Swans: Classic or Dud?

That top middle photo is *really* like a Lucien Freud painting.

yeah that's Christoph Hahn who played guitar on my favourite Swans album White Light from the Mouth of Infinity.

What the fuck happened to him?! He was fairly handsome 20 years ago, he can't be that old...

top right is actually one of the nicest dudes on the entire planet

bottom middle is a peach too

I love those headshots, that is one fucking band you don't want to meet in a dark alley.

a girl I knew roadie'd for both swans and sonic youth back in their early years, she said the sonic youth van was usually quiet + somber whereas in the swans van they were always cracking up and having a good time

in the swans van they were always cracking up and having a good time

Concur, I was a crew member for Swans in 1997 and a good time was indeed had on the tour bus.

Which one is Thor? none of those guys look like the smiley happy dude I saw playing with Shearwater/

God, I am just so completely out the top of my head with anticipation at seeing them.

Thor is first row, all the way to the right

Is Thor still in Shearwater? They're touring in October and November as well, presumably on the days Swans aren't playing?

saw thor play with lisa germano years ago and it was one of the best shows ever. never saw him with AOL.

new album is so good. not knocking soundtracks for the blind but this is in the same sublime league as white light from the mouth of infinity and love of life. how is this man 56 and still getting better?

pretty much what i said on the other swans thread. not as good as white light or LOL but its got that same sound that i love.

didn't see the other thread. in hindsight those two albums sort of play like akron/family precursors, and working with those guys in angels of light has left its mark on him, for sure. still, i may miss jarboe. no complaints though about this new one whatsoever

it's great. i never really listened to akron/family. like i said on other thread, i respected the AOL stuff and thought it "sounded" great, but i never played the albums much. hearing new swans just reminds me how much i've played my swans albums over the years. the sound is so addictive to me. new album has a little more digital-ness than i like. when i turn it up loud it starts to break up a bit, but i still dig it. in the past, i always thought gira was one of the most underrated producers/arrangers/engineers of sound that i can think of. i never read things where people rave about the sound of the stuff he does - yes, how "heavy" it is or whatever - but i can't think of many people who have made better sounding records over the last 20 years or so. in the "rock" field anyway. and definitely VERY few people in the u.s. that i can think of.

gira's been sort of the eno of the 90s/00s. his talent scouting and producing since swans closed shop is pretty mind boggling, and how silly the ubiquitous devendra can be has kind of cast a pall on the awesome angels of light-akron/family collaborations. but anyways, be that as it may, to my ears this new one amplifies what he's been up to with akron/family. it expands on we are him, takes the gloves off. i'm almost scared to listen to it again

conversely, I can't stop listening to it. f'kn brilliant.

I can't wait to hear it but this is one album I'm not gonna take advantage of the fact that it's leaked. I've been praying and hoping for a new Swans record for 14 years and I'm gonna do it properly this time. go into town on release day, jump on it in the store, read the sleeve on the bus home, and play it loud and alone.

man. just listened to this all the way through. nothing new to add, will join the chorus: it's fucking GREAT. can't wait to see these guys for the first time ever.

was a little skeptical about Devendra Banhart being on a track, but it works wonderfully.

so last night i listened to children of god, after only having heard filth, cop, the young god ep and soundtracks for the blind. so basically i had heard them at their most abrasive and (what must be) their nicest. like, the first swans song i had ever heard, the first track on filth, "stay here," is BURNED INTO MY MEMORY because i was so shocked by it.

children of god is good and all, but i gotta say, it's PUSSY SHIT. their earlier releases imo are heavier and darker than most metal i've heard; children of god isn't the complete shift into post-rock "soundtracks" is; it's the same genre of music, post-punk i guess?, but just generally tamer. there are songs with a goddamn chick singing really sweetly over a piano.

i guess this is a pretty pointless post but i am making it anyway.

Random thoughts:
Gira and Jarboe are 2 of the musicians I could easily imagine being psycho killers.

loool man this is so hilariously true.

oh right i have to say whether i think they're classic or dud. they're pretty goddamn classic. anyone who says otherwise is a fool. their early shit like i said is REALLY impressively dark; so dark, that i've only heard cop and filth maybe twice each, because it is so difficult to listen to. listening to dark music when you're in a dark mood is cool and all, but i've tried this with swans and it just doesn't work for me! it totally hurtles me over the edge.

marc iv, there is nothing on Cop or Greed or Filth that's as completely "you will never forget the first time you listened to this" as "Beautiful Child." imo Children of God is a masterpiece. The harshness of the early stuff is amazing no doubt but nothing hits as hard as "Beautiful Child" the first time, that performance is for the ages.

I'm just pleased somebody's prepared to take a stand on goddamn chicks singing sweetly.

marc iv, pick up a copy of Feel Good Now, which is basically Children of God live. Waaaaaay heavier sound. Granted I heard it first, but the studio lp sounds so neutered in comparison...

is that the one with "beautiful child - the town and country club cowardice backstab" or whatever, the one where the sound guy kills the power to the house but not the monitors and gira just keeps screaming "I WILL KILL/THE CHILD"? because that shit is monstrous

their new album deserves its own thread. more here: Classic or Dud: Swans

wow "your property" is one huge, raging, frenzied destroyer of a song. brutal and unyielding even by the band's impossibly violent standards around that time. apparently this song is going to be re-worked on the upcoming tour. that would be something.

they already reworked it on the 1995 tour

yeah, i'm aware of that. though this tour is going to be the first time i'll see them perform, so i'm anticipating it on a personal level.

They were absolutely stunning at both Supersonic 2010 on Sunday and then in Glasgow on Monday night. I was utterly destroyed. It was crushing and beautiful and masterfully done.

Supersonic 2010:

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p137063609-3.jpg

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s10/v18/p585077464-3.jpg

Arches, Glasgow:

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s9/v13/p789781667-3.jpg

http://krakow.zenfolio.com/img/s8/v11/p1024030397-3.jpg

Probably coming over for Swans/Sir Richard Bishop on Friday. Crüt, J Fever, interested in meeting up?

they were great as usual on Thursday. seemed more, uh, stretched out and jam-y than last year? like fewer recognizable "songs" and more extended workouts. anyway, awesome. Gira's quite an affable guy, isn't he? he was all smiles at the merch table.

i never liked most of their records too much, but they were (are?) exceptionally good live the couple times i've seen them

I interviewed Gira recently; some of it is here, that and more will be in the print edition of Burning Ambulance, soon.

THREE MORE DAYS until my show. It's my first time seeing them. Really excited.

Anxious to hear your report! I really wanted to see that show, but it'll be awhile before I hit up any more concerts.

great interview unperson

trying to imagine public castration era gira saying this, haha

It’s been really rewarding, because people really seem to get something really true from the music.

Gira's a sweetheart, albeit a very, very intense one.

The show was AMAZING. I regret that I overestimated the venue's procrastination, and we got there too late to see Sir Richard, which sucked because he was one of the reasons I was going to the show, but whatever, can't rewind time, etc. Plenty of ladies at this show too, which made me happy.

Swans played for 2.5 hours and everyone was covered in sweat. I was particularly happy that they played "Jim". In general, the performance was primordial and volcanic. At one point Gira called the audience "a handsome bunch of Polacks" and "girls". He seemed pretty affable, though, and very very sweaty.

Swans!

Sounds awesome, glad you enjoyed the show! Pity about missing Sir Richard though.

It was. For some reason it took us over an hour to actually arrive at the venue. Je55e took too long deciding which black tshirt to wear ;)

yesterday's show was decent, but they were much better last year. the songs were way too long and got dull quickly...and I love their brand of minimalism! the opening tune this time around topped last year's easily.

I didn't go to the show last year because I was too cheap. I liked the opening tune too. When Gira said they were going to play two more songs I was thinking we would be there til 3am, but it was only ("only")1am or so. Lots of people left before the encore when Gira put on the hat.

ATP schedule conflict of Swans vs Ultramagnetic MCs and I am totally torn.

x-post
hahah, I had the same thought. I was expecting two more half-hour jams.

what surprised me most about last night's show was how much the crowd seemed to enjoy the band. I got the feeling that their performance was meant to be divisive, in the sense that they were trying to weed out a demographic of the audience (similar to how Michael disliked the metalheads they were attracting during the mid-80s). but the crowd dug it!

hey La Lechera -- I missed Sir Richard Bishop too. Really pissed off about that, actually, and it's not because I was farting around or anything. I checked the Bottom Lounge website earlier in the day, and they had something called "Daniel Knox" listed as the opening band. So I figured that clown goes on for a half-hour, and SRB prolly takes the stage somewhere around 9:45. called the venue at about 9:30 as I was about to depart (trying to decide whether to take a cab or not) and they said SRB actually started at 9:20. So annoying. What, this Daniel Knox played for 10 minutes?

Anyway, great Swans show ... loved the free-flowing improvisatory feel of the whole thing. First song was a 25 minute "No Words/No Thoughts", right? Complete with 15 minute tubular bell intro from Thor, haha. That was amazing. I guess I have more of an appetite for that stuff than Ivan. I thought the whole show was great, longer jams the better!

but yeah, 2 1/2 hour show, sheesh. nowhere near that long when I saw them back in February

oh yeah, and OTM about all the sweat onstage. Bottom Lounge always feels like a sauna, another reason I dislike that place.