A founding member of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, the nine-piece Montreal post-rock outfit that largely defined the genre’s pursuit of soaring, emotionally wrenched instrumentals, guitarist, pianist and songwriter Efrim felt the need to explore a more individualistic approach. Beginning in late 2000 and joining together with two other GYBE members—Thierry on contrebasse and Sophie on violin—he formed A Silver Mt. Zion, whose first performance featured instrumental tracks interwoven with field recordings. This music, released as He Has Left Us Alone, But Shafts of Light Sometimes Grace the Corner of Our Rooms, became the group’s debut release on the venerated Montreal avant-rock label Constellation Records. Soon after, Efrim added three more members, reconceiving the group as a string quartet plus two electric guitars (drums were later added in 2003). Reflecting this radical transformation, he renamed the group The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La-La Band (Thee came even later), and released the seminal Born Into Trouble as the Sparks Fly Upward. While the first two albums were largely instrumental—thereby feeding the impression that the group was essentially a GYBE side project—SMZ’s most recent albums feature a lyric-based approach. This Is Our Punk-Rock, Thee Rusted Satellites Gather and Sing and Horses in the Sky all draw heavily on political motifs to create an invigorating form of modern protest music. SMZ’s current lineup features ties to major Montreal experimental rock bands, including Black Ox Orkestar, Frankie Sparo, Hangedup, Re:, Sofa and many others.

The Latin definition of Corpus Christi means “Body of Christ.” The Polish definition of Corpus Christi is “Dozynki.” Okay, not really, but this weekend it may as well be. The once doomed landmark church on the east side in the shadow of the Broadway Market will transform the intersection of Clark and Kent Streets (known as Superman corner) into a rural Polish medieval village, when they present the 27th Annual Polish Harvest festival known as Dozynki. Festivities begin Saturday at 11:30am with what else but a Mass, complete with guest choirs and visiting dignitaries (this is a church, after all). And if divine intervention isn’t enough to make your weekend worthwhile, how about a farmers market to take home some locally grown produce? Or Polish arts and crafts demonstrations and workshops, the Buffalo Zoomobile, Polish food, Polish beers, a Sunday chicken BBQ and enough live Polka music and Polka dancing that NASA has even debated sending astronauts to prepare for the centrifugal force of a Space Shuttle liftoff. Tours of the historic church (where Johnny “Goo” Rzeznik once served as an altar boy) will be available on Sunday, and Polish virtuoso Igor Lipinski will conduct a performance on the church’s newly installed concert grand piano that afternoon. There’s even open bowling at the adjacent Parish Athletic Center —plenty to do for kids of all ages.

David Frederickson and Mistina Keith—neither having graduated high school—met young, started a band, fell in love and got married, and then got divorced. That didn’t stop them from continuing to make music together, however. That may sound either like the worst kind of self-punishment or a promising modus operandi for the modern power duo (ask Meg and Jack White, respectively), but the fact that the Prids’ relationship remains ambiguous—they still live and work together in a remote home known as “the Compound”—makes a perfect backdrop for the band’s music. Poignant, brooding, and buzzily sweet, their last release, …Until the World is Beautiful (Five03) has an 1980s-infused, Breakfast Club danceability—if it were better influenced by Bauhaus and reborn in the future, where everything sounds better. There’s an undeniable chemistry at work here, and not just between Frederickson and Keith, who handle guitar and bass as well as vocals, but with keyboardist Eric Hold and drummer Joey Mass as well. Recommended for fans of Interpol, Joy Division, New Order and Yo La Tengo, this music can be torpidly gloomy but refreshing anyways, kind of like a much needed summertime storm. Originally from Lincoln, Nebraska, this group now calls Portland, Oregon home, and since they’re kicking off this tour on the East Coast, the Prids will actually swing through Buffalo twice within a little over a month: This solo tour has them playing with opening act Neyko, and when they come back around in late September to the Town Ballroom, they’ll be with headliners Built to Spill.

This is not, though one may be forgiven for thinking otherwise, a newly released documentary. Rather, it is the 1924 silent classic starring Douglas Fairbanks as the Thief, a grinning, bare-chested, ear-ringed scoundrel who seeks to win the hand of the Caliph’s daughter by bringing back the rarest of treasures. The lavish sets and spectacular-at-the-time visual effects made director Raoul Walsh’s arabesque fantasy a tremendous success on its initial release. The Thief of Bagdad kicks off the 13th season of the Buffalo Film Seminars, a weekly series of films and conversations about films hosted by University at Buffalo professors Bruce Jackson and Diane Christian, who believe that great films are meant to be seen on big screens in dark rooms filled with appreciative audiences. Accompanying the 35-millimeter print on electric piano will be the great Philip C. Carli of Rochester’s George Eastman House. Carli played to his first silent film, 1923’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame, at the age of 13. As always, a discussion follows the screening. Upcoming shows in the Buffalo Film Seminar include 1933’s King Kong (September 5), 1945’s Mildred Pierce (September 12) and 1946’s The Big Sleep (September 26). Visit http://buffalofilmseminars.com for more information.