Classic or Dud: Swans

is sheryl crow a band name or are you referring to that singer, in which case she would have a backing band? ;)

I'll put 'second phase' Swans on my list of things I must hear. Behind the grillion things I think there's at least the remotest chance I might like.

Now if they would only reissue Anonymous Bodies in an Empty Room.

'time is money, bastard' and 'a screw' are two of thee most intense and most wonderfully produced death disco 12"s ever released.

i'm a coward, stick a knife in me

Julio - ty for pimpin' for my post, but Tim's list indicates to me he wldn't dig early, mid OR late period Swans. I'd just say that "menace" is not really the right word to sum up Gira's aesthetic - PAIN is better, I think. As for volume, I know Tim is big on his reggae, and two of the other LOUDEST gigs I ever went to were by On-U-Sound, and by Jah Shaka - as with live Swans, it's all abt the bass and the body, innit

In their day (mid 80's) it seemed like 2nd rate No-wave/TG Noise.

V

Not all Swans albums are necessary but at least a few of them are.

then I caught 'em twice on the Burning World tour. early on in DC they kept it almost politely acoustic, even though they were revving loop riffs from the album. by the time they got to Tampa (weeks? months?) later all patience had worn thin and Swans had grown it to a pummelling all-out-assault, loud as ever.

for some reason when I think of them now first track I remember is the later "Love Will Save You", where Gira is mocked by children's voices/laughter. I saw him on a NYC subway car a couple years back, all Paul Bowles ex-pat linens & hat. thought about saying hello, but seemed more fun to catch his eye - maybe there's someone in the sea of faces who his music's meant something to.

"I'll be good fellas, honest..." (swear Lou Stathis wrote that first - if not sorry Jim Green)

"An entirely random selection of bands I think are better than The Swans, whose brand of "epic" "menace" is not for me, in order of
preference:
The Jays
The Wild Swans
The Orioles
The Byrds
The Penguins
The Blackbyrds
Robin Gibb
The Snowbirds
The Birds
Dawn Chorus and the Blue Tits
SwansWay
Wings
The Tweets
The Eagles
Sheryl Crow

Oooh I tell you what though, they played ever so loud!"

-- Tim (hopkinsti...), December 3rd, 2003. (Tim)

Dude didn't even list the Ravens. Who were better than every band he named. what a moron. And everyone knows that jimmy ricks was the one and only american who could have appreciated gira at his best.

The Swans weren't always "epic" and "menace". Often they were "quiet" and "introspective". Their career was lengthy, and managed to be extremely consistent while exploring different ways to express their unique, um, vision or whatever.

Angels of Light is very good as well.

Classic. Even their really early stuff is great, if only for the rhythm section.

Now, the ultimate Swans trivia question: What the hell happened to the sax player?

(Yeah, it's VH1 Classic, but still! "THE SEX IN YOUR SOUL WILL DAMN YOU TUH HELL! DAMN YOU TUH HELL!")

xpost

She had said she planned for the gig to be...what was it? "a Post-Modern Gospel" yeah, I think that's what she said at the end of it. Crazy stuff.

Also she did that Dead Can Dance cover of "American Dreaming" and it drove me crazy cause I couldn't remember who did that song. It was only when I got home that I figured it out.

*commercial starts*

It's called SWANSMAGIC! :)

http://www.myspace.com/jarboeliving

No, it's nice that you finally understand!

listening to it now, with SFA's 'Mountain People' the perfect alphabetical introduction.

Just got "Soundtracks for the Blind" the other day, but haven't really had the proper setting to listen to it.

I do remember being very off-put by a lot of the "Various Failures" compilation when I first got it, since I'd only ever heard the early stuff ("Public Castration is a Good Idea" is probably the most brutal album I've ever heard), but I've gotten a lot more comfortable with their later period in the last couple years. I especially dislike the cover of "Black Eyed Dog". The way Jarboe sings it just bugs me.

boooooooooooo! ya should have seen her do it live. scare the pants off ya.

and don't listen to markers, he's trying to trick you into seeing broken social scene

woah i didn't even see a northampton date when i looked! and when i looked, like, last week they were playing at the middle east and not house of blues! i'm confused! will totally go to the hamp show! a week before my birthday too.

oh okay. that got me all excited.

wait, i fucked up on those tour dates

sry yall

http://pitchfork.com/news/38743-reformed-swans-announce-tour/

scrolled down too much and accidentally copied bss dates

only the middle east :-(

man I saw em on burning world & then on great annihilator

former was polite volume, latter was pummeling

― gross rainbow of haerosmith (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Thursday, August 5, 2010 10:11 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark

sometimes I wonder if ppl's experience of swans is colored by what venue they saw them at? I wouldn't call their burning world show at CBGBs pummeling but I couldn't in fairness call it polite.

a friend told me the last time they played boston gira complained non-stop about the sound, stopped the show early, and stormed off saying he'd never play the middle east again. so where's the boston show this time around? o right, the middle east.

Very positive (but rather woolly) review of the new album in the new Wire -- makes me look forward to this even more.

last show i saw at the middle east downstairs (not sure if the swans is up or down) was harry and the potters iirc

gotta be downstairs, if it's upstairs god have pity on our souls + ears

last time i saw swans was swans are dead tour at the troc in philly and it was awesome. plenty loud but you didn't die from loud. sounded great. that's where they are opening the tour. i think. last time i checked.

bouncer i knew who worked at the troc said the loudest show he had worked was mogwai at tla. and from people i know who went, the last time godflesh played philly it was louder than the loudest loud. people visibly swooning from loud...

I heard when swans played the troc on the children of god tour they blew the power 3 times and called it a night

woulda been pissed if I'd gone but it was 21+ and I was 21-

haven't mbv taken the title now? I mean I didn't see them on their last tour but even the bootleg recordings sound louder than the loudest loud.

> I heard when swans played the troc on the children of god tour they blew the power 3 times and called it a night

you just knocked loose a memory of seeing them at the 9:30 at that time, where IIRC the power blew at least once.

ATTN: Herr Raggett!

I seem to remember you contributing to the thread that presently is dominating ILx: but I hope you don't mind me asking you, as the allmusic scribe re: the following act…

If I want to get one Swans album only— and here I believe that this means meanest, heaviest, berserk with bloodlust, etc, although you may not find that to be the case— which should it be?

scanned threads for an obvious recommendation as such, couldn't locate one, know redundant verbiage herein is not yr favorite…

thanks!

i took this shot with one of those olde-tyme film cameras.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc3/t1.0-9/10174786_10152989869072137_4991361121037997380_n.jpg

slightly different view.

https://scontent-b-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-frc1/t1.0-9/1979720_10152989872817137_1844411752821021782_n.jpg

and my art shot.

https://scontent-a-lga.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/t1.0-9/1920630_10152989874767137_4682779992592093522_n.jpg

Didn't even notice Veronica's post yesterday, sorry about that!

Uh, meanest and heaviest? Hm. I mean the earliest stuff is the most 'punishing' per se but the current era is transcendently pulverizing, so.

well I wanna start with something from the era in which they initially made their mark…like Filth?

oddly, I picked up To Mega Therion the other day, and later saw that you are AMG's Celtic Frost scholar as well…

If you aren't specifically asking Ned, I'd strongly suggest the Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money collection. Filth is great but I don't think any other Swans studio album or collection of albums beats C/TH/G/HM for sheer prolonged brutality.
Children Of God/World Of Skin is more accessible if you're worried about that but I remember finding C/TH/G/HM surprisingly easy, because it seemed like it might have been difficult.

Consider this another vote for Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money, three albums and a couple of 12" singles jammed onto a two-CD set. If you like that, pick up the live album Public Castration Is A Good Idea from the same era. The songs get almost twice as long sometimes; play it loud enough to make your neighbors cry.