History Music / GodspeedYouBlackEmperor

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Since ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' features only Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya, and Mauro Pezzente, this is to be expected. Most of the tracks are short, many feature singing, there's almost no percussion of any sort and few samples, and it overall barely resembles the style of post-rock the band is famous for, sounding more like a noise folk band like the Microphones.

The group takes its name from a 1976 black-and-white Japanese biker film. The group's debut recording, ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'', was released in 1994 and limited to thirty-three copies on cassette. Due to its rarity, the album became a MissingEpisode for over thirty years, having gone unheard outside the band's circle of friends and Constellation Records (which allegedly still owns a copy of the album). Two tracks of it were uploaded in 2013 and were confirmed to be legitimate, but the full album only surfaced online in 2022, right before it was finally uploaded to the band's official Bandcamp.

* {{Instrumentals}}: Most songs, though many have [[SpokenWordInMusic spoken word]].

** The voice in "String Loop Manufactured During Downpour" (from "Bleak, Uncertain, Beautiful..." and "Providence") singing "Where are you going?" is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-RXLGxe-9c sampled]] from the [[Film/{{Godspell}} 1973 film adaptation]] of the musical ''Theatre/{{Godspell}}''. This probably doubles as a StealthPun on the band's own name.

* CallBack, ContinuityNod: At the start of the movement "Kicking Horse on Brokenhill" from "Providence" (and "Bleak, Uncertain, Beautiful...") on ''F♯ A♯ ∞'', the band sampled [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hazel_Dickens Hazel Dickens]] singing [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mason_Daring Mason Daring]]'s song "Gathering Storm" in the film ''Matewan''. One of the songs on their next album is called "Storm", one of its movements is also named "Gathering Storm", and it incorporates melodic elements of Daring's song. Could also count as a TriumphantReprise and possibly also as a CoverVersion (none of the movements list composers).

** "Gathering Storm" is, in some senses, an instrumental cover of a folk song by film composer Mason Daring, which appears in ''Matewan'' (1987, dir. John Sayles). "Kicking Horse on Brokenhill" from ''F♯ A♯ ∞'' (part of either "Bleak, Uncertain, Beautiful..." or "Providence", depending on the format) had already sampled Hazel Dickens singing the song.

* MinisculeRocking: Contrasting with their later discography, most tracks on ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' are under 3 minutes in length

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Since ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' features only Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya, and Mauro Pezzente, this is to be expected. Most of the tracks are short and feature vocals, there's almost no percussion of any sort and few samples, and it overall barely resembles the style of post-rock the band is famous for, sounding more like a noise folk band like the Microphones.

* EpicRocking: In spades. Long story short, it's easier to count the number of Godspeed songs that are ''under'' 10 minutes than over. Most of their songs exceed nineteen minutes in length, and two are so long that they had to be split across two sides for the vinyl releases:

The group takes its name from a 1976 black-and-white Japanese biker film. The group's debut recording, ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'', was released in 1994 and limited to thirty-three copies on cassette. The group's label, Constellation Records, has one copy, but the locations of the rest are unknown. Due to its rarity, it's a bit of a case of [[FanonDiscontinuity Discontinuity]] with fans, although this is mostly because, for over 30 years, nobody outside the label or the band's circle of friends had heard it. Two tracks of it surfaced in 2013 and were confirmed to be genuine, but it would take until early 2022 for the full thing to finally surface online. While this upload initially provoked controversy as to its authenticity, the band themselves finally confirmed its existence by uploading the demo to their official Bandcamp.

* ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' (Demo, 1994)

The group takes its name from a 1976 black-and-white Japanese biker film. The group's debut recording, ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'', was released in 1994 and limited to thirty-three copies on cassette. The group's label, Constellation Records, has one copy, but the locations of the rest are unknown. Due to its rarity, it's a bit of a case of [[FanonDiscontinuity Discontinuity]] with fans, although this is mostly because, for over 30 years, nobody outside the label or the band's circle of friends had heard it. Two tracks of it surfaced in 2013 and were confirmed to be genuine, but it would take until early 2022 for the full thing to finally surface online. While this upload initially provoked controversy as to its authenticity, the band themselves finally confirmed its existence by uploading the demo to their official Bandcamp. It could also be considered a case of CanonDiscontinuity, as the band members appear to regard it as an OldShame.

The follow up (generally considered to be their actual debut album), ''F♯ A♯ ∞'', was released in 1997 on vinyl and 1998 on CD. The two editions are notably different; the CD version is almost twice the length of the vinyl due to added, lengthened, and rearranged movements. It is considered by some a loose ConceptAlbum about the apocalypse.

* CanonDiscontinuity: ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' is unlikely ever to be officially released to the public, at least during the band members' lifetimes. While the band members are aware that people want to hear it and seem to regard it as inevitable that eventually someone will get their hands on a copy of the cassette and rip the entire thing (a couple of tracks have been ripped, but the person who was going to rip the whole thing sold it), they're not exactly moving to facilitate matters. They seem to regard the tape as an OldShame.

* CoverVersion: The very first movement of "Antennas to Heaven," "Moya Sings 'Baby-O'" is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: Mike Moya singing the folk song "What'll We Do with the Baby-O."

An upload purporting to be the band's long-coveted demo ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to a certain infamous {{Image Board|s}} in February 2022. It's not yet clear whether it's genuine, though if it's fake, its creator would've needed to fake elements such as Efrim Menuck's singing voice, the band's rhythmic qualities and guitar tones, and a different portion of the conversation sampled in "Mouths Trapped in Static" (by GY!BE sister project Set Fire to Flames) - not to mention the inclusion of tracks that had been played on Canadian radio and confirmed to be from the demo, as well as much better-quality rips of two tracks that had previously surfaced in 2013. The GY!BE Discord has confirmed it to be legitimate, and on Valentine's Day 2022 the band released the demo on their official Bandcamp page, definitively confirming it to be real.

As of 2021, most of their discography (excluding ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'', the non-album single "Sunshine + Gasoline", and the vinyl bonus material on ''Yanqui U.X.O.'') can be streamed at [[https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/ their Bandcamp]] for free (or purchased for download), and an absolutely colossal number of live performances can be streamed and downloaded at the [[https://archive.org/details/GodspeedYouBlackEmperor Internet Archive]] for free.

The group takes its name from a 1976 black-and-white Japanese biker film. The group's debut recording, ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'', was released in 1994 and limited to thirty-three copies on cassette. The group's label, Constellation Records, has one copy, but the locations of the rest are unknown. Due to its rarity, it's a bit of a case of [[FanonDiscontinuity Discontinuity]] with fans, although this is mostly because no one outside the label and the band's close circle of friends has actually heard it (despite recordings claiming to be this tape leaking out on occasion, they have all, thus far, proven to be fakes; only two songs from the demo have genuinely surfaced. More info can be found in the Trivia tab). It could also be considered a case of CanonDiscontinuity, as the band members appear to regard it as an OldShame.

An upload purporting to be the band's long-coveted demo ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to a certain infamous {{Image Board|s}} in February 2022. It's not yet clear whether it's genuine, though if it's fake, its creator would've needed to fake elements such as Efrim Menuck's singing voice, the band's rhythmic qualities and guitar tones, and a different portion of the conversation sampled in "Mouths Trapped in Static" (by GY!BE sister project Set Fire to Flames) - not to mention the inclusion of tracks that had been played on Canadian radio and confirmed to be from the demo, as well as much better-quality rips of two tracks that had previously surfaced in 2013. Although the band and label still haven't officially commented on the leak, the GY!BE Discord has confirmed it to be legitimate.

** ''G_d's Pee at State's End!'' brings sampled spoken-word parts back for the first time in a while; these are apparently sampled from shortwave radio, and open each of the longer pieces on the album. The most notable drone segments are those underpinning the two shortwave segments, along with the shorter piece "Fire at Static Valley". Sophie Trudeau's violin, which was always an important part of the band's sound, gets an expanded role on this album, notably becoming the lead instrument on the final track "Our Side Has to Wind (for D.H.)". Overall, its mood is somewhat of a piece with that of ''"Luciferian Towers"'' in being less dark than the band's earlier work, despite being recorded during the COVID-19 lockdown; although it is mournful at times, it remains hopeful even then.

* ArcNumber[=/=]RuleOfThree: ''All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling'' features a recurring 3 motif, starting with the fact that only 33 copies were ever produced. 3 is featured predominantly within album art, multiple songs feature the number in some way ("Three Three Three", "$13.13", "333 Frames Per Second"), and the album is 3³ tracks long. Ironically, it also took slightly over 3³ for a complete rip of the demo to surface online.

* ArcNumber: ''All Lights Fucked On The Hairy Amp Drooling'' features a recurring 3 motif, starting with the fact that only 33 copies were ever produced. 3 is featured predominantly within album art, multiple songs feature the number in some way ("Three Three Three", "$13.13", "333 Frames Per Second"), and the album is 3³ tracks long.

[=EP's, singles, and other releases:=]

An upload purporting to be the band's long-coveted demo ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to a certain infamous {{Image Board|s}} in February 2022. It's not yet clear whether it's genuine, though if it's fake, its creator would've needed to fake elements such as Efrim Menuck's singing voice, the band's rhythmic qualities and guitar tones, and a different portion of the conversation sampled in "Mouths Trapped in Static" (by GY!BE sister project Set Fire to Flames). That said, however, the GY!BE Discord confirmed it to be legitimate.

An upload purporting to be the band's long-coveted demo ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to a certain infamous {{Image Board|s}} in February 2022. It's not yet clear whether it's genuine, though if it's fake, its creator would've needed to fake elements such as Efrim Menuck's singing voice, the band's rhythmic qualities and guitar tones, and a different portion of the conversation sampled in "Mouths Trapped in Static". That said however, the GYBE discord confirmed it to be legitimate.

It's also worth noting that their music contains a strong political component. They have been repeatedly described in the media as [[UsefulNotes/{{Anarchism}} anarchists]], although for a long time no one in the group explicitly subscribed to this label; however, Menuck called himself an anarchist in [[http://therumpus.net/2014/04/the-rumpus-interview-with-efrim-menuck/ a 2014 interview]], and their 2017 album ''"Luciferian Towers"'' ultimately removed any doubt about their political leanings between its accompanying press releases and song titles such as "Bosses Hang" and "Anthem for No State". (The band's politics are [[http://www.tra-la-la-band.com/f-a-q/ hilariously lampshaded in sister project A Silver Mt. Zion's FAQ]]). In any case, their music definitely articulates a strong anti-authoritarian and anti-capitalist stance, which is even more explicit in sister band [[Music/SilverMtZion A Silver Mt. Zion]] (which contains several of the same members). That said, Efrim Menuck has said the band don't consciously try to be political, but simply write songs about the sort of things they talk about with their friends.

* WordSaladTitle: ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling.'' Also, a lot of their song titles, especially in recent years. This extends to sister projects like A Silver Mt. Zion and Set Fire to Flames as well.

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness: Since ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' features only Efrim Menuck, Mike Moya, and Mauro Pezzente, this is to be expected.

An upload purporting to be the band's long-coveted demo ''All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling'' was posted to a certain infamous {{Image Board|s}} in February 2022. It's not yet clear whether it's genuine, though if it's fake, its creator would've needed to fake elements such as Efrim Menuck's singing voice, the band's rhythmic qualities and guitar tones, and a different portion of the conversation sampled in "Mouths Trapped in Static".

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Their songs are difficult to classify because they explore territory anywhere from 1 to about a 7 or 8 (mostly; "Mladic" is largely in 9 territory after the first five minutes, with some portions arguably reaching 10). Overall they probably come out in the 4-6 range.

* BadassBeard: Efrim Menuck.