Godspeed You! Black Emperor are no more

The saddest news that I'll probably hear in 2008. I don't know what else to say...

GoldenSpiral wrote: Ricochet wrote: GoldenSpiral wrote: That is sad, even though I never really did expect them to get back together. The "Tiny Little Hammers" EP doesn't actually exist.... whoever wrote the article didn't do their research very well. But it's mentioned on Wikipedia too. Knowing GY!BE, it's probably an amazing record that they recorded onto a single mastertape, and then destroyed it just because they could.

Tiny Little Hammers is a bootleg of Motherfvcker=Redeemer. Not really an official release as some might think.

AceBad wrote: Ricochet wrote: no, the EP is not a masterpiece.   only the big gun albums are. for me, of course... How can you say that!! "Slow Riot For New Zero Kanada" is amazing! I think it's their greatest work...

I know what the general opinion is on Slow Riot...I just don't think, myself, that's it's the excellent stuff from the full major works. It's detached, as style and spirit, directly from F#a#, some moments are great, the others just okay.

 

I already assumed the band had broken up but i suppose they finally decided to submit an excuse to fans so they would stop asking. I don't understand why they would make such an obviously veiled excuse, but i understand why they would finally want to make the break up "official".

I'm gutted at the news but nothing last forever I guess.  When you consider that the collective was a constantly evolving beast with many musical offshoots, I for one am glad that they were around for as long as they were.

I only got to see them a couple of times, once on the Lift Yr Skinny Hands... tour down at a place called the Cat club in Bordeaux (France) which still ranks as the best gig I've ever witnessed. The club was down on the dockside in what looked like a set straight out of a David Lynch movie (all industrial and smokey - if you imagine Eraserhead, you'll know what I mean). At the end of the show, the band marched out through the audience playing all manner of percussion. I was a stunned little beastie for the rest of the night.

The second time was at The Ocean club in Hackney (London) and was lucky enough to have had a chat with a coupe of the guys in the bar before the show. We talked about touring (specifically, how it always seems to be guitar amps that break down first on any tour ) and were very sweet guys to be around. On stage, I could hardly recognize the people I had just spoken to and for a few hours, The Ocean became a haunted house.

They were simply magical and we shall not see their like again.

"we woke up one morning and fell a little further down"
GSYBE - Dead Flag Blues

'... the sun has fallen down
    and the billboards are all leering
    and the flags are all dead at the top of their poles...'

GYBE - Dead Flag Blues

chamberry wrote:

I have taken it cham...if you don't mind...

d.o.k wrote: sh*t ! i was waiting at least for en EP which could have contained "Albanian" and "Gamelan", two amazing pieces only played live (to my knowledge).

That would've been great, but the live versions that I have from sound just like a studio recording except for the end of the song where the audience applauds.

BTW, The band never had problems with one downloading their bootlegs and they can be downloaded legally from their website and archives.org  and that includes  Albanian and Gamelan.


That's right. Legal downloadable bootlegs from unreleased Godspeed songs for FREE.

whatever. I don't think they'll ever return to recording/touring as GYBE

anyway, thanks for bringing this up, Assaf

I've still never heard them, but at least now when I do check 'em out there is less discography to cover. Cynical, I know, but it's gonna save me money.