Biography
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Years Active
2004 – present (20 years)
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Founded In
Vancouver, Metro Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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Members
- Amber Webber
- Jeremy Schmidt
- Joshua Wells
- Matt Camirand
- Stephen McBean
Black Mountain is a Canadian psychedelic rock band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The band was founded in 2004 and currently consists of Stephen McBean (guitars, vocals), Amber Webber (vocals), Jeremy Schmidt (keyboards), Colin Cowan (bass, keyboards) and Joshua Wells (drums). Black Mountain has issued four studio albums: Black Mountain (2005), In the Future (2008), Wilderness Heart (2010) and IV (2016); and two EPs: Druganaut (2004) and Bastards of Light (2008) on the Jagjaguwar label; a split single with Destroyer was released on the Fall of 2004 on Spirit of Orr Records. The "Stormy High" single was released on 2006, through Suicide Squeeze Records; a vinyl single was released on April, 2007 titled "Surrender Sound Session: Unkle vs. Autolux/Black Mountain" with a remix of "[track artist=Black Mountain}No Hits" on the B side.
Their self-titled album was chosen as one of Amazon.com's Top 100 Editor's Picks of 2005. In the Future was a finalist for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize and was also nominated for "Best Alternative Album" in the 2009 Juno Awards. The song "Stay Free" from In the Future was featured on the Spider-Man 3 soundtrack.
In 2005 the band opened for Coldplay on their Twisted Logic Tour for three weeks, with their final opening in San Diego.
In September 2010 Black Mountain performed in an amphitheater located in the woods of Oisterwijk at the Incubate (festival) in Tilburg, Netherlands.
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. In an interview the band said "Black Mountain is just the five of us. The Black Mountain Army… which has kind of gotten blown out of proportion, it was kind of just a joke, because everybody thought we were this hippie collective, like we all lived in one house. But it’s basically just our friends at home in Vancouver, just our extended family of creative people that we know."
Several members of the band have, for as long as a decade, worked for organizations that meet the basic living requirements of the chronically poor, drug addicted and mentally ill in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood, such as Insite. In an interview, the band said: "After work we all try not to think too hard about the effect it has on our lives. It keeps us grounded."
Wilderness Heart was named as a longlisted nominee for the 2011 Polaris Music Prize.
March 11, 2014 The Black Mountain song "Wucan" was featured on season 2 of the FOX drama "The Following" during the eighth episode entitled "Messenger".
The Black Mountain song "Druganaut" is featured in a June, 2014 Father's Day commercial for J.C. Penney.
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