godspeed you! black emperor: album/ep poll

this poll deserves its place among the pantheon

they said it all with the first album, shoulda quit there

slow riot

If any jackass wants to complain about the lack of a 'All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling' option, or the placement of the exclamation mark, then go right ahead.

You will be on the receiving end of my d-lock.

noones ever heard it, chances are it doesn't exist

also the results of this poll will be hideously rong

What's your choice?

My personal vote is for 'Slow Riot', I always say, with only the most minimal of hyperbole, that it changed my life.

yanqui uxo is the best thing these guys did by a gazillion light imo

*years

no

i heard slow riot first and i was pretty done after that.

voted for f♯a♯∞

lj it's good but not the best.

yanqui uxo is the best thing these guys did by a gazillion light imo

wau

rong

Has to be f♯a♯∞. It provided the template both musically and visually. And that intro has become legendary.

Haven't listened to Godspeed in a long time, and I rather tired of their formula by the time Yanqui came out. But they had their moments.

i think i would put yanqui in the top 5 TBF

so in that way we agree, LJ

someone needs to get my back, like, now

i'm going for skinny fists, but even back in 2000 i felt i was somehow missing something with this band.

yeah from what i remember yanqui uxo didn't have any awful fucking monologues, a plus, but it was also long and tedious. i remember f♯a♯∞ being murkier and shorter, and the one voiceover on it was ... bad but.. well bad. these guys kind of sucked didn't they

xx-posts

i liked yuxo a lot more than the TERRIBLE lift your asses up and poop into my mouth double cd thing

there are some beautiful moments on 'yanqui' but at least half of it is like "wow let's watch this climax slowly and predictably build for 20 minutes" which were straight-up boring compared to their best moments on say f#A#oo or skinny fists

for me it's either of those (f#A#oo or skinny fists)

also more than slow riot for stfu

x-post

ha but slow riot has the most of that one crazy street-prophet dude right? "america's third world country, third world third-rate third class slum"

slo riot

take it easy

godspeed gets a bad rap, tho it's not totally deserved. someone said it on another thread (the 'critically lauded 10 years ago' thread maybe??) that they're not all that different from SWANS in a lot of respects. just listen to them play over that crazy dude's monologues on 'slow riot' and it sounds exactly like something from 'soundtracks for the blind'

gira's mentioned something like that himself

yeah i'm "comically" overreacting i guess. i'd probably like most of these if i listened to them again but *shrug* don't care enough

slow riot because it does what they do well, and gets in and out in under 30 mins.

but my preference is colored by nostalgia. it was the first thing i heard by them, and when it came out i was living by myself, post-divorce, in a sort of shack in the woods. i would put it on and lie on the floor and watch the fire in my wood stove. by the time skinny fists came out i was pretty well done with that phase.

tipsy mothra are you the unabomber

they said it all with the first last album, shoulda quit started there

Fixed, thanks for playing!

yanqui uxo is the best thing these guys did by a gazillion light imo

Agreed...

They were amazing live when I saw them.

Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides and a dark wind blows. The government is corrupt, and we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn. We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death. And when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No." I open up my wallet and it's full of blood

^awful

tipsy mothra are you the unabomber

my friends said my place looked like the evil dead house. it was a big symbolic gesture, getting away from my old life, etc. no wonder i was vulnerable to godspeed.

OK, Yanqui UXO and why it rules compared to their previous albums:

-Sustained momentum
-Melodically and structurally denser
-Genuine understanding of repetition and how subtle modulations can wreak emotional chaos
-Better songwriting, viz. the ambient bits do not jar with the loud bits, they progress from and into them (see: sustained momentum)
-Bigger sound...they nailed feedback and cavernous guitar clang here better than ever before, when it had been for the most part ever-so-slightly-corny post-rock screwdrivering...Albini was at his very finest here
-Motherfucker = Redeemer Part 2 is one of the finest things I've ever heard in the medium of, hell, rock music...it's progressive, spiralling, unpredictable, gripping, and ultimately speechlessly beautiful
-Motherfucker = Redeemer Part 1 shows incredible nuance and depth in its second half...again, gorgeously produced
-Hell, RFORF is wonderfully stage-managed...it may have a more drawn-out build than previous GYBE but it's no more predictable, and indeed it has WAY more surprises than given credit for...it's all about the journey, not the destination (and when you reach the destination, it pulls back almost immediately again into mournful wonder)
-09-15-00 is a little more trite and straightforward than the others, but manages, largely by dint of its massy, both-up-front-AND-lurking-beneath sound, and again SUPERB use of subtly-altering repetition to be thoroughly likeable. Even Part 2. It's like a superior, more considered, more mature version of East Hastings (right down to the weird lengthy ambient outro)...also the last two minutes of Part 1 feature some quite, quite beautiful, keening, elegiac instrumentation that has pretty much burned itself onto my mind (like so many of this record's quirks)...the way guitars take over from strings and vice versa...elements taking over from each other, swapping blows, is a constant feature (especially in M=R2) which leads me to:
-This is an album of dichotomies, like so much 'post-rock' (hate that term) but the narrative defining them is labyrinthine, intense, and ultimately rewarding
-The previous records, good as they were, I just find to be bitty and unsatisfying for the most part. "The Dead Flag Blues" was by a considerable margin the best track these guys managed until they released this album...hell, even "Sleep" sounds a bit off these days
-Yanqui UXO is a definitive, meaty statement of doomy intent and it NEVER takes its eye off the ball

the car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel - a good thing surely?

If I was going to play one now, it would probably be Skinny Fists, 'cos y'know, the first 'bit' is great, and there's that other great that comes about 2 hours later when they suddenly wake up and start playing again, but really about halfway through the first side I'd probably think I should've played either f♯a♯∞ or kanada. Hardly listened to Yanqui after I got it. I'll come back to this one.

OK, Yanqui UXO and why it does not rule compared to their previous albums:

-It is crap

lol

country matters i'll give it a listen again soon

if you count slow riot as an ep then skinny fists is probably the best album just ahead of the first.

Lord help us if I'd put the LP & CD versions of f♯a♯∞ as separate options, we'd be here all week... ;-)

The best bit of "Lift" lasts from about the midpoint of the final track until the end imo

...granted that the bit ten minutes into "Storm" is vv pretty btw

there's 2 different vinyl versions isn't there?

Moya's kindof corny but it is v pretty so voted for slow riot

Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach. The car's on fire and there's no driver at the wheel. This city is afraid of me. I have seen its true face. The streets are extended gutters and the gutters are full of blood and the sewers are all muddied with a thousand lonely suicides and a dark wind blows. The government is corrupt, and we're on so many drugs with the radio on and the curtains drawn. We're trapped in the belly of this horrible machine, and the machine is bleeding to death. And when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No." I open up my wallet and it's full of blood

^^^^ LOL did none of u herbs actually get this

no i did, but only because i was just reading it earlier today. quality lol.

there's 2 different vinyl versions isn't there?

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Wednesday, 1 April 2009 00:32 (4 minutes ago)

No, just one vinyl version (as far as I know, apart from packaging changes). But the LP and CD versions are significantly different. I just thought it would confuse the issue to put them separate. Keep it simple.

For a bit more detail see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F%E2%99%AFA%E2%99%AF%E2%88%9E

noones ever heard it, chances are it doesn't exist

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, March 31, 2009 10:33 PM (56 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I am DLing something claiming to be it as I speak, could be someone dicking about tho - recall reading there were bootlegs in the days pre-filesharing and when I was wild about this band.

Slow Riot is probably it for me in this even though the last time I played it my main thought was "wait I don't actually want to hear ranting man as he says nothing interesting or blessed w/ a good turn of phrase" - HOWEVER he gets nowhere near enough credit (esp considering this band have haters everywhere) for pwning them by passing an entire set of Maiden lyrics off as his own work

After my avalanche of positive, one cautious negative: I do not get, straight up, people who think Slow Riot is the best one...one critic described Moya very well as "nothing but an overwrought scale exercise" and BBFIII is unfocused and not really very gripping although it does have a nice story about parking tickets ^_^

someone put a fake up on a blog a week or 2 ago
xp

I don't believe 'All Lights Fucked...' exists outside of the band and their immediate circle, if it does so at all. What you're downloading won't be it.

slow riot for me. lift yr skinny fists close second though.

i love the parking tickets story

and LOL at maiden lyrics

i had no idea, don't really know maiden very well

that's fucking GREAT tho

f♯a♯∞ is the one that had the most impact for me. i remember cbc's brave new waves playing it in it's entirety in the wee hours of the morning,and wondering what the/who the hell it was.

That wiki article has reminded me that I'm still pissed off that my f#a#∞ didn't come with any fancy shit inside.

I LOVE the Watchmen voice over part! One vote for f♯a♯∞.
Saw them live once, with Bonnie Prince Billy opening (with the Dirty Three as his backing band), in 2000 in New York, and it was pretty awesome.

I don't believe 'All Lights Fucked...' exists outside of the band and their immediate circle, if it does so at all. What you're downloading won't be it.

― krakow, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:49 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol no it's just like sessions and alt versions etc - eh no matter really

i had no idea, don't really know maiden very well

― mark cl, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The song is from the mid-90s so only dedicated Maiden fans would give a shit about it but it was sung by Blaze Bayley AHA DYS which makes it even funnier

i had no idea, don't really know maiden very well

― mark cl, Tuesday, March 31, 2009 11:50 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

The song is from the mid-90s so only dedicated Maiden fans would give a shit about it but it was sung by Blaze Bayley AHA DYS which makes it even funnier

So it could be deliberate fakery on the part of GYBE.

f♯a♯∞

... which is where they should have stopped. :)

I stumbled across albini talking about yanqui uxo just a couple weeks ago

Recording the Godspeed record were there any particular challenges recording a group that big (or perhaps they were pared down for recording?). They have a reputation for being this quiet shadowy group. True? I've always assumed this was a rep that came from not talking to the media etc so media just makes something up. Also any particular reason you didn't mix the record? Was the final project much of a departure from what left your studio? How long did the record take to make? thnx.

Albini: The Godspeed! sessions were done in two chunks, totalling about three weeks, and were taxing, but inspiring in a couple of weird ways.

The collective aspect of the band is something I'm familiar with and comfortable with, so that wasn't a problem, other than occasionally having to get everybody together and discuss different options at a little more length than usual. It intruded more when trying to decide where the smokers were going to smoke than any recording consideration.

Anybody who has been in even a three-piece band knows how difficult it can be to keep the peace, and I was impressed at the lengths these guys went to to make sure everyone in the band was heard.

The formal elements of the band and the music have their own inherent problems. The band had nine members: two drummers, three electric guitarists, two bassists, a 'cello, violin, various mallet percussion instruments, a music box and a penny whistle. Their music often has crescendos that begin very quiet (ppp) and are eventually hard rock loud (ffff). This mix of loud and quiet sounds, acoustic and electric instruments and a lot of people makes even the physical setup in the studio difficult. We had to try several arrangements of chairs and rooms, often moving everything involved in the session before everyone was comfortable.

The next problem was recording both the very quiet and very loud sounds accurately. Ordinarily, small adjustments can be made in mixing to compensate for louder and quieter parts, but this was an extreme case, with an active dynamic range of better than 28dB. The conventional or hack approach to a problem of wide dynamic range is to use compressors to restrict the top-end of the dynamic range, but I have never liked the artificial sound quality imparted by this method.

The "clamping" action of the compressor is noticeable, and it sacrifices detail at the highest point of the dynamic, when the music is reaching its biggest moments. This would be a particularly inappropriate choice for a band like Godspeed! Still, I needed to be able to ride the gain on as many as a dozen microphones in a smooth, repeatable fashion, so I used the channel grouping feature of our console to create sub-masters for each of the instruments, and I rode the gain on the individual instruments, keeping them at a reasonable level throughout the course of songs as long as ten minutes.

Several of the pieces were meant to flow seamlessly from one to the next, but could not be performed this way because of instrument changes or other reasons, so I needed to be able to knit together several chunks recorded separately while maintaining the illusion that they were performed at once. In most cases there was a transitional moment, where piece "A" ended and piece "B" started, so these transitional moments were scripted into each piece, so there would be a range of editing options. In once case, there was a gradual guitar crescendo, so the edit needed to observe that dynamic and avoid creating a jarring change. This part of the session organization took more thought and preparation than I was expecting, but eventually it all worked out.

There were some additional musicians recorded for a couple of parts, in particular a string section comprising several double-basses, but the original session was still set-up and couldn't be disturbed, so during this period the band were occupying both studios.

As the session progressed, individual players needed to add overdubs, and we would concentrate on one person until finished, and then move on to the next player. This part of the session involved some very long days for me, and it seemed like the band were eating and sleeping in shifts while I worked every minute.

Eventually, the record was finished and mixed, and the band went on their way. I wasn't party to the discussions after they left, but with such a complex project, it isn't surprising that there were things the band were dissatisfied with over time, and they decided to mix the album themselves (there was some additional recording done as well) at the studio they normally used in Montreal, with an engineer (Howard Bilerman) who is a friend and an important part of their extended family. That they were eventually happy enough to release the record is good enough for me.

Any other complications involved boiled down to me not speaking French very well, the US border crossings being a bastard, and Canadians being weird in general.

I vote for f# because I remember it more distinctly than Lift Yr Skinny Fists, which is the other contender. Either would do, both those albums have a distinctive sense of space, that feeling of gravity, an almost subterranean feel with those murky tape recordings. I remember getting Lift when I was 15/16 and not being able to listen to it for a few days and just looking at the artwork for ages, which felt alien and new, kind of laboured and aggressive and it had that mythologised, esoteric feel. At their best all thick black static clouds, cavernous and febrile. I've not heard anything else like that. Also poorly hated on. Better at being quiet&sad&scared than loud&loud. Yanqui UXO sounds boring the way people are talking about it.

Voted for f#A#oo, but the true winner of this poll is their joint live show with Labradford.

Voted for f#A#oo, but the true winner of this poll is their joint live show with Labradford.

― Chris Barrus (Elvis Telecom), Tuesday, March 31, 2009 7:30 PM (46 minutes ago)

agreed....saw them play together at the starfish room (rip) in vancouver and labradford was amazing. a bagpiper played at the start of the gybe! set walking from the back of the club to the stage. almost surreal sounding.

~almost~

I'll have to upload the recording I have of their 9/9/99 gig in boston - it's pretty much the only GYBE thing I listen to nowadays

for the poll I'll probably go with f♯a♯∞

lift yr skinny fists has some good material but it's too much, I can't ever just put the thing on without getting bored

I think scott seward likes godspeed but he uses them to cast aspersions on other bands in a way that is funny + appropriate and unfortunately I can't listen to them now without feeling like I'm engaged in sonic mountaineering:

Whereas bands like Mogwai and Mono often demand that you eat your vegetables before you get any dessert ("Hey, Mr. Mono, are we there yet?" "Yes, we have almost reached top of Godspeed Mountain, and when we get there we will play supersonic psychedelic guitar freakout!" "Yeah, we know. It's the same every song." "What, you don't like supersonic psychedelic guitar freakout?!" "Yeah, yeah, whatever, my feet are killing me.")

I do feel like they stopped making records cuz they had one trick and they got tired of performing it (if so, it's too their credit - mogwai for instance has not taken the hint)

interesting premise, but as someone who has a LOT of time for buildy postrock bands (i have almost every mono, mogwai, and explosions in the sky record), godspeed's entire presentation/aesthetic was annoying and really put me off.

there's no accounting for taste

Godspeed is one of those bands that I only listen when the just right mood strikes, but when it does, they have a rare perfection even if a bit repetitive. Flying Saucer Attack is kind of a similar group that also fits with a certain mood and time, especially their album Further. I never got around to getting Yanqui XO, which considering how much I have listened to the other three is kind of odd, but I guess I was on to other things. Parts of Young Team and Come On Die Young are pretty good, but I didn't like Rock Action (totally mis-titled) and never looked back.

lol is that a mistake or are you purposely conflating postrock bands?

They put out albums past A#F#? Really?

I'm joking, but only a little.

like what percent

I don't understand people who think their first album was the best, it was so obviously an album of half-baked ideas and mini song snippets. Nothing on the album even remotely resembles a definitive version, but everything was fleshed out and improved upon over the years during their live shows.

But by "Yanqui UXO" they'd become a bit too indulgent, with the exception of the build and finish to "Motherfucker=Redeemer", which might be the best ten minutes or so of their career. "Lift Yr Skinny Fists" struck the perfect balance though.

Definitely between Slow Riot and Skinny Fists, was obsessed with this band for most of 2000.

I don't understand people who think their first album was the best, it was so obviously an album of half-baked ideas and mini song snippets.

This is a whole lot of projecting but I feel like there are a quite a lot of ppl on (places like) ILM for whom that album had a certain entry point factor - you can say a bunch of it was half baked and it prolly was but it was really not much like anything I'd heard aged 18. Combine that with the fact that they were pretty active (recording and touring) for only a fairly short amount of time and that maybe explains why a lot of people are more nostalgic about them than actively praiseworthy (which is why - re something LJ said up there a bit - 'Moya' is always gonna sound pretty immense to me even if it *is* an elementary scale exercise or whatevs - it sounds like being 19 and not jaded)

Lost my virginity to f♯a♯∞, so that. Never really bothered with anything else.

popp∞ge

Are you saying I did her up the shitter? I didn't.

Apparently there was vomit, more than one person, and general squalor also involved too...sounds like a GYBE monologue amirite

There was not more than one person involved, Louis; that was YOUR formative experience.

Also no squalor.

it all rolls into one grand ILX confession these days...I retract my smirching, and recommend Yanqui UXO anew

f♯a♯o_O

Debut is indeed half-baked and pasted together and that's why I like it best. It's more like a collage and not as predictable.

Slow Riot > f# > LYSF > YUXO

I think. In the case of the last two albums many of the tracks had been on their live set for ages before being recorded and the eventual 'refined' versions that appeared on the studio versions paled in comparison with what I'd heard live. It was good that they actively encouraged audience members to record their gig as it means there are loads of them floating about the web. Like these: http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=(collection:GodspeedYouBlackEmperor%20OR%20mediatype:GodspeedYouBlackEmperor)%20AND%20-mediatype:collection&sort=-week

skinny fists, but that's the only one i ever bothered with. i like it but didn't really feel the need to go deeper. and i have one really clear memory of listening to it while driving back from my girlfriend's parents' place the summer after my sophomore year of college, in a rainstorm.

This is a whole lot of projecting but I feel like there are a quite a lot of ppl on (places like) ILM for whom that album had a certain entry point factor - you can say a bunch of it was half baked and it prolly was but it was really not much like anything I'd heard aged 18.

Definitely true with me. They were gods to me in 2000, but that was basically because I was 17 and they were the first "post rock" (bleeeeggghhh that word) band I'd ever heard.

Lost my virginity to f♯a♯∞, so that. Never really bothered with anything else.

What a weird fucking experience that must have been. I can only hope you climaxed during one of the several obvious climaxes on the album, because spooging out during an apocalyptic monologue would be awkward.

Bad time to get the dead flag blues...

"...And when the drains finally scab over, all the vermin will drown. The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll look down and whisper "No."

http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/images/300.jpg

"...I open up my wallet and it's full of blood..."

hhahahahahahahaaaa

slow riot because it does what they do well, and gets in and out in under 30 mins.
― paper plans (tipsy mothra), Tuesday, 31 March 2009 23:59 (3 days ago)

This, apart from it being the first thing I heard by them, is a large part of the reason it gets my vote. In the same way that I love Mogwai's "Ithica 27ϕ9", I like this relatively succinct expression of much of what I love about them.

I've only heard the first two. I love Slow Riot to bits, so I voted for it.

It seemed with GY!BE that for a short period everyone loved them, then suddenly everyone hated them. Were the hataz right?

no

no, the hataz weren't right. but there's something so agonizingly self-indulgent, self-serious, melodramatic about this band that makes it hard for me to listen to them anymore, even though i think they're pretty good records - and i admit that this has more to do w/ their off-album personalities, well, mostly that efrim dude

plus the last few silver mt. zion albums have been pretty shitty

i've only ever heard the newest SMZ album and liked it well enough. i actually saw them and it was interesting how totally different they present themselves from godspeed--really funny and chill onstage, obviously just out to have some fun playing loud music.

yea, i guess i can't totally hang w/ efrim's voice, and i wasn't totally digging the choir stuff. the first two SMZ albums i think are pretty cool though

When I first heard GY!BE, I thought they were the coolest thing ever.

By the third time I played f♯a♯∞, I never wanted to hear them again.

With A Silver Mt. Zion, I liked the first record, apart from the one with the singing on it. Then I heard their subsequent albums were full of singing. Run away!

I remember seeing ASMZ a few years ago at the Scala in London and they were at once boring and great in small alternating chunks, I was quite shocked when Efrim started on about Bush and Blair between songs and got tripped up by negative vibes from the audience, instead of dealing with it he dug himself a bigger hole and it ended up with people shouting stuff along the lines of 'justplaysomefuckingmusicyoujunkiehippiewankers' it was dead odd.

This is a whole lot of projecting but I feel like there are a quite a lot of ppl on (places like) ILM for whom that album had a certain entry point factor - you can say a bunch of it was half baked and it prolly was but it was really not much like anything I'd heard aged 18. Combine that with the fact that they were pretty active (recording and touring) for only a fairly short amount of time and that maybe explains why a lot of people are more nostalgic about them than actively praiseworthy (which is why - re something LJ said up there a bit - 'Moya' is always gonna sound pretty immense to me even if it *is* an elementary scale exercise or whatevs - it sounds like being 19 and not jaded)

Same here, pretty much. It was more or less:

F# A# oo: "Wow, this is thrilling and new!"
Slow Riot: "Wow, this is a step up!"
Skinny Fists: "Wow, my new favourite band have made an amazing double album!"
UXO: "This is still pretty good!"

I think I'd have to pick the EP, 'Moya' is possibly their best song and 'BBF3' has the most effective use of dialogue of anything they recorded.

i think the newest ASMZ is the only listenable thing they've ever done. think i might prefer it to any of the GYBE stuff actually

F# A# oo: "Wow, this is thrilling and new!"
Slow Riot: "Wow, this is a step up!"
Skinny Fists: "Wow, my new favourite band have made an amazing double album!"
UXO: "This is still pretty good!"

OTM!

rereading how my comment up there and realizing how negative it sounds, i should probably clarify that i really like the GYBE stuff, i am just completely shocked by how good the most recent ASMZ ended up being because i cant stomach the older stuff really.

If I could, I would vote for the the extended postapocalyptic empty-London scene in 28 Days Later, as that seemed to be the ideal practical application for GYBE.

As it stands, I'll go for Slow Riot b/c of the track with the ultraparanoid militia dude.

If I could, I would vote for the the extended postapocalyptic empty-London scene in 28 Days Later

It's on f♯a♯∞ so you could vote for that.

that seemed to be the ideal practical application for GYBE.

I'd agree if it wasn't for the really clumsy edit halfway through.

i vote skinny fists antennas

just cuz that's the one i've listened to the most

this band is pretty awesome IMO.

am completely not understanding the Slow Riot voters...like, it doesn't even remotely figure in my brain how it COULD be their best record, unless y'guys simply can't stomach records that are longer than 30 minutes

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Get voting people. One day left.

Yanqui it is and shall always be.

otm

Am becoming rapidly convinced that the Slow Riot voters haven't heard any of the other records in one sitting :-P

hahah is that our fault or the other records' fault?

BLAME THE VICTIM

Still voting Slow Riot - I will not be browbeaten!

Ha, well if you collected the best bits of the first two albums and the EP (so, all of The Dead Flag Blues, and NONE of the EP) then you'd have something almost worthy of challenging Yanqui

like uh

1) TDFB
2) last few minutes of East Hastings (the bit about the large barge)
3) minutes 7 through 12 of Storm
4) minute 18 through to the end of Sleep
5) Antennas To Heaven (entirety)

hence, epic opener and closer, both with intriguing and enchanting internal narratives, and about 15 minutes of really good music in between, maybe more with decent segues

yanqui is the weakest

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

butthurt lj in

5

4

3

2

1

I am happy with these results

1st 3 all pretty close!

pfft

yanqui way behind

LOUIS HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE WRONG?!

so so right

yea this results are good. yanqui's totally the weakest

its not a bad album, just the weakest.

lol sorry haterz

Very close, but the best man won.

lj broke ilx because of these results?

LOL!

kinda surprised that 90 people voted in this

Louis still right.

kinda surprised that 90 people voted in this

― call all destroyer, Friday, April 10, 2009 4:55 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I hear ya but, like, 90 ilxors who would call themselves GYBE fans - probably unlikely; 90 ilxors who liked them enough at some point to have a fave album - no surprise at all really

don't say I never did nothin' for ya etc

gybe live 1999
http://www.sendspace.com/file/za3ftk

thanks dude!

I just listened to Yanqui U.X.O. for the first time in forever and really enjoyed it. Maybe I've popped a few too many brewskies, but when the long tremelo march of doom that takes up most of the second half of "Rockets Fall on Rocket Falls" finally burst into the finale, and I simultaneously glanced up at the television to see the hilariously awesome 1976 version of King Kong right at the moment where Kong battles a giant snake as Jeff Bridges embraces Jessica Lange in a showcase of her sideboobs - well, let's just say it say it was one of the best moments of 2009.

this thread will be a long and triumphant string of sheepish former YUXO haters (or disregarders) crawling into the fold as that album's stature increases over time

It really is their best album.

Close! Wanted to start this poll but it turned out OK.