has been named as one of the best albums of the decade. In 2003, the band announced an indefinite hiatus in order for members to pursue other musical interests. In the intervening period, the group was occasionally rumored to have broken up, but finally reconvened for a tour which began in late 2010. Since reforming, they have released four more albums, the most recent being G_d's Pee at State's End! in April 2021.
The band has gained a dedicated cult following and remains very influential in the post-rock genre. In September 2013, their fourth album and their comeback release after 10 years, 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, won the 2013 Polaris Music Prize.
One of the band's best known songs, "East Hastings", from their 1997 album F? A? ?, was used in the 2002 film 28 Days Later. However, it does not appear on the film's soundtrack because the rights to the song could not be obtained. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godspeed_You!_Black_Emperor
