Classic or Dud: Swans

(review? is that even remotely like the word I was looking for? :-/ )

More news here. Westberg is on board, fab.

OMG

now we're talking

yes!

Ivan likes this.

Stan agrees with Ivan.

" Suggest Ban Permalink

It's like, y'know, six months from now, I can't see myself missing Jarboe more than I might miss Ross McLochness, or Ronnie Pudding, or Danny Upham, or Little Danny Schindler, or any of those."

LOL!

First show announced (but not necessarily the first show they'll play, if you get my meaning), at a festival in Birmingham, the armpit of the United Kingdom.

http://www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic/

Guys, I have a friend who has a friend in the current Swans lineup. Word is that the album is finished already, and that Swans are lining up a sizeable US tour. Austin is on the agenda (which is all I care about, really) but I expect they'll hit a good number of cities, not just the NYC/Cali circuit or anything.

thor is stoked

St. Helens is the armpit of the UK. Birmingham is it's massive and pattable belly. Also, if anyone hasn't attended Supersonic yet they should think about rectifying that mistake.

i've been meaning to make it over for a while

Supersonic is a wonderful festival. I've been for the last three years and loved it every time.

I have a feeling they'll either play an ATP-promoted show while they're over here, or headline/curate of the December Butlins things.

Genuinely stoked to see them live, it's going to be mythic.

*one of the

First round of tour dates announced, you lucky lucky Americans.

09-28 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theater
09-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-30 Boston, MA - Middle East
10-01 Montreal, Quebec - Pop Montreal Festival
10-02 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-04 Detroit, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
10-05 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
10-08 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Masonic Temple
10-09 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10-22-24 Birmingham, England - Supersonic Festival

Classic up through Children of Light. Good all the way through. No duds.

tix on sale for philly, nyc, and boston now

uk tour dates:

October 21 Cyprus Avenue, Cork

October 22 Button Factory, Dublin

October 24 Supersonic Festival, Birmingham

October 25 Arches, Glasgow

October 28 Koko, London

October 29 Uni Stylus, Leeds

October 30 Academy, Manchester

I shall Koko.

That's the Sunday of Supersonic then, presumably in the slot Goblin were in last year.

Oh jaysus Koko, why?

Anyhoo, Neubauten weekend then Swans a few days later, going to be a heavy October

Also Brighton on Oct 27, I'll be there and at Koko.

Brussels, Ancienne Belgique, Nov. 25

and – omg – Vienna Arena, 7 Dec. Now we're talking.

Vienna - woohoo!

man I wanna go to vienna

see you there Jack

No Newcastle?? Motherfucker...

Band pics, cover art (so that's the album title then?)

http://younggodrecords.com/Gallery/?C=116

Oh, it is.

"Michael Gira announced on June 13, 2010, through the Young God Records page on Facebook and his personal Facebook account, that the next Swans album will be titled My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, and is set to be released on September 14, 2010." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swans_(band)#Post-breakup_.26_reformation_.281997-present.29 )

WAIT! The drummer from Shearwater wasn't originally in the Swans, was he??

Okay, he wasn't

How can you guide someone up a rope?

Seriously seriously thinking I should go see them at Lee's.

Had you ever seen them before? You might as well -- at the same time I just can't get behind a Swans lineup (at this stage) without Jarboe.

I haven't actually seen them before, no! Big problem is I'm not really sure what to expect and not sure I'm in the mood for the old-school grinding but have a suspicion it won't be like the (Jarboe-including) stuff that is the material of theirs that I generally prefer...hm..

it's gonna mostly sound like the live stuff from the last two tours on Swans Are Dead

I don't think so.

New album is one of their best. Seriously. Uncompromising, beautiful, unforgiving.

http://pitchfork.com/news/39600-new-swans-eden-prison/

and samples of all the tracks: http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/Detail.asp?C=2343

I don't think so.

I didn't just pluck the comparison out of the air, that is what Gira himself said it was going to sound like. And from the parts I've heard so far he's not far off.

some of us liked Swans better before Jarboe joined

and some of us even liked swans before and after jarboe joined!

read my sentence again edward

ok brb

lol

I love Jarboe-era Swans but there was something about Filth/Cop/Raping A Slave that was just the most scorched barren incredible wasteland of desolation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is they weren't better before jarboe joined, just a different kind of good? kinda feel like gira was hitting a wall with his sound and jarboe was the wrecking ball he needed to break through, plus public castration is my fave swans alb so