Swans -- The Seer

I recently found this really interesting boot from '86, Mabuhay Gardens SF, it's a live radio recording and they lose the signal at one point and a panicked DJ has to vamp for a minute or so.

The sound of the recording is really weird and great, something about having to contain and parse all that ferocity for radio and struggling to balance the elements made them come out sounding even more industrial, queasy and fucked up.

Mind blown by "a piece of the sky"

Somehow this record gets better the more you listen

Would love to hear some live 80s shows

When I get home I'll organise a link to the SF gig.

This has got very little relevance to the Swans, but while we're reminiscing... Stevolende, just going by various things you've said, I'm sure I've met you once long ago. Did you go to the R*peman/Band of Susans/Dinosaur Jr gig @ Leeds Uni in about 1988, the one with the anti-Albini protest outside? If you're the guy I'm thinking of, you'd ridden up on your bike and you were striding round campus in yr biker gear looking for the venue. Pardon me if I'm wrong though.

― mod night at the oasis (NickB), Thursday, September 20, 2012 10:13 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Funny that, if I'm thinking of the same gig. I only started hitching around the U.K. following the Dinosaur Jr tour at the other end of the EUropean jaunt of that tour. I think it was originally a Blast First tour that featured Rapeman, BAnd Of Susans and Dinosaur Jr. & after the Europe bit Rapeman had dropped out. Though I did see them in Bedford & I can't think how that fits in with the rest. Just remembering Albini wearing a teddy Bear head backstage
so no it wasn't me at the Leeds gig as fare as I recall, though I did go there quite frequently over the next couple of years. Could be remembering it wrong. I was hitching anyway but at some point around then I was wearing a sleeveless bike jacket frequently. Though probably under a long mac. I'm brown with dreads btw.

I've got this on headphones for the first time and finding it a little harsh. A very sibilant "Song For A Warrior" to start disc 2. Let's see how the rest is. Wondering about my set-up.

Stevolende: I think you said on some other thread that your dad's Nigerian iirc? and you mentioned following those sorts of bands round before, so I was just putting two and two together and wondering if that was you... Only reason that encounter with whoever it was is still stuck in my mind is cos that was the first time I'd ever been to a gig by myself and that was the very first person I spoke to there! I'd travelled over from Salford for it and was quite intimidated by the whole thing - the student protest outside, all these lairy northerners inside shouting at Albini to play Kerosene and him getting increasingly frustrated by it... I missed the last train home and spent the night squatting under a tarpaulin next to a cement mixer on some building site near the station, praying that I wouldn't get stabbed. Middle of October and it was fucking freezing - happy days.

good lord, used copies of Public Castration are pricey. anybody wanna make me a dub of the Thirsty Ear CD reissue, or a burn of the 2LP? hit me up thru ilx webmail. I have it on MP3 but it's just not the same.

Odd, coming back to me that when I started hitching I still had my green german army coat which was actually a bike messenger one. Got nicked at Harry Crews in 88 that did.
I didn't think I was at that gig. Maybe I was. Just thought Rapeman didn't do the post Europe part of that tour and that was the main part I did do.
Remember being in Brighton, Edinburgh, probably Newcastle. But can't remember Leeds being part of that.
The Leeds I do remember, I thought was a non college venue and people were coming up to me thinking I was Murph. I guess I looked somewhat similar to him in a B+w photo in one of the UK weeklies at the time. But I'm obviously a different colour. I had been sitting with him a little before people started asking me if I was him though.

I think Rollins Band was the first Leeds College gig I was at. Maybe I have date order wrong though. Did go to Duchess Of York quite a bit after that though.

Swans at Mubahay Gardens SF (radio recording)

http://wtrns.fr/5QOPsiYnCdqqie

thanks!

man that took about 15 seconds to download!

really? tell me if it's okay willya..

unzipped ok. No tags though? I cant listen to it just now as I'm about to start rolling out the 80s results as they will be emailed to me v v v soon

Cool, tags are for sissies.

Drinking a Three Floyds Arctic Panzer Wolf and listening to The Seer right now, good Saturday night. Unfortunately my son sleeping in the next room means I can't listen to it as worringly loud as I'd like.

PRIORITIES BRUV

My cat has been laying right by the speaker the entire time this album has been playing. My cat is badass.

sick mouthys cat liked it too!

Untapped market here Gira.

YOUR CAT KNOWS TRUTH

(Lately i find myself empowered by typing in ALL CAPS, sans punctuation. This way lies ruin, perhaps.)

thanks for the mab show!!

yr most welcome!

guess this can go here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cNnebTY_VE

sounds great!

your vinyl rip. nice job.

thx, such a damn shame about that remaster. and I'm pretty sure the original mixes were lost somewhere, cuz gira was selling the master tapes on his site back around '99. prolly gave up on remixing it. all those early swans albs sound better on vinyl, but jesus are they expensive. that ep goes for what, $60-$100 now?

I've got a rip of greed I should throw up there too.

i know someone who has swans master tapes for some reason. i can't remember why. he is pals with jarboe. i should ask him.

do it!

inquiring minds wanna know

yeah, can't remember the circumstances. they are, you know, legitimate circumstances.

awarded custody by an exasperated judge during gira v jarboe proceedings

when gira left atlanta he left all the master tapes in the basement of their house. she subsequently sold some of them on her website

wow, okay, yeah, my friend has a treasure trove. he does video stuff for J. he's actually going to europe tomorrow with her to sell merch and video stuff for her tour. but via her he has amazing stuff. rehearsal tapes! i told him he should set up an online archive for fans but maybe that's a legal mess, who knows. demos, hundreds of live shows. i'm heading over to his place when he gets back...

i love swans.

he was on that email list i was on way back when and before we knew each other.

demos! man, i really want to hear those. and live shows from 1982 on reel-to-reel. man. he's the nicest guy in the world. and a super-fan. they are safe. that's the nice part. he told me who bought some of the original masters of the studio albums and those are safe too.

yeah she mentioned yr friend in an email to me. br3tt, right? sadly this tour is not coming anywhere near me otherwise i'd be there.

Yay! I found a copy of "The Seer" with the DVD in Newport! Admittedly I'll have to sit through a Welsh Assembly consultation on children with special needs before I can play it, but I'm a little bit excited. Thought I'd have to go to Cardiff to get that, so very pleased.

Carry on etc etc.

So if you hadn't seen the Jarboe thread yet...I went ahead and asked her how she ended up on the album.

http://thequietus.com/articles/10290-supersonic-2012-jarboe-interview

Rob M xp: I love the idea of the bonus DVD containing footage of a Welsh Assembly consultation on children with special needs.

cool interview, Ned. She talked about her falling out with M Gira in a surprisingly sympathetic, classy way?

Kinda what I thought!

I mean she has a rep for being loopy but what a classy interview. Being involved on the new record hopefully soothed some old grudges

I don't know why this makes me so happy but it made my day

She never came across as loopy to me, certainly. An intense energy but always a happy and humorous one. She seems to be in a very good and liberating place, something a lot of her comments indicated.

great interview, ned

Thank ya!

my friend can't make it to the show in NY tonight so there is a last min ticket available, on the off chance that anyone in this thread didn't get one. if you want it, let me know!