Antennae To Heaven

by Amy Mann

The theme of “heavens” for some reason made me think of a song I first heard years ago at a concert in Houston. The band is called Godspeed You Black Emperor! and the song is called Storm from their album Lift Yr. Skinny Fists Like Antennas To Heaven. I’m listening to it now. It’s a really amazing song—instrumental, and classified under the “avantgarde” genre in my iTunes music library (it’s the only album there—all by its lonesome self).
(if you want to hear, it, and I think you should, go here but maybe ignore the video some kid made to the song—just enjoy the song itself—I haven’t watched the video, actually)
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Bwz7lUaJDU0

The song begins in silence, and slowly, as a lone electric guitar quietly repeats the same few measures over and over, builds itself up in volume, speed and intensity, adding instruments in the following progression:
electric guitar--two trumpets--another guitar--xylophone (or something like it)--I think a french horn—some violins--more violins--a bass drum--a lot more strings--cymbals and snare drum

When the snare drum kicks in around 3 minutes into this 6.5 minute long song, I can’t think of any other word to describe the sound except exuberant. It’s elating. The whole song itself builds you from a still and serene place to the point where it’s undeniable that music is making you feel something, something joyous and inspiring. This is the song that, when I think of the movie that I someday hope to write, I want to be the music playing during the dramatic beautiful resolution at the end of whatever horrible events I put my characters through.

My mind jumps. The next time I really remember hearing this song was in my church back in Texas. It doesn’t seem to fit. This band’s name doesn’t seem to resonate “play me on Sunday morning,” but it did fit. A series of black and white photos were shown on a projector screen, this music playing behind it, and we were just asked to look at the pictures, and think and pray. It was really quite moving. I was so surprised to have this moment during worship that involved this song I had heard a year or so before in a smoky, hot, Houston music club.

Mind jump #3. I’m in Kansas City watching the band Waterdeep play their “farewell” show—it’s amazing. They begin upstairs in the sanctuary of this church and do over an hour of their acoustic stuff, then we take a 30-40 minute break and move downstairs to this coffee bar / concert area where they play for at least another hour doing their electric stuff. It’s all incredible. And in the middle of the second set, Don Chaffer starts talking, and it seems as if he hadn’t planned this in advance, but he just starts talking about truth and beauty and love, and how we as Christians think that we can only find these things in Christian creations (music, literature, art, whatever), and whatnot, but that he thought this wasn’t true. That God created beauty, and truth and love, and so whenever and wherever someone seeks to make that or create that, there is something important there—something that can connect us to God. If someone, Christian or not, wants to make something beautiful, God is connected to that because beauty is God’s. And if they produce something beautiful, it can connect us to God because again…beauty is God’s He was really into it.

And I think he has something there. I haven’t really thought of it to the lengths Mr. Chaffer did, but this song makes me think of that. And the name of the album aside, I feel that there is something uplifting in this song. Something that takes my mood and my emotions and my thoughts to something higher. Something beautiful and maybe even a bit transcendent. Something that connects me to God.

Try it out. My favorite places to listen to this are: alone in my room with my eyes closed, outside laying down with my eyes opened, or looking out the window of public transportation at the city and people around me.