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Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Godspeed You! Black Emperor Bio
Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a string of albums from 1997-2002 widely recognized as redefining what
protest music can be, where longform instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power
serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance. The band’s first four releases—especially F#A#∞
(1997) and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)—are variously regarded as classics of the era
and genre. Godspeed’s legendary live performances, featuring multiple 16mm projectors beaming a collage of
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 the sui generis aesthetic substance, ethos and mythos
of this group. GY!BE has issued two official band photos in its 25-year existence (the second, below, a 2010
recreation of the first from 1997) and has done a half-dozen collectively-answered written interviews over that
same span. The band has never had a website or social media accounts. It has never made a video. Few rock bands
in our 21st century have been as steadfast in trying to let the work speak for itself and maintaining simple rules
about minimising participation in cultures of personality, exposure, access, commodification or co-optation.
Following a seven-year hiatus that began in 2003, Godspeed returned to the stage in December 2010 (curating
the UK festival All Tomorrow’s Parties) and the band’s post-reunion period has now lasted over a decade, marked
by hundreds of sold-out live shows and three additional albums, all of which have been met with high acclaim.
G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! – the band’s fourth post-reunion album (and eighth overall) – is out 02 April 2021.
“What’s political music? All music is political, right? You either make music that pleases the king and his court, or
you make music for the serfs outside the walls. It’s what music (and culture) is for, right? To distract or confront, or
both at the same time? A thing a lot of people got wrong about us – when we did it the first time, a whole lot of what
we were about was joy. We tried to make heavy music, joyously. Times were heavy but the party line was everything
was OK. There were a lot of bands that reacted to that by making moaning ‘heavy’ music that rang false. We hated
that music, we hated that privileging of individual angst, we wanted to make music like Ornette’s Friends and
Neighbours, a joyous, difficult noise that acknowledged the current predicament but dismissed it at the same time.
A music about all of us together or not at all. We hated that we got characterised as a bummer thing. But we knew
that was other people’s baggage. For us every tune started with the blues but pointed to heaven near the end,
because how could you find heaven without acknowledging the current blues, right?” The Guardian, October 2012
Alan Sparhawk Bio
Thirty years into a career of music making, 2024 finds Alan Sparhawk entering uncharted territory. Sparhawk co-founded the band Low alongside vocalist and drummer Mimi Parker, who passed away in late 2022. Their music derived elemental power from its fearless exploration of quiet, gentle places. Low released thirteen albums and influenced a movement of spacious, graceful, intimate, and ever-evolving music.
Over time, Low’s anthemic songs heightened in urgency and tone, unearthing new layers of musical exploration and lyrical questioning. Their final album, Grammy nominated “Hey What,” was released in 2021 to universal acclaim and marked a high point in their musical evolution and trajectory.
Sparhawk has recently been playing with various collaborators and projects with friends and family members, including guest appearances with Yo La Tengo, Trampled by Turtles, Peder Mannerfelt, Charlie Parr, and funk band Derecho Rhythm Section. He will perform solo shows in NY in February 2024 and is recording new music for release in 2024.