Get Thee to Godspeed

If Henryk Gorecki's "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs (No. 3, Opus 36)" had been written for a nine-piece rock band instead of a symphony orchestra, it would be godspeed you black emperor!'s recent double album, Lift Your Skinny Fists like Antennas to Heaven (2000, Kranky). Making use of the severely neglected line up of three guitars, two basses, a French horn, a violin, a viola, a cello, and percussion combined with an array of spoken samples, the Montreal collective's most recent effort is a well-crafted, minimalist opus that invokes hope, melancholy, humor, and rage through fragments of cacophony and just plain rock and roll. Stretching for nearly an hour and a half, the double album is no small time commitment. However, the band's driving crescendos and serene lapses are incredibly engaging and well worth the effort.

The band takes their sprawling sonic aesthetic to the stage this week in three shows at New York City's Bowery Ballroom on Dec. 5, 6, and 7. Be warned: the 21+ show on Dec. 7 is sold out. Word on the proverbial street is that the band sounds fantastic live and supplements their ambling musical streams with a captivating multi-media show. Additionally, godspeed you black emperor! is joined, all three nights, by Bonnie Prince Billie (a.k.a. Will Oldham) and the Marquis de Tren (Dirty Three's Mick Turner) who are guaranteed to bring the crowd somber, lo-fi, country-influenced tales like the those on 2000's Get on Jolly EP (Palace Records).