Godspeed You! Black Emperor

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are releasing a new album

Pre-orders of the Montreal band’s LP are available exclusively from independent record stores.

Godspeed You! Black Emperor are legends of the post-rock / experimental music subgenres and the local scene. They’ve influenced a generation of Montreal bands, spawned a number of great local offshoots and solo projects and lent cred to the city’s reputation internationally at a time when the scene was known primarily for Celine Dion and a spattering of ska bands. Individual GYBE members also laid some of the scene’s foundational stones in the late ’90s and early aughts with the Hotel2Tango recording studio and Casa del Popolo and Sala Rossa music venues, more recently investing in Bar le Ritz PDB, among many other music biz endeavours.

Since 1997 the band has only released six studio albums, but yesterday, through their Montreal label Constellation Records, a seventh Godspeed LP was announced: G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! will be released on April 2. The famously private band released a statement about the making of the record and the themes therein (read it in its entirety, along with the complete track list and credits, here):

this record is about all of us waiting for the end. 
all current forms of governance are failed.
this record is about all of us waiting for the beginning, 
and is informed by the following demands=
empty the prisons
take power from the police and give it to the neighbourhoods that they terrorise.
end the forever wars and all other forms of imperialism.
tax the rich until they’re impoverished.

—Godspeed You! Black Emperor
G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! by Godspeed You! Black Emperor is out April 2

The album is already available for pre-order. As explained by Constellation, the release has been planned in such a way as to help struggling independent record stores:

“100+ independent record shops are receiving an advance 10” and invited to share clips of this music spinning in their stores or homes or wherever they find themselves with a turntable, in isolation or otherwise.

“(There will be no advance ‘singles’ on SpotifApple or other streaming platforms. The record is not available for preorder on Amazon.)

Constellation & GY!BE support indies and urge people to preorder from them.”

—Constellation Records

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