Post Rock - the genre you never knew existed

I wanted to write another music post because I love music. Post rock is a style I have recently found within the past 2 years or so. I dig it. I've done a little research on this style to understand it better and maybe I can briefly explain it in a coherent way. Like so much alternative rock, it can be traced back to the Velvet Underground in the 1960's. A band that didn't sell a lot of records but everyone that bought one became famous and influential. But writing about the history is going to take up more room than I would like. Velvet Underground sums it up. (Along with all modern rock)
Post-rock is often, but not always, instrumental. They use typical rock instruments like guitars and drums but it is also common to throw in other stringed instruments and synthesizers. Wait a minute... hasn't traditional rock bands been doing that for years also? Yes, but the main difference - imagine alternative rock (Nirvana, Pearl Jam) meeting up with progressive rock (Pink Floyd, King Crimson) and deciding to use rhythms and guitars as facilitators for timbres and textures that are not found in traditional rock music. (By the way, I totally had to look up that last line because my own words didn't feel accurate. Here's some examples starting with...

1. Godspeed You Black Emperor - Sleep. This song is over 20 minutes long and takes you on quite a journey. Don't look for the typical verse chorus verse because you won't find it here. I particularly enjoy the last 5 minutes.


2. God is an Astronaut - All is violent, All is bright. It was difficult to choose which song to pick. All their songs could be awesome movie soundtracks. (If These Trees Could Talk was a close runner up for this area of Post-rock.)


3. A Northern Chorus - Winterize. One of my all time favourite songs. I was sad when this band broke up a few years ago because Mrs. Sollywood and I had just started dating and I couldn't wait to take her to see one of their shows. Being a local band (I use to work for the singer) they played the area alot. This is my sad face when I found out they stopped playing a couple weeks before I looked for tickets. Oh and this one has vocals so for all you people who can't listen to just instrumentals you may like this one better.


I've been to 2 of their shows and I put them up there with Pearl Jam, Tool and Trans-siberian Orchestra for pure awesomeness. Just blew me away. Their last album was a bit more mainstream but still keeps their post-rock roots alive (also known as chamber pop)

You may or may not be able to tell, but these 3 bands, all post-rock, sound quite different from each other. That's why I say it's difficult to classify genres.