Godspeed You Black Emperor are much darker, less pastoral than Sigur Ros.... Lots of slow, minor key guitar/bass/violin/cello-laced passages that gradually build up to deafening crescendoes.... Unlike Sigur Ros, there are no sung vocals, instead they use field recordings of crazed street preachers, automated voice announcements at airports, supermarkets, train stations, etc to convey this sense of societal dread, dehumanisation, mechanization, the post-modern nightmare etc. Their concerts, by the way, are amazing. Lots of sinister film projections of urban landscapes, homeless people, etc. , very much worth checking out. Their debut record F#A# is the grimmest music I have ever heard. Also, get their "Lift Yr Skinny Fists..." record, it is their definitive musical statement. I saw both Sigur Ros and Godspeed last year and they were the two best shows I saw of 2003. Also, Efrim (lead guitarist and the de facto spokesperson for Godspeed) has a side project called Silver Mt Zion ( or some similar variation of the name) , which is also worth checking out. Also there is a great, young band called Explosions in the Sky from Austin who are sort of in this vein of serious instrumental rock that are definitely worth checking out. Feel free to PM me if you enjoy discussing this sort of music (Sigur, GYBE, Yo La Tengo, Tortoise, Mogwai, etc. )
the Rapture moved from the West Coast to NYC a year or two ago and hooked up with the DFA production crew, who transformed their sound from dark-ish garage emo to more of a dance music style... I saw the Rapture about three years ago at No tsu Oh's ( a seedy coffeehouse in downtown Houston) and their sound was much different from the Rapture of today..... No way did Echoes deserve #1 on Pitchfork's Top 50 of 2003 list.... down with NYC electro!!!!
crackhead, Thanks for the info on GYBE. I have heard of Mogwai but don't know much about them - same for Tortoise (didn't one of their band members leave to go to Corgan's short-lived band, Zwan?). I take it that you probably know about Modest Mouse. What are they like compared to Sigur Ros and GYBE?
i thought that was an older moe. album? i could be wrong. anyways, what are some good tracks off it? i have a few moe. songs (rebubula and plane crash rock), but would love to hear a few more quality tracks from em.
Nope, it came out in February last year, I believe. It's definitely 2003 as copyrighted on the back of the cd. I really like Crab Eyes (which is awesome live) and Bullet. I'm a weird CD listener in that I tend to dig them more as a whole, so a consequence of that, at least the way I listen, is that I rarely can say, "Hey! I love this song called ____". I know I love the song that's after this song or that song, but I never take the time to grab the CD case and find out the name. A certain group named after a South African obviously excluded. I'm weird.
Yeah i thought i went and bought One Word Extinguisher cd, but i bought the outake and remix version. Buts its still good i think. Will i guess try to pick up the real version soon.
