Apart from Godspeed You! Black Emperor, perhaps no Canadian band has had a greater influence on the development of post-rock as a genre than Thee Silver Mt. Zion. It’s appropriate that Efrim Menuck was a member of the former seminal band before he formed A Silver Mt. Zion. Both bands helped propel the Montreal label Constellation Records to stratospheric levels for serious music fans in Canada and around the world. For many, any attachment to the Constellation Records label alone, is enough to warrant an instant purchase. And for good reason.
Thee Silver Mt. Zion in particular, has continuously pushed musical boundaries over the course of its 11-year history. To label the band simply as “post-rock” is almost a disservice to the varied sounds the band has produced in the past decade. Constellation’s own website lists the band’s influences as a combination of ”free jazz, community sight-singing, Minimalism and American folkways - still anchored to a punk-rock take on neo-classical and modern music tropes.”
In support of their sixth full-length album, Kollaps Tradixionales, the band will play a show in Ottawa at the Mayfair Theatre this summer. The show is still several months away, on May 31, but tickets are already on sale. It promises to be one of the very best concerts of the year and tickets will sell out. There’s no doubt about that. You can buy a ticket for $20 here or at End Hits, Vertigo, Invisible Cinema, and the Mayfair.
If you love music do yourself a favour and make it out for this. It will surely be a memorable night.
