Early career Stephen (Gord) Gordon McBean (b. 1969), was born in Vancouver and grew up in
Kleinburg and
Sidney, British Columbia. He formed his first band, Jerk Ward, in 1981. The band gave McBean his first experience with extensive touring and he later described the experience as a "bit of noise, bit of
Melvins, funk, the
Amrep stuff that was going on then. Lots of screaming. Lasted four years". to join his band Ex Dead Teenager. They signed with Scratch Records and
Jagjaguwar in the U.S.,
The Old Noise (2001) and
Pyrokinesis (2003). The latter featured Amber Webber of Dream on Dreary on vocals.
Black Mountain While McBean and Wells were still performing as Jerk With a Bomb in 2003, McBean began to demo material that included the song "Black Mountain". At the start of 2004, the two began working on the demos under the same name with contributions from Webber, bassist Matt Camirand and keyboard player Jeremy Schmidt. They recorded the eight track, self-titled debut album during the first half of the year. McBean would later describe the change as "it was almost like a release. I mean, I loved Jerk With A Bomb, but it got to a point where I was done with it, I was through with that part of my life". The first release under the new name was a split 7-inch with
Destroyer that featured the song "Bicycle Man". The album was released through Scratch Records in Canada in December 2004, while Jagjaguwar put it out a month later. The band toured around North America and Europe, while in June the 12-inch single "Druganaut" b/w "Buffalo Swan" was released in the U.S. In August 2005, the band opened for
Coldplay on their
Twisted Logic Tour for three weeks, with their final opening in San Diego. In the same month the album was released in Germany through
City Slang Records. A vinyl single was released in April 2007, named "Surrender Sound Session:
Unkle vs.
Autolux/Black Mountain" with a remix of "No Hits" on the B side. Their second album
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 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, while Webber performs with the band Kodiak Deathbeds and
Lightning Dust. 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." In 2010, McBean moved to Los Angeles. The band released their third album
Wilderness Heart in September 2011, which was produced by
Randall Dunn and
Dave Sardy. It was named as a longlisted nominee for the
2011 Polaris Music Prize, and appeared on the !earshot Top 50 chart. On April 1, 2016, they released their fourth studio album,
IV. A fifth studio album,
Destroyer, was released on May 24, 2019. "Let Spirits Ride" was featured in an episode of the ABC network television show,
The Rookie, in March 2019. "Future Shade" featured on Sportsnet's
Hockey Night in Canada in May 2019. In August 2019, the band played Palp Festival on a mountain in Switzerland as well as Sziget Festival in Budapest, Hungary. ==Discography==