In the last fifteen years, few bands would be better described as outliers than Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion. And few bands have been as frequently disparaged for everything from their use of "non-musical" audio samples to their frequent band name changes (Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, anyone?) to their passionately pissed off (or is it just honest?) lyrical-political rhetoric. Despite these digs, Godspeed founding member Efrim Manuel Menuck has continued to fight the good fight with Silver Mt. Zion via 15-minute swells of violin-driven rock anthems buttressed by his distinct voice, very richly rewarding those who've stuck around long enough to get past any initial inclination towards disliking the music. With all of this to discuss, we called up the Montreal-based Menuck in advance of Silver Mt. Zion's Mohawk show tonight to get his take on all the smack-talk, the inherent goodness of people, and the possibility of another Godspeed album. more ›

Rising from the rich depths of Vic Chesnutt’s singular voice on his apocalyptic lullaby “Warm” is the line forget the sun/ worship the moon. In this moment of this song lies the distilled message that defines and illuminates his body of work: so the apocalypse is nigh, global warming has got us, everything is destroyed- what now? At this moment, Chesnutt proposes a gesture of both capitulation and defiance- just turn away, turn to something else, like that shimmering antihero the moon. It’s often the seemingly lesser power which turns out to hold a greater promise. Over and over again, Chesnutt’s music rises to laud the antiheroes, the underdogs. Opening with a track titled "Coward," the flickering shadows of Caliban and Gregor Samsa loom large over his latest album, At the Cut. Currently touring this newest--and obviously favorite--achievement, Vic took some time out to speak with us about how this compromised pose of the antihero, the outsider, came to define his sound. It was forced upon him very early in his musical career, which was altered forever when a car accident at age eighteen constrained him to a wheelchair and threw him on path to alter in turn the folk genre into which he’d been born. more ›

Vic Chesnutt is currently touring in support of his latest record, At The Cut, and from this album and its tour are trailing an entourage of indie notables. Featuring Guy Picciotto of Fugazi and David Payant of Silver Mt. Zion, the Vic Chesnutt band wraps up its tour with a show that promises to be a singularly appropriate pairing between band and venue at Central Presbyterian Church. We’re excited about this one, because church rafters seem to be the natural habitat of Vic Chesnutt’s voice—a voice so compelling it isn’t outdone even by the instruments of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. more ›