Swans: Classic or Dud?

SWANS albums for repeat listens: "Omniscience" is a great live rockgoth thing, as is "Swans Are Dead". "The Great Annihilator" is one of my all time favorite CDs. The recently released "Various Failures" is fantastic. The earlier industrial Swans stuff I can do without.

Newer Michael Gira stuff like "Body Lovers" and "Angels of Light" continue to dazzle and delight in ways similar but different from Swans. I recommend Body Lovers, at least. It's one continuous album with 9 reference points, so you can fast forward or rewind, but there are no breaks in the music. Perfect for zoning out or on the subway. Gets freaky, of course. Angels of Light were fantastic when I saw them live, unfortunately the LIVE cd they released of the show had pretty poor production. The studio release by Angels of Light called "New Mother" was okay, but some of it, though amazingly produced, just bored me.

Them fellers sure can be oppressive, though. That's why I go through phases. In all actuality, I really don't listen to them too much anymore just because it's so depressing. I'd rather be happy.

I have heard few of their albums. Those that I have heard have been among the most negative, miserable, pointless pieces of music that I have ever encountered. No doubt Gira would in some way approve of this reaction. I couldn't care less. Dud.

The Burning World had a few, uh, songs on it. Bet their cult thinks it's a sell-out.

But, it is funny that humorless music can be "hilarious" since "humorous" music can really piss me off- like Ween for instance. Sometimes they're annoying as hell.

(I didn't as I'm working late for this stupid presentation tomorrow therefore I am jealous: did gira scream the word 'mother' at any point during the gig?)

The difference is, Gira and Co. sound traumatized by this discovery, whereas Malice and Pusha T sound like they're doing a gleeful dance.

Being a masocist I especially love the brutal Cop/Holy Money
period - most people would find this stuff horrible, but given
a bit more listening one may be able to experience this amazing
feeling of ? - too hard to describe, but it compliments such
painful things like exercise, washing dishes etc.

Anyone heard the live disc 'Public Castration is a Good Idea'?
This out-heavies anything I've ever heard...

Gira's book THE CONSUMER also so, so recommended.

Utterly, timelessly CLASSIC.

I just mean all the terse little statements of complete hopelessness in the lyrics. I get about three lines in and completely lose my shit.

No, it means you're the right audience.

When I saw Angels of Light play Tonic, he drank a full pint of whiskey in a glass filled from behind the bar and didn't seem in the least bit drunk. After the show, he went and got a refill and mingled like he was at an art opening or something.

His writing is pretty disturbing.

Jarboe seems to have severe mental problems. Oh yeah, and so does Gira.

-- Ficky Stingers (bimble87...), Sunday 1:33 AM. (Bimble...) (later) (link)

best/scariest/best thing ever.
Weird that two completely different Swans C or D threads just got revived a few days apart. Here's the other:
Classic or Dud: Swans

OK...Happy Ned...Did this already...but isn't exactly what I was looking for anyway...

Screw this....

I'm gonna give up on the Swans...

Filth is one of my all-time favorite albums. I'd recommend that one, but it may not be the best convince-me-otherwise album.

Its Aja!

Yeah, hi....

I find it funny that my thread was locked so soon...

Anyway, I was bored and wanted to see what was up in these parts...I really should be getting to sleep though...

I think it's funny that you say "screw this" because Swans have a song called A Screw don't they? Heheh.

Also there is some really fantastic Swans stuff on You Tube. But in all honesty, Swans are not a band I would likely try to argue with someone into liking the way I would, say, Led Zeppelin or even the Fall. I find it perfectly understandable that some folks will never get Swans.

I think it's funny that you say "screw this" because Swans have a song called A Screw don't they? Heheh.

-- Bimble, Monday, May 28, 2007 7:04 AM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

They do? Gosh...is it any good? Or is it really slow and weird...

Well there are two different versions I found.

This one is a more beefed up version of the album version with horns and a heavy industrial beat:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqiEmNaG5QY

This one is a live performance, and more bare-bones, truer to their early material and I prefer it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHES9YAGGkU

Of course this is before they became a lot more listenable, pretty and mellow.

Ok................

Interesting. I'll leave it at that.

I got into the first couple of albums for a while, saw them live, then gradually decided that life was just too short for Gira's schtick. Haven't listened to them for ten years.

I have a promo copy of 'Cop' which was issued to Radio Forth, our local top forty station, a thought that makes me laugh every time I flick past it on the stack.

(note: the functionality itself isn't stupid, it's my neurosis about deleted messages contributing to it)

hthttps://twitter.com/thorharris666/status/895767982089154564

Good news ! pic.twitter.com/YuE3UhfEmU

— thor harris (@thorharris666) August 10, 2017

preorder

https://younggodrecords.com/products/soundtracks-2018

I just saw Thor with that Israeli garage rock dude from Monotonix.

JUst reading Sacrifice and Transcendence which is great.

Gira comes across as not being a wonderful person to work for, more driven than fellow feeling.

& it has me wondering
where Virgil Moorefield came in. I just checked the line up of the Foetus band on Rife and it has Ted Parsons on it. I thought that was Foetus fronting the same band that had played as Swans in London that week.
& I've always had the heavy folk rock band I loved in '88 as being the same band as Children of God i.e. with Ted Parsons so am I remembering that wrong. Can't think how many times the band hit london that year. I remember seeing them in Edinburgh in '89 with Vinniwe Signorelli who went onto Unsane on drums. & I think I do recognise Virgil from somewhere.

ah well, great book which has had me wanting to read it continually. Love it.

Yes! I really enjoyed it too, the chain of events after he quit school and started travelling is insane.

As I recall it Ted Parsons left to do Prong full time after 1987, to be replaced by Virgil Moorefield for one tour in 1988. By the following tour it was Vincent Signorelli. Gira never was that great at holding a line-up together...

Rife was recorded at the Town & Country club during the same week that Butthole Surfers played the Brixton Academy, Harry Crews played the mean Fiddler and a couple of other things that I can't think of right now were on. I think that was '88.
I can't see credits on the live sets i have from that year. & it is 30 years ago. I did see that Rife seems to credit Ted, and i thought it was pretty much the same band playing behind 2 different singers. 1 as foetus Corruptus the other as Swans. THough of course jarboe waouldn't have been in both.
So am I remembering wrong.
I just sent a question to Ted Parsons so may get a clearer response.

According to Wikipedia, the band on Rife is Parsons, Algis Kizys, Norman Westberg and Raymond Watts - so all of the 1987-88 Swans lineup except Gira and Jarboe.

Male is the one which is Westberg/Kizys/Signorelli (plus David Ouimet from Cop Shoot Cop).

Michael gira can go fuck himself

He’s a rapist

To clarify I thought SWANS were among the bands that played London on that week in 88 or very close to it. So the same band performed under 2 different names in the same time frame, behind 2 different singers. Shame that neither Swans or Foetus are on Fromthearchives or I'd have a better picture for when people came and went.
I've had Parsons in my head as the drummer on some music I've remembered as pretty sublime for 3 decades. & only came across Virgil Moorefield as part of the puicture since reading Sacrifice and Transcendence.

& I've been thinking for years that T&C performance by Foetus = Rife. Now not getting a definite confirmation. Only seeing recorded in Europe in 1988 & assuming that London is in Europe to a US artist, not specifically England.

It's very likely that he borrowed Swans, as up to that point live performances were vanishingly rare and mostly consisted of tapes (see interviews with Thirlwell here and here).

i saw Swans at Town & Country round then, possibly that very show -- p sure i can trace my now-persistent tinnitus to it also, i was literally deaf for two or threw hours after >:(

I think the Town & Country show that was seriously loud was on the '87 tour. I think the Sex God Sex on Feel Good Now is from it.

THought it was pretty awesome. I actually stuck my head in the loudspeaker at the Birmingham show in the same run.
I think my hearing is ok.

i was at that swans at town & country club and the foestus show & also the harry crews gig mentioned. good times, though the foetus show was just ok; he was never really able to do those records justice live.

I have mentioned this elsewhere, but …
i was at the first of the FOETUS T&C gigs in 88.
it was the THAW tour.
and like others, I was under the impression it was SWANS basically.
on the first night of the two gigs, Gary Clail/On-U were support,
and Jim jumped into the audience and beat the shit out of someone in the moshpit while the band continued to trash away.
the bass player spliced his finger due to a string breaking and recoiling around his finger, to which he just pulled it out fast.
blood flew out.
was one of the most dramatic gigs of my life.
and yeah, could be the source of my tinnitus.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bl-04mHHlzf/?taken-by=swans_official

"Sun Fucker" might be the most archetypal latter-day Swans song title of all time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq48hLlAg1p/

"New Swans album is now written and will commence recording in March. Many guests will appear. No idea how long it will take to complete. It is not called nucleus, marrow, or meat. None of the songs took a decade to find heat. At some point it will be released."

Ooh, another Swans album that I will never willingly listen to

good one

ok then - but if you want to support the recording of the new album, you can preorder

https://younggodrecords.com/products/what-is-this

unpleasant to get this in my inbox today

Dud

everyone decide to just ignore the assault allegations or what

well i mean they were so long ago

i haven't forgotten
my feelings about the music of swans haven't changed (i still like it) but my feelings about gira the person (which were never great) have depleted further.

allegations vs truth, art vs artist, look, I don't know, man.

do you want me to stop updating Swans threads if there's news about music?

here we go again

don't get shook again, control yourself this time

Angels of Light have some good tunes, Swans are pretty whatever for me, even before all of that weirdness.

allegations vs truth

oh you mean the admitted rape that went from being "a slanderous lie" to "an unfortunate mistake" within 24 hours?

what ppl still defending the dude don't seem to get is that it was the way he overreacted to the story that was the dealbreaker for many people including myself, all "allegations" (jfc) aside

And fwiw re: the Adams effect of fucking with their victims careers too, I have seen Grimm on way too few bills post accusation. Hard to make a tight case for the causality there, admittedly; but even harder to deny its probability id say

I used to go back and forth on whether gybe or swans would be my 'soundtrack to the apocalypse.'

turns out it is THE SWANS

er.. i mean SWANS

spelled backward is.. SNAWS

https://younggodrecords.com/collections/special-items/products/swans-face-masks !

wow theyre so poorly designed

idk I like the teeth one

do we have a "neat quarantine masks" thread yet

There is clearly no level to which Gira will not stoop nowadays. That said, I'd happily wear a Public Castration Is A Good Idea mask.

lots of bands are selling masks tbf

some of them not fronted by rapists

^^^

sure, just didn't see the big deal on this count

dud

new album in 2023 - fundraiser (acoustic versions) & preorder:

https://younggodrecords.com/products/is-there-really-a-mind