A Silver Mt. Zion

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Montreal, Canada (1999 – present)

Silver Mt. Zion (Thee Silver Mt. Zion, A Silver Mt. Zion or simply SMZ) use a number of different variations of the name on different releases.

A Silver Mt. Zion is a band formed in 1999, in Montreal, Quebec, by Godspeed You! Black Emperor musicians Efrim Menuck, Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar. According to an interview with VPRO Radio in The Netherlands, originally the project was for Efrim to learn how to score music, but the idea was soon abandoned as Efrim decided that he preferred music not to be defined by rules, preferring simply what sounds best. Despite this, he continued the project out of a desire to experiment with ideas that would not work within the context of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The decision to record an album was partly inspired by the death of his dog Wanda, who had died while Godspeed You! Black Emperor was on tour. He wanted to record an album in her memory, but did not feel that he could effectively do this through Godspeed’s collective, consensus format.

Unlike Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Silver Mt. Zion’s music often features vocals. The last few albums they have released contain no purely instrumental tracks. Efrim confessed that he was uncomfortable with this at first, feeling “foolish” and uncomfortable with the role of the singer in music generally. That is, he did not want to be the focus of the band’s music but rather wished to use vocals as a stylistic tool. Some fans were initially ambivalent about the use of vocals, but Efrim’s poetic lyrical style is now well respected among fans. Furthermore, Silver Mt.

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Top Tracks

1	What We Loved Was Not Enough (Part 2)	731
2	The State Itself Did Not Agree	691
3	What We Loved Was Not Enough (Part 1)	669
4	Movie (Never Made)	649
5	Sit in the Middle of Three Galloping Dogs	648
6	13 Angels Standing Guard 'round the Side of Your Bed	645
7	Broken Chords Can Sing a Little	625
8	Stumble Then Rise on Some Awkward Morning	581
9	Blown-Out Joy From Heaven's Mercied Hole	509
10	God Bless Our Dead Marines	498
11	For Wanda	473
12	Mountains Made of Steam	444
13	Horses in the Sky	414
14	Psalms 99	409
15	Sisters! Brothers! Small Boats of Fire Are Falling From the Sky!	401

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scourge0 wrote:
Tuesday evening

SF show was amazing. Efrim was definitely having a good time on stage, judging by his banter. Did anybody happen to get an audio recording of the SF show?

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Ypec wrote:
Tuesday afternoon

Psalms 99 is so good.[2]

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jump29 wrote:
Tuesday morning

"Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward" Great album! Nice post-rock!

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timothybarnes wrote:
Tuesday morning

The West Will Rise Again indeed, excellent EP!

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postymcpostertn wrote:
Monday afternoon

Great show in Portland on Saturday! Review with photos up at: http://pacificlectic.com/2012/02/06/thee-silver-mt-zion-2012/

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mydeerhunter wrote:
Monday morning

Seeing them on Wednesday. Hory shet.

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is-blind wrote:
Saturday morning

I want the new EP! :((

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Moonchild_27 wrote:
Friday evening

GREAT new EP :))))

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Enig wrote:
Thursday afternoon

At last some decent live recordings of these songs! Appreciate your effort! Tried filming them live once myself, but it distracted me from getting lost in the music, so I put it the camera away to enjoy the best concert of my life. Must say I prefer the live recordings over the ripped EP by far. On their latest outputs Sophie and Jessica's voices tends to end up too far back in the mix when the band sings together. But not live :)

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EclecticDreams wrote:
Thursday morning

Amazing band live! I filmed their whole set in Toronto last week and they played three new songs (Take Away These Early Grave Blues, The State Itself Did Not Agree, Psalms 99). Check it out: http://chriseclectic.com/?p=1741

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laika333 wrote:
last week

Psalms 99 is so good.

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theNomadz wrote:
last week

Love pun on the ep title, changing south to west. Cool stuff glad there's new material appearing from them.

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BLAST445 wrote:
last week

http://byenduranceweconquered.blogspot.com/2012/01/silver-mt-zion-west-will-rise-again.html

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psychoviolence wrote:
last week

The State Itself Did Not Agree

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emovirus wrote:
last week

cataclysmic bliss

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2487 wrote:
last month

Three new songs played on Toronto tonight (not counting What we love is not enough). All of them are pretty good.

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tsintskaro wrote:
last month

Here's another one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZ0Kn77BJ_M

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tsintskaro wrote:
last month

Thanks, I've got the Belgian recording, but am specifically looking for the London show. The Belgian recording was off the cuff and impromptu, the London show is a full collaboration with ASMZ playing Patti Smith songs. I've seen a short clip of video footage from the London show, it's a performance of Ghost Dance http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o18lHqJ1zEg . Hopefully somebody recorded the full show for a future release, but I'm not holding my breath.

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mattheww385 wrote:
last month

There are recordings of the Patti Smith collab on archive.org (but at the Belgium dates not the London one)

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tsintskaro wrote:
last month

Is anybody here aware of any existing recordings of the show that Patti Smith did with A Silver Mt. Zion at the Melfdown Festival in London a coupla years ago. If you can help, please get in touch.

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