Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra were a

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

post-rock Post-rock is a subgenre of experimental rock that emphasizes Texture (music), texture, atmosphere, and non-traditional song structures over conventional rock techniques. Post-rock artists often combine rock instrumentation and rock stylings wit ...

band that formed in 1999, originating from

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

. Variations of the name used on the band's releases include A Silver Mt. Zion, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band with Choir and Thee Silver Mountain Reveries; the group uses the shorthand SMZ and its name is most often simplified to Silver Mt. Zion. The group was founded by

Godspeed You! Black Emperor Godspeed You! Black Emperor (sometimes abbreviated to GY!BE or Godspeed) is a Canadian post-rock collective that originated in Montreal, Quebec in 1994. The group releases recordings through Constellation Records (Canada), Constellation, an in ...

co-founder

Efrim Menuck Efrim Manuel Menuck (; born November 4, 1970) is a Canadian musician involved with a number of Montreal-based bands, most notably Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. Menuck is also a frequent record producer ...

, who was joined by fellow Godspeed members Sophie Trudeau and

Thierry Amar Thierry Amar is a Canadian musician, engineer and producer. He is a member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, Earthquake Architecture, Molasses, The Craig Pedersen Quartet and Black Ox Orkes ...

. Aside from these core members, Silver Mt. Zion has undergone almost yearly personnel changes, evolving by stages from a mostly instrumental trio at the time of its first recordings into an eight-piece group, and then in 2008 into a strongly vocal quintet. Silver Mt. Zion's music has been described as

, though singer and guitarist

identifies with the

punk rock Punk rock (also known as simply punk) is a rock music genre that emerged in the mid-1970s. Rooted in 1950s rock and roll and 1960s garage rock, punk bands rejected the corporate nature of mainstream 1970s rock music. They typically produced sh ...

ethos and aesthetic.A Silver Mt Zion: Park Plaza Hotel, London, February 8 2008 (Peter Guy: Getintothis)
The band has released seven studio albums and three EPs, on the record label Constellation.

History

Origins (1999–2000)

Silver Mt. Zion began as a framework for Efrim Menuck, a guitarist in Montreal-based musical collective

, to develop his knowledge of

music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

and music scoring, and to work on musical ideas that didn't fit into the format of his band. Menuck enlisted

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist Sophie Trudeau and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), keyboard bass (synth bass) or a low br ...

, who were also involved with Godspeed You! Black Emperor. The band made its live debut on March 6, 1999, at Musique Fragile, a performance venue organized by the record label Constellation. It released its debut album, '' He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms...'', on March 27, 2000. Godspeed You! Black Emperor rarely features vocals, relying instead on audio samples; similarly themed samples appear on Silver Mt. Zion's debut album. Menuck does sing on two tracks, "Movie (Never Made)" and "Blown-out Joy from Heaven's Mercied Hole".

Expanding membership (2000–2004)

Before the release of its second album, the band recruited three more musicians, expanding the group to a sextet. The new members were

cellist The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Beckie Foon Rebecca Foon (born 13 December 1978) is a Canadian cellist, vocalist, and composer. Foon currently records under her own name, as well as the alias Saltland, and is a member and co-founder of the modern chamber ensemble Esmerine. Summary of c ...

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselve ...

Ian Ilavsky, and

ist Jessica Moss. The band's name was changed to The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band to reflect the larger membership. In early 2001 the band set out on an extensive tour of

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. During their 5-hour flight to Europe, the band members wrote “The triumph of our tired eyes”. Soon after their return, the album "Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upwards” was written. While some tracks on ''Born into Trouble ��' reflect the building but repetitive and instrumental nature of the first album, some tracks are more songlike in structure and rely more on vocals. On "Take These Hands and Throw Them in the River", the vocal parts finish with a building wall of noise dynamic, while "Could've Moved Mountains" has double-tracked vocals the listener has to strain to hear. With the same lineup, but with the band's name slightly expanded to reflect the change in sound and membership, The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band with Choir released ''"This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing'' in 2003. The album featured four tracks each over ten minutes and had more singing as well as greater emphasis on drums in two of the tracks. Thee Rusted Satellite Choir features 24 names. The album appeared on the !earshot National Top 50 Chart in September 2003. After a break due to

activities, the band set out on a brief Canadian tour at end of January 2004; it then travelled to Europe, where it toured from mid-February to the end of March. That winter Scott Levine Gilmore from ''Black ox orkestar'' joined the band and it began performing in a semi-circle onstage. After performing at the

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released as the band's debut single in 1966. The song is from their 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the so ...

festival, the band headed across the Atlantic again in December for a tour of the UK. The lineup was expanded again to include Gilmore, a mandolinist and guitarist. The choir dropped, and the band added an E to the first word of its name, becoming Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band for the release of its fourth full-length record. ''Horses in the Sky'' (2005) has six tracks, all with vocals. Following a short tour of eastern Canada in August that year, the band performed for the first time in the United States in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. Plans for a longer tour were cut short after Trudeau, one of two violinists in the band, broke her collarbone. In that time, Gilmore left the band and was replaced by former

Hangedup Hangedup was an experimental rock duo from Montreal, Quebec, Canada, featuring Genevieve Heistek on Viola and Eric Craven on drums and percussion. They combined viola with strong percussion, sometimes using self-made instruments, to create intense e ...

drummer Eric Craven.

''13 Blues for Thirteen Moons'' (2006–2008)

In 2006, the band headed to Europe at the end of April and played shows until the start of June. A tour of Canada and the United States (Silver Mt. Zion's first) ran from late July to the end of August. The tour debuted two new songs, "BlindBlindBlind" and "1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound". In a follow-up 2007 tour of Europe, the band premiered two new songs, "Engine Broke Blues" and the title song of its

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

, which was released in March 2008 and contains all four tracks. The album also contains 12 short tracks of

drone Drone or The Drones may refer to: Science and technology Vehicle * Drone, a type of uncrewed vehicle, a class of robot ** Unmanned aerial vehicle or aerial drone *** Unmanned combat aerial vehicle ** Unmanned ground vehicle or ground drone ** Unma ...

and feedback which feed into each other to create a fifth piece on the album, acting as a prologue to the album proper, which appropriately begins on track 13. Silver Mt. Zion then toured Europe and North America, premiering two new songs, "I Built Myself a Metal Bird, I Fed My Metal Bird the Wings of Other Metal Birds" and "There's a Light". In the summer of 2008, the band's lineup changed again as Craven, Foon and Ian Ilavsky resigned. After they left, the band lost the words "tra-la-la band" from its name. At that time David Payant joined as drummer and the band officially renamed itself Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra. In September that year the new lineup played at the New York ATP Festival.

Vic Chesnutt collaboration and ''Kollaps Tradixionales'' (2009–2010)

The members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion contributed to two works by

Vic Chesnutt James Victor Chesnutt (November 12, 1964 – December 25, 2009) was an American singer-songwriter from Athens, Georgia. His first album, Little (album), ''Little'', was released in 1990. His commercial breakthrough came in 1996 with the rele ...

: the 2007 album ''

North Star Deserter ''North Star Deserter'' is a 2007 album by Vic Chesnutt. The backing musicians on the album are Guy Picciotto (guitarist and vocalist for the groups Rites of Spring and Fugazi) and Canadian Post-rock band, A Silver Mt. Zion. It was released on Co ...

'' and the 2009 album '' At the Cut''. Both were released by Constellation Records. In the spring of 2009, the band began working on recording material for its album '' Kollaps Tradixionales'', released in February 2010. The album contained the two new songs from the previous tour, some songs written when it was "tra-la-la band", and some new compositions. The band began a tour of the UK and Europe in March 2010, beginning with a positively reviewed sold-out show in

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. It performed at the ATP I'll Be Your Mirror festival in October 2011 in

Asbury Park Asbury Park () is a beachfront city located on the Jersey Shore in Monmouth County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the New York metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States census, the city's population was 15,188, a dec ...

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

. The setlist included a new composition, "What We Loved was Not Enough".

''Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything'' (2014 and hiatus)

A new album, '' Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything'', was released in January 2014. It was shorter than most of the previous ones and recorded at Valcourt Studio. In an interview with Vish Khanna on his Kreative Kontrol podcast, Menuck reported plans to release a Record Store Day 12" and an EP later in the year, both of which the band had just finished recording. In another interview, this time with the Paper Crane Podcast, member

Jessica Moss Jessica Moss is a Canadian musician best known for playing violin and singing backing vocals in the post-rock band Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band since 2001. She is a founding member of Black Ox Orkestar. In addition ...

revealed that a reformation was set to take place in March of 2020 after the band's hiatus, but was offset due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The future of the band is currently unknown.

Style

Music, lyrics and themes

While Menuck writes most of the words sung or spoken in the band's pieces, other band members also contribute. There are strong political motifs in the band's music, covering a variety of subjects from anarchy to war and freedom. '' 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons'', released in March 2008, was the first album to contain lyric sheets in its insert. Menuck's strident guitar work combines with strings, tape loops, and heavy drums to give the band its sound.

Presentation

Names

The band's original name, A Silver Mt. Zion, rather than a reference to the

Mount Zion Mount Zion (, ''Har Ṣīyyōn''; , ''Jabal Sahyoun'') is a hill in Jerusalem, located just outside the walls of the Old City (Jerusalem), Old City to the south. The term Mount Zion has been used in the Hebrew Bible first for the City of David ( ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

, developed from a misheard song lyric. Menuck himself is

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish, and motifs relating to Judaism are occasionally present in the band's music (he described the band's recording of their first album as a "Jewish experience"). All of the band's names have revolved around the words "Silver Mt. Zion", except "Thee Silver Mountain Reveries" for the 2004 EP.

Imagery and packaging

As with most Constellation releases, Silver Mt. Zion records come in recycled cardboard cases with detailed artwork, do not feature the band's name on the album cover (the band's name at any particular time can be found on the spine of each album) and no copyright details on the disc. ''13 Blues for Thirteen Moons'' was the first album case to feature a photo of the band inside (along with the lyric sheets). Birds tend to feature heavily in the artwork, often in detailed pictures. Album artwork has also included a sketch of a horse, a mountainscape from the back of a packet of cigarettes and a picture of

Nina Simone Nina Simone ( ; born Eunice Kathleen Waymon; February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003) was an American singer, pianist, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, and po ...

(in relation to the song "God Bless Our Dead Marines").

Band dynamics

Menuck is often identified as the band's frontman and leader, even though he has repeatedly stated that this is not the case. Though Menuck's voice and lyrics are often prominent on the records, everyone in the band sings on stage, contributing to the harmonies while standing in a semicircle, with members facing each other as often as the audience. The band's dynamic has gone through changes with additions and replacements in the line-up. Trudeau's breaking her collarbone in a motorbike accident prevented them from touring, leading the band to spend time working more singing into their pieces. Drummer Scott Levine Gilmore's replacement, Eric Craven, contributed a louder and more lively feel; Craven was subsequently replaced by drummer David Payant. Menuck, speaking for the band in interview, has said " hey allbelieve in music as labour".

Members

– guitar, piano, vocals, sound effects * Sophie Trudeau – violin, vocals *

– double bass, bass guitar, vocals * David Payant – drums, percussion, organ, vocals *

– violin, vocals *

Ian Ilavsky Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, which is derived from the Hebrew given name (Yohanan, ') and corresponds to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. This name is a popu ...

– guitar, organ, harmonium, vocals *

– cello, vocals * Eric Craven – drums, percussion * Scott Levine Gilmore – drums, percussion, guitar, mandolin, vocals

Timeline

Discography

LPs

* 2000: '' He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms...'' ** Released as: A Silver Mt. Zion * 2001: ''

Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward ''Born into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward'' is the second album by the Canadian band The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band. It was released by Constellation Records in October 2001. The title is drawn from the Book of Jo ...

'' ** Released as: The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band * 2003: '' "This Is Our Punk-Rock," Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing,'' ** Released as: The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band with Choir * 2005: '' Horses in the Sky'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band * 2008: '' 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band * 2010: '' Kollaps Tradixionales'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra * 2014: '' Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

EPs

* 2004: '' The "Pretty Little Lightning Paw" E.P.'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mountain Reveries * 2012: '' "The West Will Rise Again" E.P.'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra * 2014: '' Hang On to Each Other'' ** Released as: Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra

Compilations

* 2004: '' Song of the Silent Land'' (Constellation Records compilation) ** One original track as Silver Mt. Zion: "Iron Bridge to Thunder Bay"

References

External links

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra
at Constellation Records *
Live performances available in the public domain for download
at the

Internet Archive The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silver Mt. Zion Canadian post-rock groups Musical groups from Montreal Musical collectives Musical groups established in 1999 Constellation Records (Canada) artists English-language musical groups from Quebec 1999 establishments in Quebec