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.
Sadie
Black Mountain Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Treacherous beasts walk in pairs hand in hand by the shore
Wisdom forgot them so they became trouble
Hug your surroundings there's life in dead season
Chemical planes in the sky let the babies run wild
Things became vulgar when we became silence
Please Sadie oh won't you come down it's time to come home
Marry me maiden and become my companion
Together we'll fly on the planes like nuclear suns
No faulty resemblance, the devil is dressed as.
Please Sadie oh won't you come down, it's time to come home
Please Sadie oh won't you come down, surrender your throne
The lyrics to Sadie by Black Mountain are cryptic and metaphorical, leaving a lot up to interpretation. One possible interpretation is that the first stanza is alluding to the dangers of isolation and forgetting one's wisdom, leading to a life of trouble. The advice given is to embrace one's surroundings and live life to the fullest, despite the chemical pollution in the air.
The second stanza is a plea to a woman named Sadie to come down from her throne and join the singer in a partnership. They will fly like "nuclear suns," possibly alluding to the powerful and destructive nature of their love. The devil is mentioned as a false resemblance, perhaps indicating a need to reject false or superficial love in favor of something deeper and more genuine.
Overall, the song seems to be a call to live boldly and authentically, rejecting societal norms that may constrain individuality and creativity. The specifics of the lyrics may be subject to interpretation, but the general theme of embracing life's pleasures and defying convention is clear.
Line by Line Meaning
Don't run alone on the stadium walls cross the river.
Running alone on the stadium walls near the river can be dangerous.
Treacherous beasts walk in pairs hand in hand by the shore
The dangerous creatures are walking together along the shore.
Wisdom forgot them so they became trouble
They became trouble because they lacked wisdom.
Hug your surroundings there's life in dead season
Embrace your surroundings even when it seems lifeless.
Chemical planes in the sky let the babies run wild
The planes in the sky are causing chaos and allowing for reckless behavior.
Things became vulgar when we became silence
Silence led to crass behavior.
Please Sadie oh won't you come down it's time to come home
Sadie is being asked to come home.
Marry me maiden and become my companion
The artist wants to marry Sadie and be companions.
Together we'll fly on the planes like nuclear suns
Together they will experience intense and powerful flights.
No faulty resemblance, the devil is dressed as.
The devil is disguised and cannot be easily recognized.
Please Sadie oh won't you come down, it's time to come home
Sadie is being asked again to come home.
Please Sadie oh won't you come down, surrender your throne
Sadie is being asked to surrender her position and come home.
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: Amber Erica Webber, Jeremy Victor Schmidt, Joshua Mark Wells, Matthew Camirand, Stephen Gordon McBean
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind