Classic or Dud: Swans

The early recs are not totally for everyday listening, but have their place in showing how they got to where they ended up, and volume and repetition were always a constant (I also saw them on a 'White Light From The Mouth of Infinity' tour and they were fantastic that night as well)

These days I'm esp. in love w/ Soundtracks for the Blind and Swans are Dead, the 'final' recs in every sense (esp. dig the way that Gira gradually introduced taped/spoken word material into the Swans sound).

Angels of Light, most of Gira's solo recs (Drainland) and his even his bk are all great too!

go see gira live!!!

I quite love their later era stuff ala White Light from the Mouth of Infinity/Love of Life.

If I get on with those I suspect I'll be putting Cop / Young God / Greed / Holy Money and Soundtracks For The Blind on my list for Santa.

The World of Skin album "Ten Songs For Another World" is worth looking for used.

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

And in the 90s they introducing tapes, keyboards to their overall sound (see andrew's post on their last records or did you just set out to not read that) and when most bands makes changes to their 'classic' sound, its usually a disaster but not here.

It wasn't all just 'epic menace'.

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.

I think I've decided my fav Swans album is:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BkqYXCVGL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51%2BkqYXCVGL._SL500_AA280_.jpg

I'm going to give that one another listen really soon because I think out of all the Swans studio albums, it's the one I'm least familiar with.

Oh, I adore that record. I fell in love with Swans with "Holy Money," purchased on cassette from a Seattle pawn shop around 1987? 88?, tipped off by something I'd read in SPIN. (Hard to believe, looking back.) "Children of God" followed, plus the "Love Will Tear Us Apart" 12"s.... "The Burning World" soundtracked the summer after my senior year in high school. And then "Love of Life" and "White Light from the Mouth of Infinity" just blew my mind wide open. When I think of those records, all I can think is MASS (as in volume, as in weight, and communion, all at once).

http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
sorry, I can't stop pasting
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/
http://consequenceofsound.net/2009/05/08/swans-thinking-reunion-tour-album/

Hmmm.

I know, I've had enough with these reunions, but this is SWANS

dude just said he was thinking about swans as he got into his car after a show

I do this all the time

gira: "at some point in the future, there is a chance that swans would maybe play some shows, possibly. can I get in my car now?"

internet: SWANS REFORMED TOUR IMMINENT

that said, if it's a gira-jarboe-westberg-kizys-parsons reunion I will print this thread out and eat it

Someone told me he doesn't get along with Jarboe now, is that true?

That's about how it works, yeah. (xxpost) :-)

"I was just thinking gee I bet I could get a better guarantee if I credited this to Swans"

a friend saw his solo show in boston a couple weeks ago, said it was mindblowing

swans are dead! they can't play again.

they should really leave it be. and i say this as someone who considers them one of their top ten fave bands.

original article here: http://brainwashed.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7536&Itemid=1

I love Swans, but not sure I want to see a naked, sweating, 55-yr-old Gira...

they were so amazing on that swans are dead tour though... okay, i'd go see them. hahahaha!

A reunion seems somewhat strenuously unlikely.

Maybe Gira just wants to resurrect the name to play all those songs and house his new Swans-sounding material, and get whoever he wants to join in? Not necessarily with Jarboe (she wasn't in the band from the start, who knows, maybe he's not going to ask her permission), a choice of five or six drummers, guitarists, bass players, or maybe even new people?

I mean, how many incarnations have there been? Which one would be THE reunion?

A reunion seems somewhat strenuously unlikely.

not willing to talk out of school any further than this, but it doesn't seem unlikely to me.

You just want to see Edward III print out this thread and eat it too, don't you? :-)

I saw 'em @ the Fab Mab in '86.

The 2 drummers had way oversized kits and cymbals (16" hit hats as I recall), the bass ran through TWO giant folded horn cabs, Jarbo had one. Gira was really pissed the venue hadn't supplied the requested 10,000 watt PA (for a venue about the size of CBs).

I SWEAR that everyone in the audience looked like they were being subject to massive G-forces and seemed to be physically exhausted and beaten up after the show. I was really happy to have been @ the side of the stage.

BRILLIANT.

If there is any reformation I'd like to see it's this one. I would kill to see Swans live.

not willing to talk out of school any further than this, but it doesn't seem unlikely to me.

OOoooooooh. Somebody knows something.

I love Swans, but not sure I want to see a naked, sweating, 55-yr-old Gira...

See this seems so close to the point of what Swans were actually about

Suggest Ban Permalink

If there is any reformation I'd like to see it's this one. I would kill to see Swans live.

― I just wish he hadn't adopted the "ilxor" moniker (ilxor), den 30 maj 2009 02:05 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

16" hihat not weirdly overszd actually, just a bit fuller when fuller is a good thing.

StanM upthread has it. There won't be any Swans "reunion", because Swans is just Michael Gira plus whoever he wants to play with him.
It's highly unlikely he would bring back any of the former members, even Jarboe (they don't get on anymore).

Hmmmmmmmmm @ the last sentence here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnie_Signorelli

unexpected noise moments: algis kizys listed in credits as "driver" for this show

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shalom_in_the_Home

i would like them to reform since I missed the last time they played in the bay area because I got confused and had my weeks off and have regretted this ever since.

No more updates re: possibilities then? Not even about the once-rumored archived live recordings?

Come on Swans! Public Is A Good Idea!

Gira mentions the possibility of playing again as Swans in a new newsletter here:

http://younggodrecords.com/News/Detail/?C=2218

Okay so I just had that rare musical blowaway moment -- 'Helpless Child' on Soundtracks For The Blind!

Oh my God.

Something's underway. The official Swans Myspace page just got changed from saying "Swans are dead" to "Swans are not dead". And there's a new song posted, credited to M Gira/Swans (just a demo, though).

http://www.myspace.com/swansaredead

OMG! Thanks for the quick heads up!

Not Insane is one of his solo things: http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/Detail.asp?C=2217 , but it also says Swans, so ?

Gira has always switched between playing songs solo and as Swans. If Swans aren't dead then I'm not really bothered until we find out who Swans are now.

Not at all. Swans existed from 82 to 97 and in that time he only put out one solo album and never played live solo. Since then he has played Swans songs from time to time at solo gigs but has never gone under the Swans name.

As for who Swans are now, it will almost certainly not include any of the key members from past line-ups. It will probably be people who he has played with as Angels of Light and/or new people. Jarboe is not involved. And even though I can't wait for these shows I don't really care who the other musicians are, since Swans is essentially Gira + whoever.

Dude, I am giving up snark for Christmas so I will be straight with you, sometimes you come across a bit condescending, which is not a great look, especially combined with rong.

OK but I'd be interested to know what is "rong" about my post.

My original post might've been a bit ambiguous but I was trying to say that Gira sometimes used Swans as a vehicle for songs he'd then play solo, so it doesn't feel surprising that he would have a reformed "Swans" playing an old solo song. And if Swans is essentially Gira + backing randomers then really what is the point of a Swans at all?

Well all I can say to that last point is that I saw Swans in '86, '87, '92, '95 and '97. In '97 I saw them thirty times. Each one of those tours had different people in the line-up as regards guitar, bass and drums. Other than Gira, Jarboe was the only constant. None of that mattered, they were all Swans and each one as powerful as the other.

It's like, y'know, six months from now, I can't see myself missing Jarboe more than I might miss Ross McLochness, or Ronnie Pudding, or Danny Upham, or Little Danny Schindler, or any of those.

i'd love to see vudi and joe goldring and basically the same people on sountracks tour with gira since I missed all those shows last time.

I vote for a Swans All Star Review Kinda Thing with five lineups and sets per night.

(review? is that even remotely like the word I was looking for? :-/ )

More news here. Westberg is on board, fab.

OMG

now we're talking

yes!

Ivan likes this.

Stan agrees with Ivan.

" Suggest Ban Permalink

It's like, y'know, six months from now, I can't see myself missing Jarboe more than I might miss Ross McLochness, or Ronnie Pudding, or Danny Upham, or Little Danny Schindler, or any of those."

LOL!

First show announced (but not necessarily the first show they'll play, if you get my meaning), at a festival in Birmingham, the armpit of the United Kingdom.

http://www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic/

Guys, I have a friend who has a friend in the current Swans lineup. Word is that the album is finished already, and that Swans are lining up a sizeable US tour. Austin is on the agenda (which is all I care about, really) but I expect they'll hit a good number of cities, not just the NYC/Cali circuit or anything.

thor is stoked

St. Helens is the armpit of the UK. Birmingham is it's massive and pattable belly. Also, if anyone hasn't attended Supersonic yet they should think about rectifying that mistake.

i've been meaning to make it over for a while

Supersonic is a wonderful festival. I've been for the last three years and loved it every time.

I have a feeling they'll either play an ATP-promoted show while they're over here, or headline/curate of the December Butlins things.

Genuinely stoked to see them live, it's going to be mythic.

*one of the

First round of tour dates announced, you lucky lucky Americans.

09-28 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theater
09-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-30 Boston, MA - Middle East
10-01 Montreal, Quebec - Pop Montreal Festival
10-02 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-04 Detroit, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
10-05 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
10-08 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Masonic Temple
10-09 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10-22-24 Birmingham, England - Supersonic Festival

Classic up through Children of Light. Good all the way through. No duds.

tix on sale for philly, nyc, and boston now

uk tour dates:

October 21 Cyprus Avenue, Cork

October 22 Button Factory, Dublin

October 24 Supersonic Festival, Birmingham

October 25 Arches, Glasgow

October 28 Koko, London

October 29 Uni Stylus, Leeds

October 30 Academy, Manchester

I shall Koko.

That's the Sunday of Supersonic then, presumably in the slot Goblin were in last year.

Oh jaysus Koko, why?

Anyhoo, Neubauten weekend then Swans a few days later, going to be a heavy October

Also Brighton on Oct 27, I'll be there and at Koko.

Brussels, Ancienne Belgique, Nov. 25

and – omg – Vienna Arena, 7 Dec. Now we're talking.

Vienna - woohoo!

man I wanna go to vienna

see you there Jack

No Newcastle?? Motherfucker...

Band pics, cover art (so that's the album title then?)

http://younggodrecords.com/Gallery/?C=116

Oh, it is.

"Michael Gira announced on June 13, 2010, through the Young God Records page on Facebook and his personal Facebook account, that the next Swans album will be titled My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, and is set to be released on September 14, 2010." ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swans_(band)#Post-breakup_.26_reformation_.281997-present.29 )

WAIT! The drummer from Shearwater wasn't originally in the Swans, was he??

Okay, he wasn't

How can you guide someone up a rope?

Seriously seriously thinking I should go see them at Lee's.

Had you ever seen them before? You might as well -- at the same time I just can't get behind a Swans lineup (at this stage) without Jarboe.

I haven't actually seen them before, no! Big problem is I'm not really sure what to expect and not sure I'm in the mood for the old-school grinding but have a suspicion it won't be like the (Jarboe-including) stuff that is the material of theirs that I generally prefer...hm..

it's gonna mostly sound like the live stuff from the last two tours on Swans Are Dead

I don't think so.

New album is one of their best. Seriously. Uncompromising, beautiful, unforgiving.

http://pitchfork.com/news/39600-new-swans-eden-prison/

and samples of all the tracks: http://younggodrecords.com/Releases/Detail.asp?C=2343

I don't think so.

I didn't just pluck the comparison out of the air, that is what Gira himself said it was going to sound like. And from the parts I've heard so far he's not far off.

some of us liked Swans better before Jarboe joined

and some of us even liked swans before and after jarboe joined!

read my sentence again edward

ok brb

lol

I love Jarboe-era Swans but there was something about Filth/Cop/Raping A Slave that was just the most scorched barren incredible wasteland of desolation.

I guess what I'm trying to say is they weren't better before jarboe joined, just a different kind of good? kinda feel like gira was hitting a wall with his sound and jarboe was the wrecking ball he needed to break through, plus public castration is my fave swans alb so

and then the sheer audacity of children of god, I mean a lotta ppl's heads hit the floor when "in my garden" came floating out of their stereos, I know mine did

yeah I adored that record & some of her instrumental/soundscapey stuff worked for me. at the same time though I don't know - Jarboe was practically a Traditional Goth in a lot of ways, which kind of diluted the potency of the Swans project, which was unique. I like "Yum Yab Killers" just fine but it's sort of, I don't know, second-tier for me.

I never saw Jarboe as a goth and I don't think she diluted the potency of Swans at all. That fragility and desolation she brought was a huge plus in my view. Plus if you'd seen her sing "I Crawled" on the '97 tour (captured on Swans Are Dead) I think you might change your mind. Those performances were frighteningly intense, it was as though she was singing from some scary place outside of mind and body.

I never saw Jarboe as a goth

O_O

man I am trying hard to remember what the last time I saw Swans was. Bogart's in Long Beach. 1992 or 93 maybe? Jarboe had about five hundred dollars worth of braids in her hair & gold-flecked makeup, etc. She opened the set with a pretty cool keyboard and voice deal. And a lot of the tape samples that're so scary on Soundtracks and stuff come through her. But I just never felt like her contribution was actually in the spirit of the project. It really did seem to have that "anything scary is cool" vibe instead of Gira's "this is essentially picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Artaud" vibe.

fragility and desolation

frighteningly intense

singing from some scary place outside of mind and body

HOW IS THIS NOT GOTH

I have beef with ilxor right now but nonetheless ilxor otm

HOW IS THIS NOT GOTH

Easy, goth is none of those things.

<3 ya aero

It really did seem to have that "anything scary is cool" vibe instead of Gira's "this is essentially picking up the gauntlet thrown down by Artaud" vibe.

Yeah but by 1988/9 Gira had renounced that vibe in any case, it was no longer part of the project to be "transgressive" or "confrontational". He embraced the Song.

So are we going to have a full on 'what is goth' war now?

What is the definition of goth?

well it's hard to say that Gira ever really embraced "the song" fully - his melodic sense is always subservient to his love of drone (i.e., in song after song, each line of each verse follows an identical melodic line to the line before it; there are some exceptions to this, but they're just that, exceptions). he basically grafted his power-drone sensibilities into song-like environments imo. this has remained true throughout the Angels of Light years, too. the songs have verses and choruses but never a bridge (or "pre-chorus," to use a term I wish could be scrubbed from the language). the chorus melody varies from the verse melody, but usually only in the sense that it seems to complete the melodic line that's been harped on to the point of either transcendence or irritation. so I don't view the changeover as actually so much a change in content as a lowering of the volume, which is fine. but beyond that there's just Gira's writing = interesting and sometimes excellent, Jarboe's writing = seldom either to me.

The term "pre-chorus" always reminds me of when sex ed classes would use the term "pre-cum." O_O

OTM, btw.

what kind of messed up sex ed classes did you go to

well imo the change was about much more than a lowering of the volume (and if we're talking decibels the last few Swans tours were just as loud as the earlier ones). the words changed massively for one thing. the early lyrics being essentially an obsessive Beckettian recombining of a limited number of lyrical tropes, which turned into the widescreen Biblical imagery of the later years. plus of course the instrumentation became a lot more varied too.

xxxp

otm, saw swans on the burning world tour and they were plenty loud

what I liked about the whole greed/holy money/children of god era was that it was goth, goth with balls tho

plus I find stuff like "blackmail" or "I'll swallow you" 100% transcendent and beating gira at his own game, it wasn't like a jarboe song came on and there was a sudden notable drop in quality

plus the material seemed all of of a piece, and integrating yourself into an aesthetic as airless and ascetic as gira's is no small feat so I always give props to miss jarboe for that

wow, got this today, reallly good. definitely a swans album. way more LOL/White Light than Soundtracks. which is fine by me. already want to play it again. i take back whatever i said about being anti-comeback/reunion here or elsewhere. now i definitely want to go to a show. nice and concise too. album is only 44 minutes. as much as i respected the whole AOL venture i can't say that i listened to the albums that much. its funny cuz its still just gira but swans majik energy is just so addictive to me in a way that AOL stuff never was.

OK now I REALLY want to get this

"So now we're off on a new journey, by reigniting swans I've unlocked the trunk where I'd trapped my demon brother. Now that he's out again I am wrestling with him and am determined this time to not only kill him, but all his friends and family as well."

http://thequietus.com/articles/04724-michael-gira-review-new-swans-album-my-father-will-guide-me-up-a-rope-to-the-sky

otm, saw swans on the burning world tour and they were plenty loud

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

former was polite volume, latter was pummeling

I'm not sure if this is selling me on going or not. I know if I don't, part of me is really gonna regret it. Either way really looking forward to the album...really should have gone for the "oh and send me the finished CD option when ordering that Gira demos fundraiser CD".

saw them on final tour and it was up there with the two or three loudest concerts i've ever seen. not even sure if i'm physically strong enough to handle them this time around.

^^^^^
I was kind of dancing around the issue, but yeah, this.

I saw them on the Children of God tour, and it was ridiculously, unpleasantly, horribly loud. It was so crushingly slow that you had time to anticipate and dread each snare hit, which was like a cannon going off in your face. It was an abslolute endurance test to get through it, and despite loving them I couldn't decide whether I was actually enjoying seeing them (in all truth, and with the benefit of 20+ years hindsight I can admit that, no, it wasn't fun.

Still glad I went though.

I'd see them again in a heartbeat, but I'd take ear-plugs.

haha i think i'll be taking those firing-range headphones roger miller wears to be honest.

It was the same on the '97 tour, Gira was constantly urging the soundman to wring every last ounce of volume out of whatever PA the venue served up.

ha way way upthread i said that the ICA/Public Castration gig was the loudest thing I'd ever experienced, but since then I've seem some noise dudes who were def louder - Hijokaidan, for one. but yeah, 'pummeling' is almost exactly the right adjective - that sense/feeling of the next whomp descending, like a hammer.

also saw em on the children of god tour and didn't think it was that loud, really, and i wouldn't be surprised if they're not that fierce this time out, either. gira seems to find the whole mega-volume question/prob a bit wearying these days, and i'm sure there'll be an element of expectation-confounding. WE SHALL SEE.

L34k3d.

i didn't leak it i swear. i played it a lot in public in my record store though. does that count?

forgot to play it yesterday for th*r*t*n when he was in. would have been fun to hear his opinion. i do want to see swans in boston but i'm too cheap and i hate going to boston and i am frightened of baby dee.

yes I went to your store and memorised it and then digitally reproduced it bit by bit and then leaked it.

on first listen I like this a lot, sounds like Swans without being retready.

Any West Coast dates? I really wanna see Swans, they're like one of the only "goth" things I like.

OK maybe the Cure

09-17 Boston, MA - House of Blues
09-21 Northampton, MA - Calvin Theater

tempted to go the Boston show. scott, isn't the Northampton one pretty close to where yr at?

scott if you go to the boston show I will protect you from baby dee

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.