Black Mountain

Black Mountain is an indie-rock band comprised of Stephen McBean, Amber Webber, Matt Camirand, Jeremy Schmidt and Joshua Wells. The band is closely influenced by many past artists, and criticisms often walk the line between praising adept imitation and blasting blatant re-use of old ideas. The band is a psychedelic amalgamation of Neil Young and Buffalo Springfield, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground, and Black Sabbath.

Leader Stephen McBean also heads another similarly-named band, Pink Mountaintops, who are the more experimental side of McBean's musical abilities. Black Mountain is the front line band for Black Mountain Army, a collective of musicians, artists and friends in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

By day, three members of the band work for an organization (Insite) that meets the basic living requirements of the chronically poor, drug addicted and mentally ill near Vancouver's infamous Main & Hastings intersection, widely considered to be the heroin capital of Canada, if not North America. The name "Black Mountain" could be a reference to a large pile of hashish.

Black Mountain has released one self-titled LP (2005) and an EP titled Druganaut (2004) on the Jagjaguwar label. A split single with Destroyer was released in Fall 2004 on Spirt of Orr. The "Stormy High" single was released in 2006 on Suicide Squeeze records.

Also, in 2005, the band opened for Coldplay on their Twisted Logic Tour for three weeks, with their final opening in San Diego. Their self-titled album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005. They recently were featured on the soundtrack for the box-office hit movie Spider-Man 3, with their song "Stay Free". A vinyl single was released in April 2007 named "Surrender Sound Session: Unkle vs. Autolux/Black Mountain" with a remix on the B side.

Black Mountain announced the release of their sophomore album. The new album is called "In The Future", and it is coming out on Jagjaguwar in January of 2008. In support of the new album, Black Mountain will start North American tour and expand it later to the UK and Europe. Recommended!

Black Mountain - Tyrants (from In The Future)
Black Mountain - Druganaut (from Black Mountain)
Black Mountain @ MySpace


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