Godspeed! You Black Emperor Yanqui U.X.O. Is one of the most amazing albums to come out of the 2000's. It is also one of the albums I would choose for the soundtrack to the end of the world. I would never want to witness or even see this ever happen, but if it did the music of Godspeed! You Black Emperor would be some the main music for the end of the world.
I got into this band in early 2000 by a friend. He asked me to play them on my radio show and he was sure I heard of them. After the show he saw me and asked me why I did not play his request. I told him neither the station nor myself had any. The next day I had a ticket to see them and copies of all their stuff up to that point. I listen with intent to use for the next show. I was also very impressed with their stuff and the instrumentation.
GSYBE is a band not to be taken lightly. They are awesome and full of sound that I have never heard before. What makes it more fun they are great to make people stop talking when you have them in the background at a gathering. People just are just in awe of their power. I mean come on the instruments alone sound some kind of great orchestra. You have as follows; 2 Guitars, 2 Basses, 2 Drummers and a few cellos and a few violins. You make carefully and wonderful music that could make anyone just shrivel up and cringe with nervousness or even get them scared. Thank god there is no jukeboxes that have it because it would change the mood of the entire bar.
What makes Godspeed fun is they know how to use this music to create a emotion like no other. It evokes something that can not be describes and when played live (I have seen them twice) the place is silent and watching with intent. There are not many bands and or artist have this emotional feeling of uncertainty in their music, but GSYBE does and they do it well.
What is fun about this band is the fact it does not follow the simple standards of popular song. They don't even go with lyrics and even better the sound bites are people, common everyday people who talk about how they would change the world or their view of it. There are also just regular sound clips from field recordings that sound really well put together with the music that is playing.
What makes this band even more fun is the length of the songs. When I saw them the first time I needed to soak it all in so I did not pay attention like I should. The second time I saw them they played two and half hours and did a total of eight songs. It was an experience like no other and more then likely will be repeated again. These songs range in from the shortest being 6 minutes in length to the longest was twenty-two minutes.
This band treats there music with the up most care, and most of all they are serious about it too. There are not many bands like this and what I like is the fact they treat it this way. They even have many song titles for one song, the fact they tell you where in the twenty minute piece where the title is amazing. Even there titles are amazingly titled pieces of greatness. There are a few spin off bands that GSYBE is associated with and each has the same idea. This world of three minute pop songs never did it for me, and this band proves you can make great music without the help of video or airplay or even the three minutes. If I ever get a band together this what I would want to do. Enjoy a band that is tough on the surface, but once you start peeling the layers its quite a treat inside.
GSYBE make it fun just to sit back and zone out to hear all the pieces fit in a very complex but understandable puzzle. Once you hear it play out you want to hear again to hear if you missed and for me the structures are worth repeating just to hear how they got from point A to point B and from there to point C. Listen...ssshhhhh I can hear it now.
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so what happend to GBYBE? I recally clearly when they came out. There was a fair amount indie buzz around them at the time.
ReplyDeleteI was really into Post Rock at the time, but it was beginning to "peak" so to speak. With bands like Tortoise/Stereolab/Gastr del Sol having done their best stuff in the mid/late 90s.
Then along comes GBYBE, and really shoots a lot of energy into the whole scene. Sort of taking off where Slint left off. A much more electric and loud form of Post Rock than Tortoise/Stereolab/Gastr del Sol. I really liked the first full album, although the talking bits go on way too long. Their second album is even better. I recally buying them via snail mail from Kranky's mail order catalog. Ahh, the good ole days.
I remember just being happy that there was a band like GSYBE in existence. They had like over 10 people in the band didn't they? I liked that some dudes would put a collective like this together and try to (and did) sustain it for at least awhile. Ahh.. the good old days.
Rick/Akajazzman