Biography
Canadian musician Effrim Manuel Menuck first gained recognition as a founding guitarist in the post-rock outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor, later establishing Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and issuing material under his own name. Born in Montreal to a physician father and a nurse mother, he spent his childhood in Toronto and completed Hebrew day school through the ninth grade before leaving high school in eleventh grade and moving back to Montreal. At twenty he experienced a nervous breakdown while unemployed and without housing.
Following an introduction to Mauro Pezzente and Mike Moya, the three musicians launched Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1994. That same year the group produced a limited cassette edition of its first recording, All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling, restricted to thirty-three copies; the subsequent proper debut F♯ A♯ (Infinity) drew broader notice. Between 1998 and 2002 the band maintained a steady schedule of releases and performances that heightened its stature inside the post-rock community.
In 1999 Menuck joined Godspeed colleagues Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar to create Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, whose vocal contributions distinguished the project from the instrumental focus of his earlier band. The ensemble’s first album, He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms..., surfaced in 2000, and the group kept recording after Godspeed entered what seemed an open-ended pause in 2003. During the initial phase of Godspeed’s existence Menuck helped transform a performance space into the 24-track facility Hotel2Tango, which he eventually co-owned and ran with Amar, Howard Bilerman, and Radwan Moumneh; sessions for Arcade Fire, Colin Stetson, and Owen Pallett took place there.
Menuck persisted with Mt. Zion and joined singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt on North Star Deserter in 2007 and At the Cut in 2009. Reports in 2010 indicated Godspeed would reconvene for an All Tomorrow’s Parties appearance, and the following year the ensemble undertook an extensive North American and European tour. Also in 2011 Constellation issued Menuck’s first solo album, Plays “High Gospel,” completed after the arrival of his son and the passing of Chesnutt.
Godspeed sustained its return with the 2012 release ’Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, yet Menuck continued Mt. Zion’s output, delivering the group’s seventh album, Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything, in 2014. Godspeed followed with its fifth record, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, in 2015. Two years afterward Menuck rejoined the band for Luciferian Towers, and in 2018 he issued his second solo album, Pissing Stars, prompted by the connection between American television presenter Mary Heart and Mohammed Khashoggi, son of a Saudi arms dealer.
Following an introduction to Mauro Pezzente and Mike Moya, the three musicians launched Godspeed You! Black Emperor in 1994. That same year the group produced a limited cassette edition of its first recording, All Lights Fucked on the Hairy Amp Drooling, restricted to thirty-three copies; the subsequent proper debut F♯ A♯ (Infinity) drew broader notice. Between 1998 and 2002 the band maintained a steady schedule of releases and performances that heightened its stature inside the post-rock community.
In 1999 Menuck joined Godspeed colleagues Sophie Trudeau and Thierry Amar to create Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra, whose vocal contributions distinguished the project from the instrumental focus of his earlier band. The ensemble’s first album, He Has Left Us Alone But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms..., surfaced in 2000, and the group kept recording after Godspeed entered what seemed an open-ended pause in 2003. During the initial phase of Godspeed’s existence Menuck helped transform a performance space into the 24-track facility Hotel2Tango, which he eventually co-owned and ran with Amar, Howard Bilerman, and Radwan Moumneh; sessions for Arcade Fire, Colin Stetson, and Owen Pallett took place there.
Menuck persisted with Mt. Zion and joined singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt on North Star Deserter in 2007 and At the Cut in 2009. Reports in 2010 indicated Godspeed would reconvene for an All Tomorrow’s Parties appearance, and the following year the ensemble undertook an extensive North American and European tour. Also in 2011 Constellation issued Menuck’s first solo album, Plays “High Gospel,” completed after the arrival of his son and the passing of Chesnutt.
Godspeed sustained its return with the 2012 release ’Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!, yet Menuck continued Mt. Zion’s output, delivering the group’s seventh album, Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything, in 2014. Godspeed followed with its fifth record, Asunder, Sweet and Other Distress, in 2015. Two years afterward Menuck rejoined the band for Luciferian Towers, and in 2018 he issued his second solo album, Pissing Stars, prompted by the connection between American television presenter Mary Heart and Mohammed Khashoggi, son of a Saudi arms dealer.
Albums
Singles
