Swans: Classic or Dud?

not trying to be contrary, but don't think it's weird at all that gira is on facebook - he's always gone in for fan communication, using all available channels to reach out/promote - never really saw him as a luddite/crank hiding in his cave

^^^ people assume he's distant because his art is aggro but he wrote all the one-sheets for every act on Young God Records and championed the albums ceaselessly

he's not mr. warmth but he's not Artist Removed From the Process either

oh yea it's not the fan communication that struck me, my main impression tbh from the young god website was "wow gira is super chatty"

more just that it was facebook

Yeah, disagree that Gira is not Mr Warmth, he's bizarrely close to fans.

I remember at SSonic people being freaked out by him leaving out a handwritten note that said "I'll be around to sign stuff later, or just to hang out so please don't leave and stay back to say Hi".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjMGZEq41-g&feature=youtu.be&t=3m48s

this interview is funny

i ordered some stuff from young god in like 07 or so and gira wrote me an email expressing his hope that all was well in new orleans. so he's a cool dude in my book.

When I saw them a couple of yrs ago I went with a friend who is a super fan and waited around afterward so she could take her picture with Gira and he was very pleasant and friendly.

Though I did mention if she had really wanted her picture taken with a dude in a big hat & smoking a cigar I could arranged that pretty easy and we wouldn't have to wait.

New handmade live CD now available to order:

http://younggodrecords.com/products/the-gate

I was just posting that, but waiting till my payment cleared before hitting submit.

that link is blocked here - is it one particular gig, or drawn from different shows (would love a good copy of their Roundhouse concert)

As to The Gate itself, it was recorded in Berlin at Berghain, night 2, for the most part, in 2014

really wish Gira could do the whole "buy the live CD of the gig, right after the gig" thing, seems perfect for them but it probably a big logistics nightmare

Berghain chosen for a specific reason:

this was the very night that our rendition of the song The Apostate morphed through improvisation into what has since become, through the usual trials, The Cloud of Unknowing

I'm not a big fan of that. Sometimes you miss the encores b/c they stop recording to start making the CDs (or USB sticks, which Neubauten use). Also, the recordings are obviously unmixed and unpackaged, and can sound pretty ropey. I prefer the way Dead Can Dance did it a few years ago, you bought a voucher at the gig and they sent you the properly mixed CD a few weeks later.

Would def be interested in a Mick's Picks live series

xp yeah you're probably right there, just daydreaming

also, LOL at "Mick's Picks"

From further down that page -

"... Though there’s still much to be said and new landscapes to explore on the new album and final (but yes, anticipated to be endless) tour, it’s time that we… what’s the word here… dissolve. By this I mean that each of us will continue on our own glorious diamond-strewn path - well, my 5 friends will, anyway – and I intend to keep the name and ongoing project of Swans active in a different form, drawing sporadically on the myriad list of musical cohorts I’m met along the way over the last 30 plus years (including I hope, at times, if they’ll consent, my 5 friends mentioned above) , but the creature, the beast, the monster, the liberating vortex of light and sound that is the 6 of us working in close quarters together over extended periods of time, will cease to exist. Most likely, Swans albums will not appear so fast and furious..."

wow, they sold out already

White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity and Love Of Life being reissued as a vinyl box (including a CD of rarities & outtakes) and a 3CD set. I've never heard either of these albums, and $23 for the 3CD version is very reasonable.

yesss, finally. White Light is particularly great, although a lot of folks may know most of these tracks from the Various Failures 2CD comp

also relevant:

The individual vinyl versions of these albums will also be available after the box set has sold out.

Yeah these are both great, although White Light is by some way superior. I think the songs for both were recorded at the same time and the best stuff got frontloaded on the earlier release. Not sure I would agree with the statement that White Light "is considered the starting point for the second section of Swans’ inimitable history", The Burning World seems to fit that particular bill more closely, although I guess Gira is still not keen on it.

Anyway, I won't be shelling out for this as I still have my copy of the original box :-)

those albums were recorded separately.

well WL is still better

agreed.

According to Allmusic’s Ned Ragget, “Love of Life continues the astounding creative

Who is this one-T impostor?

http://younggodrecords.com/collections/frontpage/products/white-light-from-the-mouth-of-infinity-love-of-life-ltd-ed-vinyl-box-set-3cd-release

THe White Rabbit years reissued

Which Iguess you already nknew, I thought i was reviving a dead thread.
Do wish they'd redo Anonymous Bodies in An Empty Room since i think I prefer that last days of the Children of God band gone folk rock sound.
& Omniscience is interesting too. I heard that GIra meticulously pieced that together from edits of live tracks piece by piece jigsaw like instead of it being an audio verité set like some earlier things might have been. But I think it came across pretty powerfully though I haven't listened to it for ages. Not sure if I still have it or at least a working copy, think mine came from the Dublin Tower water damaged sale so may have been prey to that.

despite loving C.O.G and seeing that tour (oooh my ears !), this is the reissue i have been waiting years for.

Westberg left between Burning World and Whiter Light though he's on live materail from '88 and '89. I think he went off and became a heroin Sheik.
Maybe it's taht that defines the difference between stages.
Could also be that Gira disowned Burning World for years, though he did put out Forever Burned some years ago based on it.

wasn't it cos of the laswell production that gira hates the burning world album ?

Well, my pre-order's in.

I got White Light after Various Failures, paid an absurd amount for it but it seemed worth it at the time, not because of the tracks that weren't on Various Failures but because the track sequence brought new life to the songs.
Never bothered to get Love Of Life or anything else from the period, just hoping that Various Failures really was all the really good stuff.

ordered this alongside the new dave gahan/soulsavers release (in order to qualify for the free delivery from amazon of course).

i feel very happy with my selection of dark and miserable grooves.

£13 for the swans 3cd set : cannot complain re that at all.

even if the extras are crap i would have paid a lot more for the main album a few years ago on cd ..

I can assure you that some of those extras are definitely not crap ("Dream Dream" is one of my favorites from this period)

I wish they'd just reissue "Ten Songs From Another World" exactly as it was. Sequencing is really great on that, especially the beginning.

agreed! other than a vinyl version of "Great Annihilator" and a reissue of Omniscience, I think that's the only other loose end

And The Burning World, no?

reissued on vinyl recently, dunno abt CD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forever_Burned 2003 OOP

Has anybody found out if Omniscience is duplicated in tracks on the bonus disc here? Or if the versions are different? Seem to be some of the same titles at least.

Some, but far from all.

I had forgotten that The Burning World was reissued by Water in 2012 and remains in print.

Weird question that I never thought of before, but is Jarboe's age per Wikipedia accurate (January 30, 1970)? I never thought of her as particularly young looking, but that would make her like 14 or 15 when she gets involved with Swans. Wondering if that's possible. Gira born in 1954. Kind of hoping that Wiki has her birthdate wrong.

Still waiting for my copy of the White Light/Love set to arrive, but I also just ordered the reissue of The Burning World from Amazon.

No way is that date of birth accurate.

I'd say it would be about 10 years out. Might be 1960. She was certainly older than me in the mid 80s when i met the band a few times.
Probably still is in fact.

http://www.swans.pair.com/PRESS/int_com.html :

Oh, thats not samples, thats tapes which Jarboe recorded as a little girl, about 12 years old.

The "Her" tape mentions the Grateful Dead playing Piedmont Park "this afternoon" = July 7, 1969.

so... she's from 1957.

/investigative journalism