Classic or Dud: Swans

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) :-)

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.