MXDWN: Sunday night’s headliners, Canadian ensemble Godspeed You! Black Emperor, pretty much have ATP to thank for renewed interest in their work, and their own interest in making new work. GY!BE were dormant until they played and curated ATP’s Nightmare Before Christmas in 2010; full tours and studio rumors blossomed afterwards. It’s easy to plant the post-rock label on them, but GY!BE aren’t just about the jam. Twenty minutes of music at a time aren’t jams, they’re damn near statements. Lit by their signature projection loops and surrounded by an ocean of amps, pedals, picks and other sound modifiers, they found new and frightening ways to mimic the low-end growl of a moving rocket and the noises of science-fictional space outside. Their music is that of the dread that never ends—the train that never quite reaches your damsel in distress, the optical illusion in which you live, the soundtrack to the lab experiment gone wrong. Godspeed You! Black Emperor exist to fuck up your shit, and tonight’s New York audience were more than happy to submit. MORE
PHAWKER: GYBE’s show tomorrow night at Union Transfer has been sold out of for years! Because we love, you we have a pair of tickets to give away to the 20th lucky Phawker reader to sign up for our mailing list. The sign up window is just to the right of this post at the bottom of the masthead. (Don’t worry, we will never share or sell your email address, unless you do something really bad on national television and the cops make us eat saltines under hot lights until we crack, because, we must admit, we would not hold up long under those circumstances.) Good luck and, um, Godspeed!
Godspeed You Black Emperor – The Dead Flag Blues
[Video by sonikku dammit]