January 31, 2021 • 11 mins
Godspeed You! Black Emperor is a band originally formed in Canada in 1994. They’re an experimental rock group who has had quite a bit of success. Their most popular song is called East Hastings, and it was featured in the 2002 film, “28 Days Later”. Anyone who has seen the movie likely remembers that haunting song as the film’s protagonist wanders around a deserted city.
That’s not the only success the band has had though. Throughout the years, and despite the various drama that bands have with members leaving and hiatuses to pursue other projects, they’ve collected quite a cult following and they still produce music today. So while you may not have heard of this band, all you need to know for the purposes of this podcast are that the band is popular in many circles with rabid fans dying to hear their music.
In 1994 shortly after forming the band, they assembled at a small studio in New Brunswick to record an album. This album had a very small run. Just 33 copies of this cassette tape were created in total, and over the years all cassettes vanished. Despite the best efforts by the fans to track down the missing album, they were unsuccessful. The album was destined to be lost forever. Even the band didn't have a copy.
That’s not the only success the band has had though. Throughout the years, and despite the various drama that bands have with members leaving and hiatuses to pursue other projects, they’ve collected quite a cult following and they still produce music today. So while you may not have heard of this band, all you need to know for the purposes of this podcast are that the band is popular in many circles with rabid fans dying to hear their music.
In 1994 shortly after forming the band, they assembled at a small studio in New Brunswick to record an album. This album had a very small run. Just 33 copies of this cassette tape were created in total, and over the years all cassettes vanished. Despite the best efforts by the fans to track down the missing album, they were unsuccessful. The album was destined to be lost forever. Even the band didn't have a copy.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Freak Kind and Bite the Ground,Make Us Rip Our Thin I Suda's ritual
seed Internet each Show. Hey,everybody, welcome back to Internet Freak Show.
(00:30):
So in various episodes on this podcastfeed, I've talked about how people
can use the Internet to create newmysteries. But sometimes the Internet solves mysteries
rather than creates them, and thisis one of those times. But before
we get into that, I needto give you some background into the band
God Speeds You Black Emperor. Soif you're somebody like me, maybe you're
(00:50):
not big into the music scene,and maybe you haven't even heard of this
band. God Speed You Black Emperoris a band originally formed in Canada in
nineteen ninety four. They're an experimentalrock group and they've had actually quite a
bit of success. The most popularsong is called East Hastings and it was
featured in the two thousand and twoTwenty Eight Days Later. Anybody that has
(01:11):
seen the movie likely remembers that hauntingsong that plays as the film's protagonist wanders
around a deserted London. But that'snot the only success the band has had
throughout the years, and despite thevarious drama that bands have with members leaving
and hiatuses to pursue other projects.They've actually collected quite a cult following,
and they still produce music to thisvery day. So while you might not
(01:34):
have heard of this band, allyou really need to know for the purposes
of this podcast are that the bandis popular in many circles and has rabid
fans dying to hear their music.In nineteen ninety four, shortly after forming
the band, they assembled at asmall studio in New Brunswick to record an
album. This album had a verysmall run, only thirty three copies of
a cassette tape were created in total, and over the years every copy of
(01:57):
that cassette tape vanished. Despite thebest efforts by the fans to track down
the missing album, they were unsuccessful. The album was destined to be lost
forever. Even the band didn't havea copy, and to this day,
the album is not included in theirofficial discography. Most places list nineteen ninety
seven's F Sharp A Sharp Infinity astheir first album, ignoring the lost nineteen
(02:20):
ninety four album All Lights Fucked onthe Hairy Amp Drooling. The album became
sort of like an urban legend withsome doubting that the album ever even existed
in the first place, But thismystery was laid to rest in two and
thirteen, o user on Reddit hadfound the missing cassette tape. The basic
story is that he used to travelaround to various studios and collect demo tapes
(02:42):
from them. Sometime between nineteen ninetyfour and nineteen ninety five, he stopped
by the studio where this album wasrecorded and he picked up the demo tape.
After that, it sat in acardboard box for nearly twenty years,
when in two and thirteen he foundthe album while he cleaned out a closet.
Like me, he had not heardof God's Speedy Black Emperor, so
he googled him and found the sameinformation that I presented here. Before realizing
(03:06):
that he may be sitting on analbum that is much sought after, he
took to the Internet to look foradvice. The user named casket Jacket posted
on the music subreddit looking for adviceon how to handle this tape. So
the subreddit was skeptical, of course, right because on the Internet everything is
a line until you prove it otherwise. So to prove that he was in
(03:27):
possession of the cassette. He postedphotos, and the photos looked legitimate.
The front of the tape was blackwith white handwritten text on it in a
gray scale illustration. On the insideof the cassette were similar kind of scratchy
styles of illustrations with hearts and starsand the number three inside of them.
The subreddit exploded with feedback about thisdiscovery. The user with the tape said
(03:51):
he had no way to record thecassette tape into the computer for easy sharing,
but he'd work on a solution inthe coming days, and sure enough,
casket Jacket delivered again. He rippedtwo songs from the tape. The
songs were called Random Lovely, Monkedand Blues and Dad Mom Daddy. He
uploaded these to a random and obscurefile sharing site. Fans of God Speed
(04:13):
You, Black Emperor trudge their waythrough slow download speeds and time out,
but they did eventually download and recoverthese tracks, and all of them bounced
for the legitimacy of the tracks.These were the real deal, and this
was the first peak at the band'sfirst recording that had been lost for decades,
So you can imagine the intense andpassionate interest in these songs from the
fans, but unfortunately, Casket Jacketdid not share their enthusiasm. In fact,
(04:39):
he seemed annoyed by the interest,leaving the conversation for hours or days
at a time with excuses like attendinga birthday party or just that he needed
to get some sleep. At onepoint, he wondered about the legal ramifications
of sharing these songs. If theband, or the studio or anybody didn't
want these songs to see the lightof day, how would they react to
(04:59):
some somebody on the Internet sharing themusic anonymously. I'm going to defend this
outlook a little bit, because obviouslyinternet piracy is a thing, and it's
a thing that can get you bigfines or even booted from your internet provider.
People are rightfully timid to share movies, TV shows, and music online,
and Casket Jacket was obviously quite worriedabout this. He claimed that his
(05:21):
wife was encouraging him to just selloff the cassette and let somebody else deal
with the headaches of sharing it andthe potential legal ramifications. Fans replied to
these concerns with interviews from the bandthemselves, wishing the tape to be released,
but this did not persuade casket Jacket. Users wanting to hear the rest
of the tape kept pressing and hopingto change his mind, but their conversation
(05:45):
kept getting more and more heated,until eventually another user called a casket Jacket
a quote god, tear troll orthe biggest asshole they had ever interacted with.
End quote. Casket Jacket replied tothis, saying his mind was now
made up and he would not besharing the tape. Later, he came
back for one final post. Heapologized for the chaos that he'd caused him
(06:06):
on the fans, and he triedone last time to do right by the
fans, the band, and thelabel he'd promised that he'd reached out to
the band's label and asked for permissionto sell or share the tape. He
also shared his plans to auction offthe tape on eBay once he realized that
it was safe to do so.It restored a little bit of hope and
(06:27):
faith for the fans who still desperatelywanted to hear the rest of the tape,
but unfortunately none of that would evercome to be. Casket Jacket deleted
his Reddit account without ever posting anothercomment about the tape and it never showed
up on eBay. So what happenedto the tape? You know, only
casket Jacket really knows for sure.Throughout his postings about the tape, he
(06:49):
alluded to selling it, wondering howmuch it was worth, and maybe using
the proceeds of a sale to takehis kids on vacation. So was all
of this money motive? Well,it's really easy to consider that possibility,
right. If posting this was ultimatelymoney motivated, maybe a user sent him
a private message and made him anoffer for the tape that he just couldn't
(07:11):
refuse. Or maybe this wasn't motivatedpurely by money. Maybe casket Jackets concerns
about piracy were legitimate and he gotspooked by all the attention and he gave
up on the effort to share thetape. While it is possible that casket
Jacket is the quote God to yourtroll and quote that he was accused of
being, that actually seems like theleast likely possibility to me. This is
(07:32):
certainly a troll that got people veryupset, but that seems almost accidental in
this case. And why would hego through all the trouble of designing a
cassette and finding a band or recordingmusic that sounded like it maybe from this
band, just to troll people.I actually believe that the tape is legitimate,
and I believe it's one of fewthat still exists. After all,
(07:54):
cassettes are an outdated technology. I'msure that many of these tapes have been
thrown away or simply listened to enoughthat the tape themselves fall apart. Those
of us old enough to remember cassettetapes remember that they're prone to getting stuck
in devices, and sometimes just exposureto heat and cold can ruin them.
And for their part, even GodSpeed You Black Emperor has disowned the tape,
(08:16):
instead claiming that their nineteen ninety sevenalbum is their first legitimate work.
So while this little story doesn't havethe best resolution in the world, there's
still hope for a happy ending inthe future. There's no reason to believe
that this cassette is gone or ruined. Maybe it's in a happier place with
a new owner just biding his timeuntil he can safely release it to the
(08:37):
world. In these days, ofcourse, the Internet has changed the music
scene forever. Cassettes and even CDsare no longer things that people purchase and
keep on their shelf or in theircar. Albums are streamed online almost exclusively
now through services like Spotify. I'msure there's hundreds or even thousands of stories
out they're similar to this one intimes of physical media, when that media
(09:01):
can be lost or destroyed. Whatseparates this story from others is the continued
success of God Speed You, BlackEmperor and the rabid fan base that they
still have. It's the only reasonthat the story matters at all. Casket
Jacket, that Reddit poster who wentaround collecting demo tapes for several years probably
has a ton of albums made byguys who never made another one and just
(09:22):
went on to have normal and boringlives that nobody really cares about. Stories
of lost media like this are becomingmore and more rare as the Internet ensures
that media can live on basically forever. These days, the closest things that
will get our bands doing experimental art, like the Wu Tang Clan who created
an album with only one copy sellingit to the highest bidder to ensure that
(09:45):
they controlled the release of it.That actually happened in two and fourteen with
the album Once Upon a Time inshall In. In this case, though
the album was not an amateurly producedcassette tape, it was gifted in a
hand carved box with a leather boundcollection of lyrics and other details about the
album. This album was purchased fortwo million dollars by the quote Farma Bro
(10:07):
and quote Martin Screlly. And ifyou think that he must be Woutang Clan's
biggest fan, you'd be wrong.He's been quoted as not even listening to
it yet, but instead he boughtit his leverage to hang out with celebrities
who might want to listen to it. So I guess Casket Jacket isn't the
only one keeping an album all tohimself, away from the loyal fans that
(10:28):
would actually enjoy it. In Screlly'scase, he ended up going to prison
for things totally unrelated to the Woutangalbum, of course, but it shows
the type of personalities that like tokeep everything to themselves and share nothing.
So that's it for this episode ofInternet Freak Show. Thank you to everybody
who has left in a review onApple Podcasts, and I would encourage everyone
out there to continue leaving those reviews. Remember to checkout Internet Freakshow dot com
(10:54):
for transcriptions of these episodes, aswell as photos and links to a couple
of social media accounts. If that'syour thing. Thanks for listening and we'll
see you next time. Until nexttime, Steve Free be nerd of me.
Freak Kind and Bite the Ground,Make Us Rip Our Thin I Suda's ritual
seed Internet each Show. Hey,everybody, welcome back to Internet Freak Show.
(00:30):
So in various episodes on this podcastfeed, I've talked about how people
can use the Internet to create newmysteries. But sometimes the Internet solves mysteries
rather than creates them, and thisis one of those times. But before
we get into that, I needto give you some background into the band
God Speeds You Black Emperor. Soif you're somebody like me, maybe you're
(00:50):
not big into the music scene,and maybe you haven't even heard of this
band. God Speed You Black Emperoris a band originally formed in Canada in
nineteen ninety four. They're an experimentalrock group and they've had actually quite a
bit of success. The most popularsong is called East Hastings and it was
featured in the two thousand and twoTwenty Eight Days Later. Anybody that has
(01:11):
seen the movie likely remembers that hauntingsong that plays as the film's protagonist wanders
around a deserted London. But that'snot the only success the band has had
throughout the years, and despite thevarious drama that bands have with members leaving
and hiatuses to pursue other projects.They've actually collected quite a cult following,
and they still produce music to thisvery day. So while you might not
(01:34):
have heard of this band, allyou really need to know for the purposes
of this podcast are that the bandis popular in many circles and has rabid
fans dying to hear their music.In nineteen ninety four, shortly after forming
the band, they assembled at asmall studio in New Brunswick to record an
album. This album had a verysmall run, only thirty three copies of
a cassette tape were created in total, and over the years every copy of
(01:57):
that cassette tape vanished. Despite thebest efforts by the fans to track down
the missing album, they were unsuccessful. The album was destined to be lost
forever. Even the band didn't havea copy, and to this day,
the album is not included in theirofficial discography. Most places list nineteen ninety
seven's F Sharp A Sharp Infinity astheir first album, ignoring the lost nineteen
(02:20):
ninety four album All Lights Fucked onthe Hairy Amp Drooling. The album became
sort of like an urban legend withsome doubting that the album ever even existed
in the first place, But thismystery was laid to rest in two and
thirteen, o user on Reddit hadfound the missing cassette tape. The basic
story is that he used to travelaround to various studios and collect demo tapes
(02:42):
from them. Sometime between nineteen ninetyfour and nineteen ninety five, he stopped
by the studio where this album wasrecorded and he picked up the demo tape.
After that, it sat in acardboard box for nearly twenty years,
when in two and thirteen he foundthe album while he cleaned out a closet.
Like me, he had not heardof God's Speedy Black Emperor, so
he googled him and found the sameinformation that I presented here. Before realizing
(03:06):
that he may be sitting on analbum that is much sought after, he
took to the Internet to look foradvice. The user named casket Jacket posted
on the music subreddit looking for adviceon how to handle this tape. So
the subreddit was skeptical, of course, right because on the Internet everything is
a line until you prove it otherwise. So to prove that he was in
(03:27):
possession of the cassette. He postedphotos, and the photos looked legitimate.
The front of the tape was blackwith white handwritten text on it in a
gray scale illustration. On the insideof the cassette were similar kind of scratchy
styles of illustrations with hearts and starsand the number three inside of them.
The subreddit exploded with feedback about thisdiscovery. The user with the tape said
(03:51):
he had no way to record thecassette tape into the computer for easy sharing,
but he'd work on a solution inthe coming days, and sure enough,
casket Jacket delivered again. He rippedtwo songs from the tape. The
songs were called Random Lovely, Monkedand Blues and Dad Mom Daddy. He
uploaded these to a random and obscurefile sharing site. Fans of God Speed
(04:13):
You, Black Emperor trudge their waythrough slow download speeds and time out,
but they did eventually download and recoverthese tracks, and all of them bounced
for the legitimacy of the tracks.These were the real deal, and this
was the first peak at the band'sfirst recording that had been lost for decades,
So you can imagine the intense andpassionate interest in these songs from the
fans, but unfortunately, Casket Jacketdid not share their enthusiasm. In fact,
(04:39):
he seemed annoyed by the interest,leaving the conversation for hours or days
at a time with excuses like attendinga birthday party or just that he needed
to get some sleep. At onepoint, he wondered about the legal ramifications
of sharing these songs. If theband, or the studio or anybody didn't
want these songs to see the lightof day, how would they react to
(04:59):
some somebody on the Internet sharing themusic anonymously. I'm going to defend this
outlook a little bit, because obviouslyinternet piracy is a thing, and it's
a thing that can get you bigfines or even booted from your internet provider.
People are rightfully timid to share movies, TV shows, and music online,
and Casket Jacket was obviously quite worriedabout this. He claimed that his
(05:21):
wife was encouraging him to just selloff the cassette and let somebody else deal
with the headaches of sharing it andthe potential legal ramifications. Fans replied to
these concerns with interviews from the bandthemselves, wishing the tape to be released,
but this did not persuade casket Jacket. Users wanting to hear the rest
of the tape kept pressing and hopingto change his mind, but their conversation
(05:45):
kept getting more and more heated,until eventually another user called a casket Jacket
a quote god, tear troll orthe biggest asshole they had ever interacted with.
End quote. Casket Jacket replied tothis, saying his mind was now
made up and he would not besharing the tape. Later, he came
back for one final post. Heapologized for the chaos that he'd caused him
(06:06):
on the fans, and he triedone last time to do right by the
fans, the band, and thelabel he'd promised that he'd reached out to
the band's label and asked for permissionto sell or share the tape. He
also shared his plans to auction offthe tape on eBay once he realized that
it was safe to do so.It restored a little bit of hope and
(06:27):
faith for the fans who still desperatelywanted to hear the rest of the tape,
but unfortunately none of that would evercome to be. Casket Jacket deleted
his Reddit account without ever posting anothercomment about the tape and it never showed
up on eBay. So what happenedto the tape? You know, only
casket Jacket really knows for sure.Throughout his postings about the tape, he
(06:49):
alluded to selling it, wondering howmuch it was worth, and maybe using
the proceeds of a sale to takehis kids on vacation. So was all
of this money motive? Well,it's really easy to consider that possibility,
right. If posting this was ultimatelymoney motivated, maybe a user sent him
a private message and made him anoffer for the tape that he just couldn't
(07:11):
refuse. Or maybe this wasn't motivatedpurely by money. Maybe casket Jackets concerns
about piracy were legitimate and he gotspooked by all the attention and he gave
up on the effort to share thetape. While it is possible that casket
Jacket is the quote God to yourtroll and quote that he was accused of
being, that actually seems like theleast likely possibility to me. This is
(07:32):
certainly a troll that got people veryupset, but that seems almost accidental in
this case. And why would hego through all the trouble of designing a
cassette and finding a band or recordingmusic that sounded like it maybe from this
band, just to troll people.I actually believe that the tape is legitimate,
and I believe it's one of fewthat still exists. After all,
(07:54):
cassettes are an outdated technology. I'msure that many of these tapes have been
thrown away or simply listened to enoughthat the tape themselves fall apart. Those
of us old enough to remember cassettetapes remember that they're prone to getting stuck
in devices, and sometimes just exposureto heat and cold can ruin them.
And for their part, even GodSpeed You Black Emperor has disowned the tape,
(08:16):
instead claiming that their nineteen ninety sevenalbum is their first legitimate work.
So while this little story doesn't havethe best resolution in the world, there's
still hope for a happy ending inthe future. There's no reason to believe
that this cassette is gone or ruined. Maybe it's in a happier place with
a new owner just biding his timeuntil he can safely release it to the
(08:37):
world. In these days, ofcourse, the Internet has changed the music
scene forever. Cassettes and even CDsare no longer things that people purchase and
keep on their shelf or in theircar. Albums are streamed online almost exclusively
now through services like Spotify. I'msure there's hundreds or even thousands of stories
out they're similar to this one intimes of physical media, when that media
(09:01):
can be lost or destroyed. Whatseparates this story from others is the continued
success of God Speed You, BlackEmperor and the rabid fan base that they
still have. It's the only reasonthat the story matters at all. Casket
Jacket, that Reddit poster who wentaround collecting demo tapes for several years probably
has a ton of albums made byguys who never made another one and just
(09:22):
went on to have normal and boringlives that nobody really cares about. Stories
of lost media like this are becomingmore and more rare as the Internet ensures
that media can live on basically forever. These days, the closest things that
will get our bands doing experimental art, like the Wu Tang Clan who created
an album with only one copy sellingit to the highest bidder to ensure that
(09:45):
they controlled the release of it.That actually happened in two and fourteen with
the album Once Upon a Time inshall In. In this case, though
the album was not an amateurly producedcassette tape, it was gifted in a
hand carved box with a leather boundcollection of lyrics and other details about the
album. This album was purchased fortwo million dollars by the quote Farma Bro
(10:07):
and quote Martin Screlly. And ifyou think that he must be Woutang Clan's
biggest fan, you'd be wrong.He's been quoted as not even listening to
it yet, but instead he boughtit his leverage to hang out with celebrities
who might want to listen to it. So I guess Casket Jacket isn't the
only one keeping an album all tohimself, away from the loyal fans that
(10:28):
would actually enjoy it. In Screlly'scase, he ended up going to prison
for things totally unrelated to the Woutangalbum, of course, but it shows
the type of personalities that like tokeep everything to themselves and share nothing.
So that's it for this episode ofInternet Freak Show. Thank you to everybody
who has left in a review onApple Podcasts, and I would encourage everyone
out there to continue leaving those reviews. Remember to checkout Internet Freakshow dot com
(10:54):
for transcriptions of these episodes, aswell as photos and links to a couple
of social media accounts. If that'syour thing. Thanks for listening and we'll
see you next time. Until nexttime, Steve Free be nerd of me.
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