with Kee Avil

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Godspeed You! Black Emperor released a string of albums from 1997-2002 widely recognized as redefining what protest music can be, where long-form instrumental chamber rock compositions of immense feeling and power serve as soundtracks to late capitalist alienation and resistance. The band’s first four releases—especially F#A#∞ (1997) and Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven (2000)—are variously regarded as classics of the era and genre. Godspeed’s legendary live performances, featuring multiple 16mm projectors beaming a collage of overlapping analog film loops and reels—along with the distinctive iconography, imagery and tactility of the band’s album artwork and physical LP packages— further defines the sui generis aesthetic substance, ethos and mythos of this group. GY!BE has issued two official band photos in its 25-year existence (the second a 2010 recreation of the first from 1997) and has done a half-dozen collectively-answered written interviews over that same span. The band has never had a website or social media accounts. It has never made a video. Few rock bands in our 21st century have been as steadfast in trying to let the work speak for itself and maintaining simple rules about minimizing participation in cultures of personality, exposure, access, commodification or co-optation. Following a seven-year hiatus that began in 2003, Godspeed returned to the stage in December 2010 (curating the UK festival All Tomorrow’s Parties) and the band’s post-reunion period has now lasted over a decade, marked by hundreds of sold-out live shows and three additional albums, all of which have been met with high acclaim. G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END! – the band’s fourth post-reunion album (and eighth overall) – arrived 02 April 2021.

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Montréal producer Kee Avil combines guitar, voice, and electronic production to forge deconstructed songs informed by a distinctive amalgam of post-industrial, avant-pop, glitch, minimalist, and experimental folk sensibilities. On Spine, her sophomore album, Kee Avil strips back her heavily textured compositions, opening up a much rawer sound. This is urgent music that reflects the precarity of modern life, as well as the jarring mixture of electronic and real-world interactions that have become the fabric of our day-to-day experiences. There’s a hypnotic somnambulance to it all, using the repetition and fracturing of melodic phrases interwoven with delicate electronics to create curious and persistent hooks. While not a concept album, themes of time’s passage, remembrance, and decay crop up across multiple tracks. Within a minimalist framework, the juxtaposition of beauty and discomfort that is key to the Kee Avil sound stands out in skin-prickling relief.

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GY!BE will play 18 dates in Canada and the US in November, following its previously announced European tour in Sep/Oct.

27 Sep 2024 • Dublin IE • National Stadium
29 Sep 2024 • London UK • Troxy
30 Sep 2024 • Glasgow, UK • Barrowlands
01 Oct 2024 • Manchester UK • Ritz
02 Oct 2024 • Bristol UK • Marble Factory
03 Oct 2024 • Coventry UK • The Empire
04 Oct 2024 • Tourcoing FR • Le Grand Mix
05 Oct 2024 • Esch-Alzette LU • Kufa
06 Oct 2024 • Paris FR • Le Trianon
08 Oct 2024 • Nantes FR • Stereolux
09 Oct 2024 • Nancy FR • L’Autre Canal (Jazz Pulsation Festival)
10 Oct 2024 • Zürich CH • Volkshaus
11 Oct 2024 • Lausanne CH • Les Docks
12 Oct 2024 • Frankfurt DE • Zoom
14 Oct 2024 • Berlin DE • Huxleys
15 Oct 2024 • Amsterdam NE • Paradiso
16 Oct 2024 • Brussels BE • AB
18 Oct 2024 • Athens GR • Floyd

04 Nov 2024 • Hamilton ON • Bridgeworks
05 Nov 2024 • Toronto ON • The Concert Hall
06 Nov 2024 • London ON • London Music Hall
07 Nov 2024 • Grand Rapids MI • Elevation
08 Nov 2024 • Chicago IL • The Salt Shed
09 Nov 2024 • St Paul MN • Palace Theater
11 Nov 2024 • Lawrence KS • Liberty Hall
12 Nov 2024 • Fayetteville AR • George’s Majestic Lounge
13 Nov 2024 • Nashville TN • The Basement East
14 Nov 2024 • Knoxville TN • Bijou Theater
15 Nov 2024 • Atlanta GA • The Masquerade
16 Nov 2024 • Charleston SC • The Music Farm
17 Nov 2024 • Saxapahaw NC • Haw River Ballroom
19 Nov 2024 • Washington DC • 9:30 Club
21 Nov 2024 • Brooklyn NY • Pioneerworks
22 Nov 2024 • Norwalk CT • District Music Hall
23 Nov 2024 • Boston MA • Roadrunner
24 Nov 2024 • Philadelphia PA • Union Transfer