Swans -- The Seer

tickets purchased for tomorrow night. very stoked.

I wore earplugs (expensive ones too!) when the last Swans tour swung around to Leeds and felt so detached from the experience afterwards. I wished I hadn't worn them. But I am seeing them again next month and I'll kick myself if it fucks me over. And you really cannot trust yourself being able to tell when you're there.

I'd give them a go without plugs, as they probably will not be dangerously loud. (Although I realize this is all subjective and depends on venue). I saw them twice on the My Father... tour and again last month on The Seer tour. The two My Father.. gigs were only moderately loud; no plugs needed at all. Last month's gig was certainly louder, and I had to move from directly next to an amplifier to a more comfortable position, but I didn't need ear plugs. They were freely available anyway at all three venues.

I've come back from a few weeks travelling to find my signed copy of the Seer in my mail-box. I had been worried it would get stuck at customs (like my copy of "We Rose From Your Bed...") and get sent back to YGR because I was away for so long. Finally listening now....

Austin show was really great on Friday -- "Coward" was a total mindfuck, just massively great.

Leaving in 5 minutes to go see them tonight in Dallas. Stoked.

man have a good time~!

That was stunning. And based on this show earplugs are a must; one of the most loud and visceral shows I've ever seen. My sternum hurts and my insides feel wrong.

Wow.

I've never really paid much attention to Swans before but I listened to about half of this on the way into work today and it's fantastic. The title track is immense.

I just heard a snippet about four hours ago and I was totally mesmerised. Will be buying ASAP.

Yeah it's amazing (although to be honest it could probably stand two fewer 19+ minute songs, I really like "The Seer" and "Apostate" a lot so really why complain.)

Yes yes yes.

^^^ Scik otm

How / why have I never listened to Swans before? Known of them for fucking ever.

I'm in the same boat, 'cept I jumped on board with the last studio album. I'd always known of them and heard a scattered track here and there, but now I need to go back and inhale the rest of their discography.

yes you will

expect them to turn up in 80s rock poll

There are similarities, but swans II is a totally different beast then their original incarnation imo.

almost every incarnation of swans was a different beast

So what would you recommend as a good place to go next?

some of the work that gira did as Angels of Light might actually veer closest to what Swans is doing now, although i'm certainly no Swans pro

except angels of light were kinda boring

Ok, yeah, I've heard the Akron/Family and Angels of Light split, definitely preferred the Akron half of that.

soundtracks for the blind prolly the next logical step for my father/the seer fans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcEG0WvfSDM

then children of god

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTIN6RsgLNo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijIPY-MTClI

if you like the new album you would like most of the 90's swans stuff. very similar sounds.

Cool, thanks! Its one of those kinda daunting back catalogs. Wishing I'd have paid more attention back in the 90s, but I don't think I would have been ready then.

yeah "soundtracks for the blind" & "children of god" are still respectively n°1 & 2 in my swans disco.

white light/love of life too. essential.

yup

swans periods:

1982 - 1983: labor EP, filth
alternates between flailing uppity no wave tempos and sickly dirges, killer polyrhythms

1984: young god EP, cop
descent into total lifeless nihilistic thud, glacial pace

1986: time is money 12", greed, holy money
introduction of keyboards/samplers and the gothy overtones of jarboe, the scuzz of the earlier material is scrubbed off, sound is clean, robotic, sterile

1987: children of god
massive expansion of sound, brutality now alternates with torch song tunefulness

1988: the burning world
inexplicable easy listening album

1991 - 1996: white light from the mouth of infinity, love of life, the great annihilator, soundtracks for the blind
forays into folk blues, tape loops, chamber music pop, this period is the most similar to current reconstituted swans

The Great Annihilator is awesome too.

i've only heard up to "Holy Money" I guess it's time to get Children of God or something

they never really made a bad record except for maybe the burning world (and I blame that on bill laswell, cuz live those songs were pretty killer).

not helpful advice for ppl looking to dive in tho I guess

yeah its all good. and burning world has some of their best songs so....get that too.

Bear in mind, though, that the live albums are not totally representative of the contemporaneous studio stuff and you should totally listen to the live albums too. Public Castration is a Good Idea and Feel Good Now are crucial.

yeah! public castration takes the austere greed/holy money material and completely reinvents it through LOUDNESS and it's likely to be my #1 pick for the 80s poll

yessss they're playing Seville in December!

god did I hate the burning world when it came out, this was absolutely not what I needed in 1988

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR6niiAh0uY

I'd love to see pictures of peoples faces when they listen to Public Castration, like I'm sure I make the most contorted expression whenever I hear it

i loved the blind faith cover. but i just love that song. i really liked acid at the time though. so, that helps.

plus, its just so beautiful.

i used to be on jarboe's swans e-mail list in 1999/Y2K-ish and among the people there "God Damn The Sun" from Burning World was way at the top of any swans song poll.

fyi if you ever see them, the u.k. 12 inches of burning world songs sound waaaay better than the album versions. sonically. especially "Saved". american uni vinyl some of the cheapest shit at that time. sadly.

when i saw gira play solo a few times in the last ten years or so, he wld only perform a v small handful of swans songs, and 'god damm the sun' was always amongst them

I still waiting for vinyl of this.

Jarboe is going out on tour soon doing mainly Swans torch songs. Can't blame her for trying to get a piece of the action, I'm sure she feels sidelined by Gira despite doing vox on the new album.

I'd be into that depending on the backing band (although to be honest I don't much care for solo Jarboe.)

it's just her and a pianist

Sounds really dull.