"They have a large barge"?
December 7, 2005 3:49 PM   Subscribe

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - East Hastings: "They have a large barge with a radio antenna tower on it, that they would charge up and discharge." Where's this from (if anywhere)? I've looked around several places that weren't here including Google and no one could answer.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim to Media & Arts (13 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Could you clarify the question--what's the "this" you're asking about?
posted by tula at 3:53 PM on December 7, 2005


I'm assuming it's a quote from one of the samples used in a Godspeed You! Black Emperor song, possibly called "East Hastings"? (I'm not up on their back catalogue so I couldn't tell you where the sample came from.)
posted by chrominance at 3:56 PM on December 7, 2005


yeah, it's a sample from a track called 'East Hastings'. Dunno where it's from either.
posted by atrazine at 4:08 PM on December 7, 2005


Got a sample of the sample for us to listen to maybe?
posted by pwb503 at 4:23 PM on December 7, 2005


Efrim Menuck, the lead guitarist, also happens to make films, and the field recordings and dialouge in all of GY!BE's material are from those films. I can't give you the exact title of the film used for East Hastings, but it's a start.

They also use footage from his films as a backdrop during shows.

If you're really into post-rock, check out my mp3 blog.
posted by Mach3avelli at 4:27 PM on December 7, 2005


Could it be something from the origins of pirate radio?

The term barge does appear on that page, but not necessarily in the same context.
posted by jkaczor at 4:29 PM on December 7, 2005


Mach is correct. It's an original "sample", as is the one from Dead Flag Blues, the track that precedes East Hastings.
posted by dobbs at 4:47 PM on December 7, 2005


I agree with Mach3avelli: I read somewhere that all of the "field recordings" in GY!BE tracks are from the collective's own filmography. Yes, unfortunately, even the rant from "Blaise Bailey Finnegan III" is the band's own creation. This fact leads to some great review copy. These guys, for instance, despite all their references to Henryk Gorecki [sic] and Arvo Part [sic], don't realize that Blaze Bayley was the singer for Iron Maiden. Oh, hipsters.

In the case of "Dead Flag Blues," the monologue comes from An Incomplete Film About Jail. Maybe the "large barge" bit comes from the same film?
posted by electric_counterpoint at 6:18 PM on December 7, 2005


To be fair, Blaze Bayley was only a temporary replacement for Bruce Dickinson. I don't think he was even around as long as the original singer, Paul DiAnno. BBF3 is a great tune though. GY!BE rocked pretty hard when I saw them live (after which they were detained by the authori-tahs in Oklahoma).

Their spoken word snippets were all over the place. I remember one was from the outside PA speaker at a grocery store...basically something involving not feeding the homeless people in the parking lot. I hear they broke up recently, which saddens me because i really liked them. Oh well, they had a million side projects going at all times anyway, so there's that.
posted by First Post at 6:44 PM on December 7, 2005


First Post- Did you see them a few years back at the Ridglea? (I notice you're from DFW.) I was at that show...SO kickass.

Where did you hear that they broke up? That would suck.
posted by youcancallmeal at 9:04 PM on December 7, 2005


Response by poster: They haven't done anything together in a long time. ASMZ is still active, but is now very different from Godspeed. Supposedly Godspeed is only on indefinite hiatus, last I heard...
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:37 PM on December 7, 2005


Response by poster: Oh, and by ASMZ I mean A Silver Mount Zion / The Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La-Band / The Silver Mount Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La-Band with Choir / Thee Silver Mountain Reveries, the multiply named side project that started with three of Godspeed and now is something like half of Godspeed...

If you like Godspeed you're likely to like their first two releases, and I like the other three but no one else I know does.
posted by TheOnlyCoolTim at 9:39 PM on December 7, 2005


Regarding ASMZ, Efrim's vocals aren't to the taste of many people, but if you can learn to tolerate them [or even enjoy them, as they are very expressive], the music's very worthwhile. If they're a little too much, the first two albums ["He Has Left Us Alone But Shafs of Light Still Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Room" and "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward"] have few vocals and are more like a stripped-down GYBE.
posted by ubersturm at 11:27 AM on December 10, 2005


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