Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor returns with another soundtrack for our times. As the heretical anarcho-punk spirit of the title implies, Godspeed harnesses some particularly raw power, spittle, and grit across two riveting 20-minute side-length trajectories of noise-drenched widescreen post-rock: inexorable chug blossoms into blown-out twang, as some of the band’s most soaring, searing melodies ricochet and converge amidst violin and bassline counterpoint. Field recordings and roiling semi-improvised passages frame these fervent epics, and two shorter self-contained 6-minute pieces find the band at its most devastatingly beautiful, haunting, and elegiac. Poignant atmospherics, noise-drenched orchestration, drone, hypnotic swingtime crescendos, inexorably-layered towers of distorted clarion sound: G_d's Pee AT STATE’S END (2021) encapsulates every beloved facet of the band. Twenty-five years on, this new album is as vital, stirring, timely and implacable as any in Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s storied discography.

STATE’S END was recorded and mixed in Montréal in October 2020 at the group’s homebase studio Thee Mighty Hotel2Tango by Jace Lasek, the veteran award-winning indie producer (and co-founder of The Besnard Lakes) who worked with Godspeed for the first time on this recording.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a string of albums from 1997-2002 widely recognized as redefining what punk- and politically-informed music can be, where longform instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance. F#A#∞ (1997), Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada EP (1999), Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000), and Yanqui U.X.O. (2002) are all variously regarded as classics of the era and genre. Godspeed's legendary live performances, featuring multiple 16mm projectors beaming 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 its sui generis aesthetic substance.

Few rock bands in our 21st century have been as steadfast in letting the work speak for itself and maintaining a simple rule about non-participation in cultures of personality, celebrity, access, commodification, and co-optation. Following a seven-year hiatus that began in 2003, Godspeed returned to the stage in December 2010 and its post-reunion period has now lasted more than a decade, marked by hundreds of sold-out live shows and additional albums which have all been met with wide and high acclaim: ALLELUJAH! DON'T BEND! ASCEND! (2012), 'Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress' (2015), and Luciferian Towers (2017).

Past Shows


Mar
18
th
2022
First Avenue
Mar
18
th
2022
First Avenue
Mar
17
th
2018
Mainroom
Mar
17
th
2018
Mainroom

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

with KGD and The Hand
Feb
11
th
2016
Mainroom
Feb
11
th
2016
Mainroom

Godspeed You! Black Emperor

with Xylouris White

More Shows

Oct
3
rd
Palace Theatre

Sammy Rae & The Friends

Oct
3
rd
Fine Line

Ocie Elliott

May
12
th
Fine Line

He Is Legend

with Codeseven and The Seafloor Cinema
May
29
th
Turf Club

Lizzie No