Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band have been making a big raw angry tender racket since the 2005 release of their last album, Horses In The Sky. With a focus on live performance and special projects over the past three years, the group proper has logged well over 100 shows in Europe and North America, in between sessions that yielded Thee Silver Mountain Reveries EP and Thee Silver Mountain Elegies Play War Radio tour (featuring four members of Mt. Zion and both members of labelmates Hangedup), as well as collaborations with Carla Bozulich, Vic Chesnutt and Patti Smith in the studio and in concert.

The music of the full band (two guitars, two violins, cello, contrebasse and drums) has grown louder, looser, full of spittle and tears. On 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons, riffs are the backbone more than ever. Anchored by new drummer Eric Craven (ex-Hangedup), the band works its slow build and burn with newfound patience, sinuousness and ferocity. Whether methodically framing walls of sound over the four-on-the-floor punk dirge of ''1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound'' or exploding in sheets of free noise and melody on ''Black Waters Blowed'', the band has never rocked harder and has never sounded more determined, desperate and driven. A stuttered blues riff is the foundation for the album's title track, making its appearance after a blisteringly minimalist intro. ''Engine Broke Blues'' features a gorgeous set of chords that build inexorably from multiple guitar, string and organ lines.

Fans of the group will be familiar with much of this material from the band's live shows over the past couple of years. The recording, undertaken at the newly renovated Hotel2Tango facility in Montreal and co-engineered by Howard Bilerman and Radwan Moumneh (who is also the band's live sound person), ups the ante considerably, with crackling guitar crescendos setting the pace for dive-bombing swirls of strings, while Efrim's voice rasps and wails words of worry, hope and fury throughout. The band's hallmark group vocal passages are positively spine-tingling.

Duration: 59:10

Tracklist

1. 1,000,000 Died To Make This Sound
2. 13 Blues For Thirteen Moons
3. Black Waters Blowed/Engine Broke Blues
4. BlindBlindBlind

Personnel

Beckie: cello, voice
Efrim: guitar, organ, vocals
Eric: drums, voice
Ian: guitar, voice
Jessica: violin, voice
Sophie: violin, voice
Thierry: contrebasse, electric bass, voice

Guests

Brian Lipson: trumpets on TRACK 14
Nadia Moss: organ on TRACK 14

will it sound sad, broken and apocalyptic?

looks at track titles

yep.

It actually rocks like a fucking hurricane, more angry than said I would say.

than sad*

They played three of those songs when I saw them live last time, and they were ace...gonna download now...

I wanna see them live :(

One day I will see them play. Maybe this year if I make it stateside.

I was gonna ask if you wanted me to burn this for you, but then I'm like, nah fuck that guy.

I'll grab it soon enough in the 12'' realm.

It's not gonna make you feel any better if I tell you that they were great, is it?

One day, one day.

I'm looking forward to you losing that 12''...

...

All is swell in that regard ProDelgado, I've seen enough footage over the years to keep me on the up and ready. Glad to see hear though! I always imagine them as being somewhere between euphoric and splendorous.

Not that I even have a record player any more...

I'm looking forward to you losing that 12''...

I'm yet to lose one, this would require a full and frank investigation involving several battery operated drills and a pole sans slippery bits.

So, nothing out of the ordinary for this house?

awesome, I didn't realise they were releasing anything new.

why are there twelve six-second tracks of feedback at the start of this album? is that meant to be there?

Yes.

It's cos they luv KoRn.

aaron you like crap

How do I live knowing someone on the Internet does not agree with my taste in music?

How do I live?

waits

Hurry up, internet.

So will it only be Silver Mt Zion records released from now on? As in, is Godspeed You Black Emperor for all intents and purposes Silver Mt Zion now?

I assumed GYBE effectively ceased to exist some time ago?

yeah they'll probably reunite at some point in the future and people will go nuts etc

They're on indefinite hiatus, as they are all kinda tied up doing other things these days.

Gmail links are down... someone want to re-post?

I've listened to this a few times now and I think I like it. I'm just not a huge fan of vocals in this kind of work. I prefer Rachels-type instrumentals but it kinda works here.

had a listen last night after reading thread, i like it. i like the vocals and the guitars

djbollocks said 23 hours ago:

So will it only be Silver Mt Zion records released from now on? As in, is Godspeed You Black Emperor for all intents and purposes Silver Mt Zion now?

They are different bands. GY!BE is basically over because a couple of the main founding members/ song writers have quit for certain. ASMZ is a couple from GYBE, members of Hanged Up in there too plus some others.

If the link is down just google search the shit, I can't be bothered re-upping.

just started listening to this - #awesome

A track from the new Diebold album (Sophie Trudeau from GSYBE + Silver Mt. Zion, and Ian Ilavsky fom Sofa + Silver Mt. Zion).

Can someone say FUZZ?!!?

On third listen, I am loving this. EPIC.

I'm going to go see them.

i was just listening to this for the first time. i like it.
seems like it didn't get a lot of supporters though