a silver mt. zion was born in 1999. thierry (contrebasse), sophie
(violin), efrim (piano), mark (electric bass). we played our first show
at the constellation loft. efrim wrote the music in pencil in the pages
of a dollar store notation book=a failed experiment in self-taught
music theory that did not stick. later on, we recorded those songs onto
1/2-inch 8-track at thee mighty hotel2tango. mark moves to england and
aidan plays some drums. wanda was dying, and we made the record for
her. efrim sings on a song that he wrote on a schoolbus in the middle
of a clearcut north of thunder bay when godspeed was still broke. while
designing the LP’s insert card, we change our name to “thee silver mt.
zion memorial orchestra & tra-la-la band”.
a couple of years later and we book our first tour. european winter.
we add three new members= beckie (cello), ian (guitar), jessica
(violin). spend three weeks rehearsing, a pair of local shows, and then
we get on an aeroplane. 5 weeks of playing quietly to drunks, and a bad
digital piano. live-sound by german paul. we wrote “the triumph of our
tired eyes” on the road. came back home and recorded our second LP
straight away. mixed it slowly, before and after the riots in quebec
city, and named it “born into trouble as the sparks fly upwards”.
hardly any piano this time, but a whole lot of bowed strings and very
many noisy guitars.
a year and a bit later. we write a bunch of songs in our jamspace
and record our third LP. “this is our punk-rock, thee rusted satellites
gather and sing”. the neighbourhood’s changing, and nobody’s laughing
at america’s president yet. aidan plays some drums again, and we hustle
up an amateur choir. we decide to tour again, but loud this time. scott
from black ox orkestar joins us on drums and guitar. we set up in a
semi-circle and tear each other’s heads off. also, we start
group-singing together. first show with this lineup is at clinton’s in
toronto. a handful of shows during canadian winter and then back over
the ocean again. nick does our live-sound but then disappears, so
radwan takes the reins.
we tour steadily for the next few years, and record “horses in the
sky”. the world, as always, seems totally fucked. we record one of the
tunes around a campfire in the laurentians. emma the dog spends the
night staring balefully into the darkness as the embers fade. we tour
north america proper for the first time. colorado is a lowpoint, as is
saskatoon.
somewhere in the middle of all that noise, scott leaves to be an
american again. eric from hanged up takes his place. more tours, more
highways. we record “13 blues for thirteen moons”, the first time we
make a record of songs that we’ve played live forever. pitchfork
implies that we’re terrorists and we license a song to the abc
television network. more touring and then beckie, eric and ian leave
the band. a summer of regret, and we drop the “tra-la-la band” from our
name. dave becomes the new drummer, and efrim is the lonely guitar. we
tour europe again and play many places that we’ve never been to before.
the global economy collapses while we play latvia. tristan is the new
sound-dude. poland is heavy.
we record “kollaps tradixionales” in the summer of 2009. jessica and
efrim have a baby. the new record’s got songs that we wrote as the
tra-la-la band, and a couple of new ones too. touring again, and we’re
ten years old. in our own country we’re pretty much invisible.
we believe in what we do, and move forward slowly. we’re lucky and
we know it. we earn an honest living, though it gets harder all the
time.
see you on the road…