Fries

2y

Update: The band has officially released it, 100% confirming that it's real. You can now buy it for $6 on their Bandcamp, with all proceeds going to Gaza, check it out here:

https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/music

Undisclosed

2y

Pretty cool. I wonder why they didn’t want release this for 20+ years. Wonder if they wanted to maintain that exclusivity of the tape.

rise zero

2y

Efrim:

I don't know man, I haven't listened to it in a long time. There's not much to say about it, it was recorded before there were 9 people in Godspeed, and it's only really related by name.

We made that cassette and out of that came the bigger band. I don't know why it hasn't turned up on the internet yet. I keep expecting it's gonna pop up but it never does. It's tricky. Because it doesn't bear any relation to what Godspeed did, it would be hard to put it out without people feeling ripped off. I wouldn't want someone buying it thinking they were getting a Godspeed record only to find out it's something completely different.

I think it's interesting, but I don't think it's that great! laughing It's pretty good, but it's not great! I think it's mostly interesting because it's a product of its time, and that was a weird time for music back then. There was nothing going on. So it's interesting on that level. But musically, I don't know how much value it has. I mean, there's singing on it! laughing There's tons of singing on it! So there you go.

I can't leak it myself, I don't have a copy, I just have the master copy, just not a playable copy. We are perfectly fine with people taping our shows. Just cause it seems a silly thing to stop people from doing, It's nice that people tape shows, why stop it?

Fries

2y

Also Efrim just did a 56-minute podcast about the leak, haven't listened yet but this is really unexpected

http://vishkhanna.com/2022/02/14/ep-667-efrim-manuel-menuck/

rise zero

2y

Efrim:

I don't know man, I haven't listened to it in a long time. There's not much to say about it, it was recorded before there were 9 people in Godspeed, and it's only really related by name.

We made that cassette and out of that came the bigger band. I don't know why it hasn't turned up on the internet yet. I keep expecting it's gonna pop up but it never does. It's tricky. Because it doesn't bear any relation to what Godspeed did, it would be hard to put it out without people feeling ripped off. I wouldn't want someone buying it thinking they were getting a Godspeed record only to find out it's something completely different.

I think it's interesting, but I don't think it's that great! laughing It's pretty good, but it's not great! I think it's mostly interesting because it's a product of its time, and that was a weird time for music back then. There was nothing going on. So it's interesting on that level. But musically, I don't know how much value it has. I mean, there's singing on it! laughing There's tons of singing on it! So there you go.

I can't leak it myself, I don't have a copy, I just have the master copy, just not a playable copy. We are perfectly fine with people taping our shows. Just cause it seems a silly thing to stop people from doing, It's nice that people tape shows, why stop it?

Fries

2y

@Undisclosed @rise_zero I summarised the podcast, Efrim was super candid the whole time and it basically answers everything:

Efrim made it as a farewell to music, he'd played in bands as a teenager but concluded that he'd have to go into a more stable career as a young adult and made the tape to share with his friends, it wasn't a demo at all, he only continued Godspeed after someone who heard the tape asked him to open for his band

He shared most of them with his friends but sold a bunch when he opened for that band in Moncton, which is where the guy from the 2013 reddit post picked up his copy

Constellation Records told Efrim to digitise it for the sake of archiving some time ago, so he's had a CD-R copy of it for a while

Listening to it and talking about it makes him feel anxious due to unresolved issues from that time in his personal life, which was a big factor in not releasing it

He's happy for people to be listening to it, doesn't resent them for doing it, feels like the leaking itself was malicious though, felt like releasing it to get ahead of a possible leaker would be like dealing with the mob, with the idea of it leaking seeming like an inevitable outcome of the internet doing what it does

He sees it as disrespectful to call it a Godspeed album when it's literally 99% him and Godspeed is such a communal project with his friends

Efrim actually considered putting it on Bandcamp for charity last year, since he's been asked about it for 20 years, the story had spiralled beyond the content of the tape, and wanted to kill the myth in a way, doesn't like mystification

6 of the copies he gave to friends disappeared by some means, taken by roommates etc, but doesn't honestly care who leaked it or where the source came from, neither he nor anyone else in the band is upset, also briefly mentions that someone on the internet was going to upload it 3-4 years ago but doesn't elaborate on that

Wanted to upload it to Bandcamp now since the quality would be better and the money could go to a good cause instead of YouTube

The title came from his tiny recording room in a '5 and a half' apartment, containing a table with a four track, a space echo, a block amp and other equipment, and since all the cables were knotted around each other, the title felt like a summary of how that room felt

Relistening to it made Efrim realise that he's been returning to the same concepts and words for his entire career, would come home from working at a bar, record the first take of a track, then work it into a full song the next day, that was his process for the album

'It's OK for people to listen to it however they're going to listen to it, yeah, everything's OK'

The opening vocal sample on the tape is from an Evel Knievel interview and Efrim intended it to be comedic

Fries

2y

Update: The band has officially released it, 100% confirming that it's real. You can now buy it for $6 on their Bandcamp, with all proceeds going to Gaza, check it out here:

https://godspeedyoublackemperor.bandcamp.com/music

AudioConsulting

2y

Interesting it isn’t streaming on apple or spot. 😳

Fries

2y

Efrim said he didn't want to make any money off of it, nor did he want corporations making money off of it, and saw Bandcamp as a way to use the attention directed towards the album to raise money for a cause he believes in

Vile

2y

Half-Life 3, Deftones' Eros, and Detox next