special introductory paragraph!
Filth
Cop
Young God EP
Body To Body, Job To Job
Greed
Holy Money
Real Love
Public Castration Is A Good Idea
Children Of God
Kill The Child
Feel Good Now
Love Will Tear Us Apart EP
The Burning World
Saved 12"
Anonymous Bodies In An Empty Room
White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity
Love Of Life
Omniscience
The Great Annihilator
I Am The Sun 7"
Soundtracks For The Blind
Die Tur Ist Zu
Swans Are Dead
My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky
Swans (no "The," apparently) are one of the most brutal and punishing non-metal
bands to ever exist. Their brand of "goth/industrial" began as a guy
screaming over slowly paced, buzzing guitar, low bass (wow! low bass?) and
pounding drums. Then later a woman joined and they became more musical while
still going out of their way to depress the shit out of you. So what's the
appeal? I don't really know. They depress the shit out of you with
really great music, I suppose!
This one isn't so much TORTUROUS (that would come later!) as
headbangingly cool. The songs are mostly mid- to slow-tempo and
plodding, but Mr. Norman Westberg, later a member of Heroine Sheiks, plays all sorts of
neat repetitive buzzing fizzle-dee-dee on his electric guitar. And man
instinctively harbors an internal fondness for percussion that
purposely tries to make one feel like he is being whipped and slammed into a wall
over and over again. The vocals were kinda dumb at this point in the show
-- leader Michael Gira just shouting everything like a ridiculous young
man who fancies himself a modern-day Coupe De Ville -- but the band had a
pretty cool sound even this early - like an interesting cross between
industrial, goth and metal.
Hmm. I suppose that doesn't sound very
interesting in these days of Nine Inch "Poetic Genius" Nails and
Marilyn "Talented" Manson, but the way Gira and his S&M-loving; bondage boys
present it, it comes across as a lot less hokey than you'd think. Probably
because the "riffs" are catchy.
Marquis De Sade. That's who I meant. Not
"Coupe De Ville." Go back and change that for me if you would.
This one starts off tricking you into thinking that Swans have
become a guitar-heavy metal band, but by a couple songs in, the AXE is relegated
to the background and it's all rhythm and yelling from then on. Some of
the rhythms are awesome though, with that cavernous reverbed drum sound I mentioned in the
last review. Unfortunately, the bass isn't doing anything but serving as an extra drum.
This particular album isn't exactly "musical," which is fine for a while because you can still bang your head to a bangy drum and heavy
bass note banging over and over. But by the end you're kinda aching for a
melody and you just want Whatsisname to shut up. SHUT UP,
WHATSISNAME!!!!
Speaking more to a direct point about why you should have this album,
I really dig those neat drum patterns & bass parts & overly
repetitious bits. Mmmmm. In fact, I'd go so far as to give Cop a 10,
but bear in mind that I'm one of those people who adores their
early-period stuff over their later goth-cabaret thing. Dammit Mike,
why'dja hafta sell out... well, not SELL OUT persay, but more go to
acousticy things. Anyway, I find Cop the Swan's most all-round
satisfying record. By satisfying, of course, I mean "really
oppressive." And isn't that what Swans experience is all about?
Cop/Young God and Greed/Holy Money is now on a double CD. I can see how this is considered depressing by some folks. But I find Swans to be happy really. Cop is really a good time party album, if you're partying by yourself with a six pack and some Bicardi while watching Faces of Death anyway. Along with the better known people M Gira has influenced, such as Godflesh and a couple other Justin Broadrick projects as well as the likes of Neurosis, Isis, and a bunch of other bands that do a good job at being influenced by Neurosis being influenced by Swans, this is good stuff for anyone with a tolerance for dark depressing atmosphere in their listening. God bless Gira, for without him they would be stuck being influenced by, well, David Coverdale. 10/10 for me, which puts it right up there with my favorite Godflesh stuff (Streetcleaner, Pure).
I can imagine Coverdale liking Swans if someone turned him on (yuck, did I just write that?) to them. Probably would be a refreshing break from him saying things like "Gee man, we're influenced by, like, Aerosmith and Led Zeppelin and stuff."
Thump Thump Pittup SMASH... Thump Thump Pittup SMASH...
More aggrieved male howling, pulseless drumbeats, guitar white noise and some twisty
bass strings too! Torturing you, torturing me. Have I mentioned these guys'
subject matter yet? If it's any indication, one of the four tracks on this
EP is called "Raping A Slave." I keep asking them to do a cover of "Takin'
Care Of Business," but no dice. If this were a full album, this stuff
would get as monotonous as it does on Cop, but there's only four
tunes here so it starts, pounds and ends.
YAAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAAYAYA!
Pardon me for that outburst. I
suddenly felt an only slightly controllable urge to, as The Who might say,
"Get My Ya-Yas Out At Leeds".
(a year or so later)
disregard what i say above. this album is the equivalent of being put in a small box and buried deep in the
earth.
This CD is so depressing that it is actually about to make me break down and
start crying. This is not a band to turn to when you feel bad. I'm not sure
exactly how they do it, but the tones they choose and the slow, methodical
way they present them somehow set up a mood of unending gloom and pain.
Life is never going to get any better. I am going to feel like this until
the day I die. I don't want to, but I can't stop. I try everything they
tell me to do and nothing works. I don't deserve to be alive. I am wasting
a perfect life. I'm blowing it. I know I will lose it all soon. I can't
keep it together anymore. It's too much. If you don't feel it, I can't
explain it. I see no possible end to the psychologic, emotional, mental
torture that my brain puts me through every second of every day. I would be
better off dead and everybody who knows me, especially those closest to me,
would be better off if I was dead. I hate myself so much, it astonishes me
that anybody bothers to like me. I am a worthless piece of shit. I can't
even tell the difference between fatigue and depression anymore. Am I
depressed because I'm tired? Or tired because I'm depressed? And why am I
anxious 24 hours a day? This CD is the ultimate example of Swans' ability to take a shaky mood and completely
smash it into pieces. There is no light on this recording. And it is a
LONG double-album recording. Goes back and forth between studio and live
pieces recorded between 81 and 85, with each track more punishing and cruel
than the last. This is the sound of ultimate despair. Nobody I've heard has
recreated it this convincingly, not even Neurosis. This is the one. For
God's sake, don't buy this album. It is perfect Swans.
...
Well, I've had this fucking cd for about 2 weeks now, and I still have yet
to get past song 8. It's too damn depressing! I can't do anything but feel
unhappy when it's on! I mean, I don't regret buying it at all, cause, damn,
those eight songs are good, but Jesus Perrywinkle...
no. my head hurts. this comp is like a subsistence for the same reasons mark noted. i want to pull my hair out and give it to gira now...
Huh? Piano? Calmer non-shouted vocals? Background voices?
Songwriting dynamics? This could only mean one thing -- someone let a woman into
the band!!!! And indeed such a thing did occur. "Jarboe," who apparently
used to be a sex worker of some sort, joined the band and from the sounds of
it did a great deal to bring Mr. Gira and company away from the "noise"
side of things and closer to the "goth" side of things. The guitar now takes
backseat not only to the drums, but also to newfound piano, chanting,
synth noises and such. At times (for example, in "Fool"), their attempt to be
taken seriously overshoots the mark into laughability, but there are still
tons of neat machinery noises and gloomy ambience noises on here - and much
more diversity than on previous Swans releases. Part of me wants to give
this a 9, but then I smack that part of me down and remind it that every
song on here sounds like it took about 30 seconds to write.
But an
intense, brain-racking 30 seconds, mind you.
Even more musical growth sorta! One song has a harmonica. Jarboe woman
even sings lead on one tune! Still depressing but in a
slightly less deadening way than that Body To Body thing I just
reviewed. They're slowly creeping towards actual musicalness, but still
mostly industrial. The guitar sequences are ugly, the drums are still
pounding and reverbing all over the dungeon, and all added sound effects are
intended mainly to creep you out. Great stuff! "A Hanging" is, in fact,
the first Swans song I ever heard and still one of my absolute favorites.
My old band the Low-Maintenance Perennials even did a stupid
tribute/parody/ripoff of it on our popular The Solo Album CD! Can
not one thing of such to be ever forgiven and understood? At least on this
one there's beauty. Early Swans? No beauty, just pain. Swans with Jarboe?
Beautiful pain. Harmonies atop ugliness. And a woman with a high womanlike voice to sing with
which.
I can’t believe the guy from INXS killed himself…playing such happy music…
but Swans are alive and well and they sound like THIS…
This one was originally a bootleg, I'm told, of
a 1986 live show. Only has six songs but you can better bet that they're
way too long, poorly recorded, repetitive and trudging! This would have
been an interesting era in which to see this band play live. You'd either
fall asleep, get a neckache from banging your head so hard or pick up some
foxy chick for a lil' lovin' in the videogame room, know what I'm sayin',
baby? A little ehh in the woo action, baby, howzabout it huh? Come on
now, you know you want to suck the
ALRIGHT - WHO
BROKE INTO MY APARTMENT AND WROTE THOSE LAST FEW SENTENCES???? I'M ON A
MISSION TO BECOME A RESPECTED YOUNG MUSIC CRITIC WHO DOESN'T RELY ON CHEAP,
GROSS HUMOR AND IT'S NONSENSE LIKE THIS THAT CAN RUIN MY REPUTATION! WHY,
WHAT IF AN IMPORTANT EDITOR FROM SPIN OR ROLLING STONE WERE TO READ THIS????
WHAT WOULD HE THINK???? I'LL TELL YOU EXACTLY WHAT HE'D THINK!!!!!
"Are there any ad sales in this?"
Another early live album, this one contains 4 Greed songs, 3 Holy Money, and "A Screw" from the "A Screw" single. Very murky live "industrial" sound, like they're playing in a dungeon or the work floor of a decrepit child labor factory. Incredibly pounding and heavily reverbed, just noise smashes, slow rhythms and Michael Gira moaning at you about various things. If you listen closely to these songs, it's impressive to note that what at first appear to be identical monolithic blocks of pummeling noise are actually dynamically constructed in a particular way (for example, you'll hear an actual musical note way in the background at the same spot of each dub-dub-DUHDUH-Dubbadeedoo-DUBDUB SMASH SMASH SMASH repetition). However, in the long run it doesn't matter HOW closely you listen, because the differences between tracks -- aside from the catchy piano-driven "Fool" -- are so subtle in this dense POUND-SMASH-POUND-SMASH-"HERE'S YOUR MONEY!" monophonic recording that it all might as well be considered one really long song. Nothing changes but the drum pattern and the lyrics; Michael never alters his suffering/punishing vocal style, Jarboe never sings a single note, and the guitar never does anything but make the exact same detuned violent "SMASH! SMASH!" noise over and over again.
However, I do like the album -- it's a lot more satisfying then I'm making it out to be. For one thing, this may be the first rock album I've ever heard on which A SINGLE RECOGNIZABLE MUSICAL NOTE automatically makes a song seem 'melodic'! Also, you can't help but wonder how they manage to create this unholy racket. 95% of the time, it's not even CLOSE to musical! Are they just bashing on cymbals with fistfuls of chains? Is the guitarist just throwing his instrument up in the air and letting it smash on the ground in 4/4 time? Christ, one of the remarks I excitedly jotted down on paper for mention in this review is that the hook of "Stupid Child" is "Almost like 2 different notes!"
So if you're attracted to the idea of REALLY driving your parents nuts without resorting to that irritating Japanese noise crap, this might be the way to go. At 74 minutes, it's way too long and samey to hold one's interest all the way through, but the first 45 minutes or so will totally blow your mind.
With monotonous, snail-paced wreckage noise.
On a lighter note, does anybody know why, whenever I drink too much alcohol now, I get a bad headache located directly AROUND and BEHIND my right eye? Does that mean I have a weak artery there or something? It's odd - and it happens nearly every time I drink now. It's not a headache so much as a "Face-Ache" located around my right eye. Maybe it's a sinus issue? Does it sound like some kind of migraine? When it happens, no amount of water or aspirin will help. A hot shower sometimes helps a little bit, if I make the water jets stream onto that area of my face for several minutes. It's hard to sleep though, and when I wake up it's bound to hurt even more than it did before. Is my air conditioner unit partly at fault? It totally ruined last night's sleep for me, and by the time I found my rest again, I wound up sleeping til 2:30 PM. I read the liner notes of Big Black's Headache EP hoping they would offer some advice but all they did was yell at me not to touch their tools. I wasn't gonna touch their fucking tools. I just want to know how to stop getting these weird eye-related headaches. Any ideas, reader people? How about you, thepublicimage79@hotmail.com? What do you think's going on with my eye?
My off-the-record medical advice: Drink until you collapse. A simple, yet
oddly poetic, cure for all ills.
Swans? I don't know them at all, but they seem like a very evil bunch of
deathtone shriekers. Are they that depressing?
Try adjusting the mileage of your alcohol intake - it's lousy advice, but I'm no doctor and we're practically in the same boat. Even if yours is carrying too much whiskey and you need to LAY OFF.
Good luck!
Apropos of little: "I See Them All Lined Up" is truly breath-taking.
Apropos of nil: Do you think gangsta rap is atrocious or simply foul?
To give you another indication of exactly how suffocatingly depressing the
Swans can be, I'd like to point out that I only made it halfway through this
CD before my fiancee demanded that I remove the CD and never listen to the
Swans again. Not only did it make her sad, but she (rightly so) worried
that it was bad for my current emotional state.
And it is. I'm basically
holding on by a thread here, waiting for the new anti-depressant to kick on
(which won't be for another month or so, if it works at all). But dammit,
the kids are demanding Swans reviews and I must deliver, even if it kills me.
Okay, so I listened to three Motorhead CDs and have now returned to finish
listening to this one. Hmm. You know, a lot of people think of this as the
best Swans album, but I don't. They have switched their focus
to "goth" music, which means there are pianos, acoustic guitars and gentle
"sad" songs, but only a few fantastically deadening outbursts of industrial
noise. That, to me, is what Swans were all about. Pain and catharsis
(or lack thereof). This new sound, though more diverse in mood, can get a
lot less interesting really quickly. Swans were fantastic at crushing
your spirit with anger, noise and drums, whether there was much melody there
or not. But if you're going to play actual "music," you have to develop
interesting melodies and, in my opinion, Swans fail to do that
a few too many times on this record. However, it DOES have some killer tunes that
may very well give you them goosebump things if you let 'em. "New Mind,"
"I'll Swallow You," "Sex, God Sex," and the title track all do this for me.
But stuff like "Trust Me"? "Real Love"? I dunno.
Strangely, the first half
depressed the living shit out of me, but the second half is not doing so.
Hmm. Isn't it bizarre that I'm rating Swans on how depressed they can
make me? I'm doing that because that's the POINT of Swans. Because
they so often neglect the basic human need of musical interestingness, if
they fail to depress, they fail to impress. If I want spooky organ noises
and tentative piano lines, I'd might as well just listen to Joy Division or
The Cure, right? What's so special about a Swans that doesn't consistently
whip you into submission?
Speaking of such, "A Hanging" is an awesome song. Scary as hell. The double entendre of auto-erotic asphyxiation and crazed martyrdom is great fun. "Greed" is also a fine song. So is "Heaven", and "Coward", and "Blackmail"... In fact, most of their stuff from that era is excellent. Oh, and by the way: You might have thought Soundtracks for the Blind went nowhere fast, but its more concise twin, the German Die Tür Ist Zu EP, is wonderful. Summary: Jarboe does "Your Property" (again!), an extended (22 minutes), carnival-like German version of "The Helpless Child" called "Ligeti's Breath/Hilflos Kind", a rendition of "I See Them All Lined Up" called "Ich Sehe Die Alle In Einer Reihe", the instrumental version of "You Know Nothing"
entitled "You Know Everything", a rootsy "Mother/Father", the noisy "Surrogate Drones", and a breath-taking, albeit abridged, live performance of "The Sound", listed here in its pre-Soundtracks version as "Soundsection".
Skål!
P.S. Thank god for a wife who has a favorite Big Black song!
Michael Gira and his Swams released many a live CD in their day, and this is another of them. These Swams songs are pulled from concerts performed in 85-87 and comprise five Children Of Godders, two Holy Moneys, and one otherwise unreleased bunch of swishy tones and scrapes. Although the CD is programmed as a single untitled track, there is space between nearly every song so they'd might as well have done the right thing and given us song titles and lengths. In fact, I'll do so right now with a bit of help from Wikipedia:
1. Like A Drug (roughly 9:00)
When you turn to a live Swans album, you're not looking for diversity, melody or emotion. You're looking for brutal, monophonic, colorless, pounding, scraping, grating PUNISHMENT. This particular release unfortunately only delivers on a few occasions. "Like A Drug," "Beautiful Child" and "A Screw" are perfect; Gira moans, groans and manically intones as his band whips up a sick monotonous din so Dark Ages dungeony that you'll probably get welts all over your eardrums. Unfortunately the rest of the disc vacillates between ineffective goth and tracks that are meant to be punishing but are simply dull.
Children Of God was never one of my favorite Swans records to begin with, so I'm not particularly surprised by this development. Still it's kinda depressing (and not in a good Swans-depressing way either) to hear literally dozens of audience members chit-chatting all the way through Jarboe's "Blood And Honey" because the song is so gloomy, off-key and bland. Likewise, I know "Blind Love" has its supporters but it's basically just Gira howling over a drumbeat -- for THIRTEEN MINUTES! Do you realize how many times they could've covered "Judy Is A Punk" in that time? EIGHT TIMES! And then they'd still have an extra minute for "Durango 95"! Come on Swans get on the stick with your Ramones covers.
This is hilarious. We have a maid in here cleaning the apartment right now (a MALE maid, so I'm not having sex with it) and I'm in here blasting this gigantic slop of noise with Gira shouting "SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! SUCK! SUCK!" on top. I can't wait til we get to the "OPEN YOUR MOUTH! HERE'S YOUR MONEY!" part.
Still, even he would have to admit that this beats the tar out of that godfuckingawful Paul McCartney album I was playing earlier. Whoever decided that Flowers In The Dirt was a 'comeback album' needs to get the shit out of their ears. It's TERRIBLE! But then what do you expect from an album that Elvis Costello had anything at all to do with. Yeah Elvis! "Monkey To Man" is a GREAT song! You've still got it!!
(Elvis Costello sucks)
To be fair what you say about Swans live albums being deviod of melody and emotion and being all about punishing and pounding is only true up till around about this point in time, once the fluffy bunnies come on the scene they mix it up alot more in the live albums (like Omniscience, that's a great live album!)
I'm not huge on Children of God either, but Like A Drug is a great tune! It's a shame they don't do Trust Me on this one as well. It's funny how if you look for Swans tracks on youtube you get near-diddly-squat other than 'Public Castration' in it's entirity. I got my mom to sit through the whole of Coward, that one's a cracker!
Glad to see your back on team Swans Mark, don't let us down by falling of the Gira wagon for too long again, we've missed you here in fluffy bunny land. Fluffy bunnies decapitating each other and sucking out the life source!
YEEEAAHHH BABY PSYCHO DEMON BUNNIES COMMIN ATCHA!!!
Swans swans hummingbird
Here's a sorrowful anecdote that will bring tears to your eyes.
Yesterday I went to Staples to buy padded envelopes and wound up behind
a mother taking her tiny daughter down the escalator for the first time.
It took some coaxing, but finally the frightened little girl stepped
onto the moving stairway while gripping her mother's hand. As they
approached the bottom, the mother said, "Now when we get to the end,
step off. Watch Mommy," and stepped off. The little girl hesitated,
and by the time she finally took a tiny step off, the escalator had
EATEN HER SHOELACE!!! She fell to the floor (which wasn't very far) and
all was brutal hellfire chaos until Mark "The Hero" Prindle reached down
and yanked the shoelace free of its evil possessor. The little girl
then stood up and rightfully cried me a river. Will she ever ride the
escalator again? I sure wouldn't!
And didn't! (I took a hot air balloon the rest of the
way)
Secondly, why is my Dr. Pepper can painted up to look like a football?
I don't want to drink a football. And I can't stop throwing it across
the room, thereby emptying its contents all over the entire workforce!
Goddamn you, The Coca-Cola Bottler's Association! Goddamn you to Heck
and back!
Feel Good Now is yet another live album from the Children Of
God tour, featuring 0 songs from Filth, Cop, Greed and
Holy Money, as well as 9 from Children Of God. "New Mind"
and "Trust Me" are really quite hypnotic, with Michael Gira's delivery
growing in intensity from moan/intoning to antagonistic screaming as the
songs progress. I'm glad I was able to say something positive about the
record. Let's move on.
I'm assuming Jarboe is singing along to the cowboy band across the
street because she doesn't even come close to hitting the notes
Swans are playing.
The disc starts off fine, but grows inedibly boring indelibly quickly.
Songs with no melodies (or even interesting noises) drag on for literal
months as your children grow mustaches. Young industrial/goth bands
take note of my heed: a cool drumbeat is pretty to look at and lovely to
hold, but if you don't add anything to it but a guy moaning, consider it
sold! (on ebay)
I don't much care for Children Of God to begin with, so a poorly
recorded version highlighted by audience hoots and off-key Jarboe warbling was never
going to make my "Best Indie Rock Albums of 1988" list anyway. But
couldn't they have at least played one song from a different
album? Surely lack of rehearsal wasn't an issue; none of their early
songs have more than two chords!
So with no further ado, here's my "Best Indie Rock Albums of 1988"
list:
10. Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth
And the number one Indie Rock Album of 1988....
1. Feel Good Now by Swans! No hang on GODDA
There exist several different versions of this EP, but the one I'm reviewing features two covers of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us A New Asshole" (one sung by Gira, the other by Jarboe) along with alternate recordings of Children Of God tracks "Trust Me" and "New Mind." The Gira cover is straightforward, but surprisingly substandard; he lets his voice stray from the melody too much, and the song just isn't as good without that doomy goth keyboard that permeates the original. Jarboe's harrowing acoustic/keyboard take is much more interesting, though I'd still rather just listen to the Joy Division version.
On the other hand, the Children Of God songs are much improved in these 'Unplugged'-style versions. "New Mind" benefits from full-bodied acoustic guitar replacing the scrappy distortion of the original, and both tracks are gooded by Gira actually singing instead of just bellowing everything.
A must-own. If you don't have it, you'd might as well squirt lighter fluid all over your record collection and set your house on fire. Are you kidding? Swans' Love Will Tear Us Apart EP? Why, one time a man in Pittsburgh realized he'd left his copy at Taco Bell, and reacted by moving to Russia, changing his name to Joseph Stalin, and murdering millions of people!
I'll tell you what's so special about Swans -- if they put their nose to
grindstone and bother writing memorable melodies, they can put out an
EXCELLENT goth album! You can actually sing along with every song on here.
And you'll want to! Sad, yes, but at times somehow hopeful in its beauty --
the song "Saved," for example. A POSITIVE SWANS SENTIMENT??? Hell, they
even do a Steve Winwood cover! "Bring Me A Higher Love"!
Okay, it's not
really "Bring Me A Higher Love," but they DO do a Steve Winwood cover -
"Can't Find My Way Home" -- which fits in with the mood of the entire album.
One of my main problems with the last record was that the strings and pianos
and acoustic guitars weren't used in an intelligent manner. They seemed to
be thrown in haphazardly in an attempt to show off Swans' new
rainbow ofsounds. The Burning World, on the other hand, sounds like a
completely different band. There is no pounding, no anger -- just a
well-produced (by Bill Laswell!) collection of somber, lovely musical
pieces. Maybe not what Swans fans were expecting or desiring, but really,
really good nonetheless. Doubtlessly the prettiest album of their career,
in a Nick Cave sort of way (Gira even sings like Nick Cave now!). SAD but
not depressing.
This album is also available as a limited edition CD called Forever Burned, with the bonus track "Love Will Tear Us Apart" and some songs from Love Of Life and White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity. I guess they don't like the album for some reason. Maybe because it's actually pleasant to listen to.
When Gira compiled the best of the "middle period" (this, White Light, Burning World, outtakes) into Various Failures, he put in only 2 or 3 of these songs across 2 CDs. I'd recommend getting that set and don't bother with the album. Unless you're a collector and must have everything-- in which case this is the easiest album to find, due to the fact that it had larger distribution and pretty nonexistent sales.
This record includes:
ONE! (1!) The Burning World track
You know the track and can imagine the demo, so I'll focus on the outtake. It's called "No Cruel Angel" and features a dark acoustic verse with Western twang guitar alternating with a morose two-chord chorus. Look, here's a photo of my dick:
-
I know it seems a little small, but it's a satellite photo from space.
Recorded on The Burning World tour, this live CD features three
songs from that album, two that would soon grace White Light From The
Mouth of Infinity, two from the Gira/Jarboe side project World Of
Skin, and one otherwise unreleased track. The sound is bootleg-murky,
with keyboards nearly lost underneath the guitar/bass glop, and the
drums reverberating like they're being played in an airplane hangar. I
personally like the sorrowful singer-songwriting of this Swans era, but
Anonymous is hampered by a weak set list. Aside from Jarboe's
minimalist gospel stimulant "Blood On Your Hands" and Gira's dramatic
pop depressants "Let It Come Down" and "She's A Universal Emptiness,"
the chosen songs range from intermittently moving laxatives to actual
cyanide pills that pop out of the stereo and bore you to death.
The one unreleased track, "Untitled Excerpt," features a pummelly
rolling drumbeat, two trebly guitar chords, an interesting echo/repeat
effect at the end of each line, and Jarboe moan-singing something that
sounds like "TRA-LAY! TRA-LIE-O!" Those who've heard the song have no
evolutionary advantage over those who haven't.
But enough of this USELESS SHIT about a live Swans album nobody will
ever buy. Let's talk about something important: the way I sent drunken
emails to like 400 Facebook people on Halloween night. These sprightly
messages included:
- an apology to Courtney Howson for 'being such a geek loser when I knew
(her).' I haven't spoken to Courtney Howson since roughly the 7th
grade.
- a note to Greg Haehnlein comparing a negative 1st grade memory of him
to a positive 12th grade memory of him. As far as I can remember, Greg
and I exchanged possibly two sentences the 12 years we attended the same
schools.
- a query to Nicole Mellilo regarding all the 'jock' high school photos
she'd been posting. My question: "You post these photos of you with all
these 'jocks,' but in my memories, you hung out with the 'stoners.' Am I
remembering completely wrong? I could've sworn that there was a period
when you hung out with the 'stoners.'" I had a crush on Nicole in the
3rd grade, and don't recall speaking with her since.
- a message to Bryan Wooding stating that I'd found a photo of he and
Patrick Ku sitting on a cannon during our 7th Grade Florida field trip,
and had unsuccessfully attempted to take a photo of the photo to post on
Facebook. I cannot recall any specific interactions I might have had
with Bryan, though I apparently knew him well enough to take a photo of
him sitting on a cannon.
- this charming response to a pro-McCain comment on Christa Raposo's
page: "Republicans have destroyed this country over the past eight
years." One time in 7th grade Reading Class, Christa and I discussed
The B-52's. As such, I apparently felt it appropriate to engage her in
spirited political debate 23 years later. (Her equally engaging reply:
"dont fuck with me pussy. you were always a loser and your still a
loser bitch")
- an email to Gina Bennett alerting her to the fact that I had a crush
on her in the 5th grade. This was the crowning achievement of the
evening, for I have never spoken to Gina Bennett in my life!
Shockingly she didn't just phone the FBI, and we exchanged a couple of
emails before she realized it's probably not wise to correspond with
somebody who remembers your school bus number from two and a half
decades earlier.
Oh sweet alcohol, the silly things you make me do.
Actually I guess it could be the horse tranquilizers too.
The untitled excerpt is actually the coda of an unreleased track
entitled "A Young Girl Needs More", and is in fact sung by Gira; It
is one of two songs from the pre-Burning World tour ('88) that were
never (fully, officially) released, the other being an ominous
torrent of bass and keyboards entitled "The Unknown". The full song
makes infinitely more sense than the excerpt, although I'm unsure if
you'd really like the rest of it....
If you want a better overview (with better sound) of this era in
Swans' live history, go to swans.pair.com and purchase the CD-R
numbered 042; The sound quality is pretty high, and the performances
are considered some of the band's best from this period. Plus, it has
both unreleased songs in full and two rather interesting encores...
But enough from me. For now.
Bunnies Bunnies! Hoppy Bunnies! Cotton Tail and Screwing All The Time!
The production on this one seems a bit brighter than on the last one. Not
as relaxing. Some rat-a-tat-ing drums every once in a while to get you off
your lazy couch potato ass. Hits my left ear as reminiscent of the sad,
lovely nature of The Burning World and hits my lower left ear as
similar to the angry, accusing mood of Children Of God. "Failure,"
for example -- an amazing song for sure, but if you can make it to the end
of the song without starting to believe that your entire life has been a
failure, then mister you're a better man than Eye. Like the last one, the
sound is very full with guitars, keyboards, bass, pianos, a few more
keyboards - lots of RINGING, arpeggiated guitar lines to stress the
importance of their subject matter in a way that chords just won't do.
The record is really good. Not as consistent in my mind
as the last one, but tons of excellent Swanny tunes on here. Even my woman
loves "Better Than You"! Great goddamned song! Other subject matter? "You
Know Nothing"! "Will We Survive?" "Why Are We Alive?" But don't stress
out. There's brightness too. You just have to search for it. These Swans
are no longer out to make you feel bad. They just want you to feel alive,
in all its pain, confusion wonder.
That was pretty sissyish, wasn't it?
What I MEANT to write was "Swans Love Sweet Carolina Pussy!!!"
This is one of those records that I can't quite picture being made;
it's too huge. "Better Than You" and "Power And Sacrifice" just fill
and bludgeon the room, in a brutal, yet beautiful way. My God! Those
drums!
The last parts of "Will We Survive" and "Love Will Save You" could go
on forever, except, if they did, I could only choose one to listen to.
Point is, there's nothing more they could have done there. Complete.
If I had an alarm clock that woke me up with "Song Of The Sun"
everyday, I'd get up earlier.
It kind of dies out for me after that song, though. Nothing wrong with
the rest of the album, they just sound a bit tired after all that had
come before.
"Failure" is probably a wonderful song, but I FUCKING HATE it, and
never got to like it, because of a flatmate I had at the time this
came out. We both bought it, but for two whole months, everyday (no
shit), I'd get home from work at midday, to find him sitting in the
kitchen, in his filthy dressing-gown, CRYING, with that fucking song
playing over and over again. Thank God he didn't ruin the rest of this
great album for me.
....Hey! Norman Westberg is gone! What the hell did you do with Norman
Westberg????? WHY???? WHY GODDAMN YOU FUCKING SON OF A WHORE?????
Ah who
cares. He hasn't had a chance to buzz us to oblivion for several years
anyway. This album is REALLY bright and shiny, relatively fast-paced (by
sluggish Swans standards, anyway) and full of droning, mesmerizing
repetitive collections of instruments all playing notes around the same
chords. MAN, did I phrase that intelligently!
What I'm getting at is that
a lot of these songs will soothe you, in spite of their sadness. And the
ones that don't will kinda make you shake your head around and boogie
("Amnesia," for example! Are you POSITIVE that this is Swans? It's so
damned bouncy and dancey!!! Fanastistiice!).
There's also a bunch of little soundbites and shit on here that do nothing
but waste space (almost a full 6 minutes of it!).
Most of these songs are
excellent (not "She Crys For Spider" though - sounds like a Chrissie Hynde
ballad or something!). Minimally written, perhaps, but gorgeously built up,
produced and laid out like a deck of pituitary glands on my
wang.
Okay.
I'm going to think clearly and try to explain exactly what is so appealing
about this period of Swans output. The chords they choose are minor chords.
Sad and spooky. They lay down a drone with piano, keys, bass and guitars --
and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And your life becomes a
desparate search for religious guidance - or at least some reason why we're
alive. Swans aren't about sex and pain anymore. They're about love and
non-love, life and non-life, God and non-God. They strike an unforgettable,
unignorable chord in the human soul.
Because they're SMART AS SHIT.
Overdramatic? Maybe, maybe not. Humorless? Oh hell yes. Definitely. But
the sound they create - the louder you play it, the more you just want to
reach your hands to sky and cry out for something to believe in. Some
reason to go on.
I give this record an extremely high 8, is what I do indeed.
Maybe even a 9. Yes! A 9! But with only 8 dots!
Now, an aside: You can find live versions of quite a few of these
songs on the CD Omniscience. And the live versions are even better:
Better, lower vocals on "Amnesia", a really scary instrumental on
"Her", an epic take on "Love of Life", and a half a-capella version
of "God Loves America". And the best part: Although this can go for
upwards of $60, if you're on eBay or Amazon at the right time, you
can fetch it for a third of that. *Winks.*
Here's a live Swans album worth your buying dollar. Featuring 6 Love Of Lifes, 1 Great Annihilator 1 Nick Drake Cover and 4 previously unreleased little snippy-snoos, Omniscience sounds like a studio album, with very clear stereo separation between the two guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and vocals. The set list is also wonderful-wonderful, capturing all the teutonic drama and mesmerizing bombast that early '90s Goth Swans had to offer.
You should already own Love Of Life, so I'll focus on the previously unreleased material:
- "Will Serve": Joshua Tree-esque spiritual warmth expressed through two optimistic guitar chords, three happy keyboard notes, and a series of blissful echoed guitar arpeggios. And a tambourine! You hear me? A tambourgoddamnedine!
- "Black Eyed Dog": Nick Drake cover. Bloozey-drone feel starts fine, but then Jarboe starts grossing everyone out with this Janis Joplin shit and we all throw up in a glass and hurl it at the stage. You hear me? The stagoddamnedge!
- "Untitled": A guy talking on the phone over a high lullabye piano line. Not worth a good goddamn. You hear me? A godgoddamneddamn!
- "Rutting": Short, great stomp-rock instrumental with coool slidey bass line. You hear me? line.
- "Omnipotent": Pounding, heavy, creepy, low-end one-note bass instrumental! " " "? pbblsd
So that's three stellar instrumentals, a passable Nick Drake cover, and a guy talking on the phone. Worth your buying dollar? I'd say! Which reminds me of a little joke:
What's the difference between what this album is worth, and a rickety old man having sex with you?
One is your "buying dollar," and the OTHER is your "d
Which should say something about this album. If you're a fan of early
'90s Swans, this is a good way to kick yourself for not seeing them
live at that time. I have an excuse that Jawbone (or whatever her name
is) gave me: "The other side of the world". Frustrating in that sense,
but better than nothing, like all good live documents, I guess. Big
band, all instruments represented. I don't understand why they didn't
release more live material from this time. I could do with a lot more,
considering how much of the slow, brutal, punishing, bleak, sparse,
repetitive live stuff they released, before and after this.
8 out of 10. 9, if I had a better tape deck.
HEY!!! NORMAN GREENBAUM IS BACK!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO WOO BACK NORMAN
FELL???? Balderdash! Not sure what got into Michael Gira in 1994, but this
is like a high-speed hardcore album compared to the rest of his catalogue!
The song tempos for some reason alter between midtempo and UPtempo, rather
than deadly slow as in the past of my past. It's not Steve Miller, but the songs do kinda move along at
steady tempos previously unheard of by this group of nihilists, sadists and
Reaganists. This at times threatens to make them sound like any typical
showoffy alt guitar band (Couldn't you just imagine Sonic Youth doing
"Celebrity Lifestyle" and "She Lives!"? Couldn't you just hear Eric's Trip
doing the title track? Couldn't you just hear Weezer being
buried in a deep, deep hole in the middle of the desert?), but for the most
part they manage to avoid genericism and give us lots more awesome defiant
stuff. Great echoey sound, beautiful background vocals (did i mention
that? the last few albums have all had kind of chanting backup vocals - you
can't even really tell they're voices - they just blend in with the rest of
the somber soundscape), well-written melodies ("Killing For Company"!!! "Blood Promise," too!!!), and just more solid Swanitude. What
more is there to say about Swans? By the way, my fiancee is currently
lying in bed in the other room, unable to get out of bed because this music
is depressing her so much. HA HAHAHA!! AA A HHAHAHAHHH`1~!~~
DhgAHHAAHEKR!!!! f EEEEE!! DAHAHAHAHAH~!!~~! FDJRIEIELVEL!!!
EW""A"W"A"A"!!! VDJTEJJDFKJVKJEKJV~!!~!~! IWSSISISISI!!!! AA{{EJHSDJ!!!
VNVVFEQ{{F{F{{{{{{!!!! SHAHAHASHHSH!!!! F F DJFJDJJFDJJ!!!!
CFEIFDIRSENFF!!!! MICHELLE PFEIFFER'S LAST NAME SOUNDS LIKE A TOOT
FACTORY!!!!!
The instrumentals are kinda nice but pointless, but the songs are mostly
excellent. I usually don't give a crap about lyrics (because they are
usually bad anyway), but Gira's (and Jarboe's) lyrics are really
well-written, I find myself quoting them from time to time. And "Celebrity
Lifestyle" is some nice pop music from those nihilists.
By the way, I think that the Great Annihilator is some dead star in space,
far far away from us, that actually emits anti-matter (positrons). And, by
the other way, the only thing that really bugs me about this album is the
stupid design, all those symbols and stuff. Otherwise, I love that CD.
I'm forever learning important things, so here are some life lessons for you all:
1. Life is not a project that can be completed through the acquisition of a job, wife and children. Eventually your job will be shipped overseas, your wife will issue divorce papers, and your children will rise and kill you.
2015 UPDATE: This is a grower, not a shower. I originally gave it a 5 though. Here's why:
I don't know the story behind this two and a half hour studio effort
from Swans, and I don't much give a patootie. But I'll say this: if every Swans album sounded like this, I wouldn't
be a Swans fan. It all sounds like it was recorded by one person. A
keyboard simmering by itself for 10 minutes. Michael "crooning" with a
warbly voice that shouldn't be crooning. Boring samples of people talking.
Chanting - by itself. Empty atmospherics instead of actual songs. Even the
actual songs take three or four minutes to finally get going. What is this
- EnoSwans?
My fiancee claims that this stuff still passes as depressing but I think
it's just boring. Nothing happens. Oh sure, there are a few
neat bits of sound. One song has a flute or something. And both "The Final
Sacrifice" and "Helpless Child" are nice and creepy. But most of it? Just
sounds pretentious and go-nowherey. Bah!
This ever-racing speedcar of excitement features alternate versions (some in GERMANY language!) of three Soundtracks For The Blind songs, one each from The Great Annihilator, White Light From The Mouth of Infinity & Gira's solo Dreamland album, and one brand new unreleased turbo racer screaming holy motors for the checkered flag in your ear.
Make no misnomer: "Ligeti's Breath/Hilflos Kind" (and its English rendition, "Helpless Child") is a brilliant 21-minute epic, and the closest to matching Pink Floyd that most bands will ever come. Likewise, Jarboe's slow creeper "YRP" and Gira's '60s-heroin-vibed "Soundsection" are fine examples of the late-era Swans' threatening yet musical atmosphere. Unfortunately, the other four tracks flounder around in a shallow pool of tedious experimentation and yucky redneckisms.
"Hay look at me, I'm speaking German through a choppy vocal effect over a swishly wind noise," announces Michael Gira. "I assure you that the novelty of this will not wear off, even if I continue for another four and a half minutes -- which, indeed, I will."
"I love that cool morbid acoustic folk motif," adds Jarboe. "But am I crazy or is it literally begging me to shriek over it in a stupid redneck accent?"
"Boom boom boom! Boom boom boom boom!" laughs a drawling Southern child. "Let's loop that five hundred times like an asshole," decide Gira/Jarboe.
"Hay, I stink!" remarks the song "Surrogate Drones," suddenly springing to life in animated form.
But I guess that's why "Die Tur Ist Zu" translates to "Die, tourist at the zoo!"
I'd write more but today is a sad day for America. I gave up Tae Kwon Do today.
Which makes it an extremely HAPPY day for me personally, so up your nose, ASSmerica!
Ahhhh. This is Swans I've grown to love and tolerate. I suppose they realized they couldn't just go on stage live
and do little keyboard bleeps and bloops, so this endless double-CD of two
concert shows (one from '95 and one from '97) is Swans
as Swans will. Slow, repetitive, sad. Industrialish. Moody. Dark.
Rolling and grinding. Yelling and crooning. Awfully long though, and not
nearly as textured and spiritually smoldering as the awesome studio
releases. And too much ugly girl yelling. While we're on the subject, it's
very odd to hear the Wild Swans pound away at a single chord for 17 minutes
and then hear a crowd hoot, holler and clap -- but THAT'S
AMERICA!!!!
How the hell come
the furniture guy's not here yet? We've been waiting all frickin' day for
the sumwhore, but nuttin yet. Another 32
minutes and the guy gets a KICK in the watusi! Where's my couch? Where's
my bed? Where's my chair? Where's my patio set? Where's my reversible
television? Where's my enormous bust of Denny Atkin, former editor-in-chief
of Computer Games magazine? Where's my G-spot?
In my prostate? Hang
on....
WHOOOOAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Note: younggodrecords.com has re-released SWANS "Fever Burned" with an additional rare track "Love will tear us apart" (Joy Division cover). You have to sign up for it but it's worth it (you also get M. Giras signature).
Yet another note: young god records has signed some incredibly diverse groups worth checking out. I haven't gotten through the list but my personal favorite so far is Flux Information Sciences.
There is too much good music for one lifetime. I am bidding on a second but Satan refuses to return my phone calls.
Keep up the good work.
I'd recommend getting "Feel Good Now" - it has really awesome performances
of a lot of the Children of God material, including an astoundingly intense
18-minute version of "Blind Love". Be warned, however - the vinyl and CD
versions are very different from each other (the vinyl - apparently a long
double - is more of an audio document of "Swans on tour in 1987/88", while
the CD is much more of a "standard" and recognizable live album).
Like the ugly swanling that grew into a beautiful duck, Michael Gira broke up Swans in 1997 and began a less depressing project called Angels of Light. His relationship with Jarboe ended around the same time. But stop living in the past!
The reconstituted Swans find Gira, Norman Westberg and several other fellows creating a ringing, clanging, branging, clattering mess of lurching locked-beat calamitous blasts of sorrow, rage and sound. The drums sound shambolic, but the band is tight as a none scunt as they combine their angry distorted guitars, vibes, piano and loud swooping bass (along with occasional keys, mandolin, church bells, trumpet and acoustic guitar) into a looping delight of lengthy and repetitive crash-a-bash noise punches.
Stylistically, the band is not retreading past glory. This is neither punishing industrial music nor sorrowful goth, but a raucous and noisy approach to rock music, reminiscent at times of early Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds. The constant bendy swoops of the bass, intense live sound of the drums, and disconcerting waves of bells, chimes, vibes and other undefinable curios give MFWGMUARTTS a sound entirely unique to itself in Swans discography. The songs may seem repetitive at first (because at their core, they are -- there are no verse/chorus constructions here), but there is a tremendous amount of sonic information contained within the arrangements if you take care to listen. Plus, the songs all get more and more intense and aggressive as they go.
There are very few moments of calm here. "Little Mouth" and "Reeling The Liars In" combine somber acoustic strumming, western twang guitar and humming men's choir to lovely effect, but every other instance of muted brooding eventually erupts into a blast of instrumental rage (or, in the case of the sinister mandolin-driven "You Fucking People Make Me Sick," a piano-smashing trumpet-diving catastrophe). And, strange as it may seem, Jarboe isn't missed at all. I'm not even sure how her voice would fit into songs like these!
I don't know if Six Flags Over Georgia still has the Dahlonega Mine Train, but that's what this music reminds me of. As tightly wound as it is, it still sounds rough, rollicking, dark, frightening, unpredictable and out of control. I absolutely love it and hope you do too. If for some reason you don't, please note that the very first beat count on the album is 5/7/4/9/3/6/2/7/5/REPEAT.
Seriously, what kind of asshole would write a beat count like that? Therefore, you give it a 9 and SHUT THE HELL UP.
Swans don't depress me. They don't anger me, they don't excite me. They
just bore me. At least on this early stuff they played actual instruments;
the disco/chamber music shit that begins with Greed really makes me wanna
pull my hair out. I can totally understand how someone could go apeshit over
them, though, especially someone who takes solace in depressing, droney
music. Filth starts and ends really strong, the first song has this bizarre
little trick where the guitar player lets out this stream of feedback every
ten seconds or so...after that it just becomes a haze. There's a reason why I
haven't been able to recall a single song title in the few weeks or so since
I sold this record. Gira even did a pretty shitty job producing U.S. Maple's
Talker... here's a shameless plug: U.S. Maple's Long Hair in Three Stages is
the most incredible, jaw-dropping thing I've heard...maybe ever. Buy it now.
In twenty years they'll be as influential as Pere Ubu or the Fall.
I loaned this album to an acquaintance to use as background music for
a mock suicide scenario (training people to deal with suicidal folks,
that is, not pointlessly spooking people out, although don't think I
frown on that useage of Swans albums) and it scared one of the
trainees to the point that she broke down and wasn't around for the
rest of the day. One of the other trainees talked about how it was
"..just this AWFUL music ... well, I say it was awful because it was
so depressing..."
yeah, and the lyrics to cop are funny. "nobody rapes them like a cop.
with a club. in jail." hahaha. oh my!
I got around to checking this out a year or so back, almost a decade after first hearing Rollins talk about this album (on his spoken word album Human Butt, he fondly recalls the joyous experience of having a cop who was harassing him bust into the toolshed he was living in during his Black Flag days. The cop held a gun to his head while poor old Henry was blasting Cop in his tape player. Talk about fun.)
Yeah, this is probably my favorite SWANS at the moment just behind "Public Castration is a Good Idea", as that album is probably the most powerful "rock" record I have ever heard - yes, including "Fun house" which I adore. "Public Castration" was the first SWANS I heard (about a month ago), but I quickly went on to get all of the early records. SWANS destroy. I am changed forever.
y'know, i find this era of swans just dull. oh okay, they
suffer. but i certainly don't want to listen to it on a regular basis. however, when i'm bored at
the radio station, this goes right in baby! it's gotta
irritate somebody, right? it's not like i'm trying to get people to listen to me.
music needed in the dentist's office.
Good shit, but no fucking way this is SWANS best in my ears. If you want early SWANS at their most punishing in the studio, for god's sake get "Cop". Why Mark rated "Cop" so low is a mystery to me.
Well, you know, I baught this cd because I saw it used for eight
dollars...and since it had the coveted Prindle "Ten Cherry Albino Cookie"
rating, I decided, "Oh, what the hell?"
ok. i took two valium and thought 'ha ha ha gira's up his old antics!'
Holy friggin lord. What an unholy, miserable, depressing record. How a group of human beings can produce something so with such an absolute, all-encompassing sense of despair is beyond me. Listening to it without completely giving up on existence is hard enough, I can only imagine what the sick fuckers felt playing it.
hey, they're kinda writing songs now. neat! however, most of
this is still pretty silly droning blah de blah. they'll get going soon, though, don't
worry. hey mark, how about you actually write a review
instead telling silly jokes! you ass. (kidding, of course. how the hell much can anybody
say about Swans??).
Mark – Got to see the Shieks whoop ass here on Halloween. I like Norms playing so much on the first two records that I’ve begun to check out Swans…I got the Cop/Greed/Holy Money double CD…Think I should of started w/ Various Failures…at any rate…WOW…I still haven’t listened to either CD all the way thru…I can hardly listen to any song all the way thru…YET…I am intrigued…rather than getting the full albums I’m debating getting some songs…off of Itunes…any recommendations?
Prime Swans... "A Hanging" could wake the dead if played loud enough.
"Dear God in Heaven / I feel for you / I'll hang for you / I feel for
you / I'll hang for you / I feel myself in you / I'll hang myself / I
love myself in you / Dear God in Heaven / I'll hang for you..." Jesus
Christ! The live versions are even more terrifying. Then there's "You
Need Me". A Jarboe-led tune (that doesn't scare the hell out of you)!
And then the guitar-heavy remix of "A Fool", a fine dirge. Finally on
the A-side, "A Screw (Holy Money)". This version WAAAY outstrips the
two single versions. Whispery, cruel, slow, ominous. Now: Side B!
"Another You" is strangely beautiful. And a harmonica! "Money is
Flesh (#2)"... You can dance to it! At the end, there's "Coward". Too
many live versions, but whatever. Creepy in any one of them.
Dirges! And a live version of a B-side! Too bad there don't seem to
be any live versions of "Greed" or "Time is Money (Bastard)", though.
My learned medical comments: Erm, your headache might be because you stare
at a computer too much. I've had that happen to me a couple times when I've
stayed on too long. And public castration is NOT a good idea.
Funny you should mention eye related headaches, as I've been coping with an afflication very similar to the one described in this review for... probably several months. The only difference is that these face/head irritations are actually bugging up the left side of my face (eye, upper canine and sinus to an extent) and do not occur after drinking but at random intervals during the day with no ominous signs, which is fucking ANNOYING. While I can only imagine what an nagging pain in the balls it must be to suffer through these brainsplits at night, at least you have some sort of control over them.
Me, again. Scary disc. I've said this before, but "Coward" is good
here. The howling/whispering is pretty creepy. "A Screw" is very
brash and ritualistic on here; The drums are almost tribal, and Gira
is just plain rabid, like some evil street-preacher. "Money is Flesh"
really does take forever, but interestingly so. "A Hanging" is just
awesome. Though the original has the industrial/gothic thing down,
and I probably prefer said version for its musical merits, this one
is stripped-down righteous FURY. "Fool" sounds like it's coming from
a dungeon, and is utterly oppressive even without the sturm-und-drang
drum set. "Stupid Child"'s start is actually funny. I think Michael
really is harassing cops! I mean, they got thrown out of Switzerland
circa 1986... "Another You" may just be my favorite. The original is
perhaps one of the most crushing songs they ever wrote. The
atmosphere is more than heavy: It literally grabs you. The live
rendition is pure noise punishment, and the lyrics (from the point of
view of an abused lover, if you've read them) are well articulated.
Though it does sound a tad muddy, and it pretty much lacks any tune
("Fool" is the one exception), the "playing for the damned"
production is rather effective.
stick to the motorhead. i agree with this.
I just heard this album for the first time now. I spent a couple of
hours changing CDs until I found one that maintained my interest for
more than three consecutive songs. I couldn't get it off the player.
Considering that it's over 70 minutes long and it was my first listen,
I'll have to disagree. Cop on the other hand, I can't concentrate on
unless I'm under a death threat to do so.
I've never heard this album, but i like "gothy" music so i'll give it an 8
This isn't actually A.G. Malerman. It's her son, J.H. Malerman, and I am also a Swans afficianado. A note on the version of Children of God you got: "I'll Swallow You" is the B-side of the New Mind single, that version of "Our Love Lies" is from the Love Will Tear Us Apart EP, and the second disc is actually World of Skin. I think you know this by now. To intruige you, both Kill the Child and Feel Good Now take out most of the weaker songs. "Blind Love" seems to be the apocalyptic heart of both of them. 'Tis itself one of my favorite Swans tracks, aside from the more obvious classics. Also, have you the original rerelease of Filth? If not, try to find it and review the last four tracks. This is Swans EP, namely first ever studio release by these guys. More chanted, prose-ish lyrics, creepy feel, has a saxophone. You might enjoy it.
2. Beautiful Child (approximately 6:00)
3. Blind Love (right around 13:00)
4. Coward (let's say 6:00)
5. Blood And Honey (7:00 or so)
6. Sex God Sex (rounded to the nearest minute, maybe 11:00)
7. A Bunch Of Swishy Tones And Scrapes (in the area of 4:00)
8. A Screw (exactly 7:00 on the nose, give or take several seconds)
YEEAAAHHH BABY MORE SWANS REVIEWS!!!! WOOO HOOO!!! RAISE THE ROOF!!!
Hurrah we are all free now
Six of one half a dozen the other
What a noisy cat this guy is --> HILARIOUS CAT VIDEO
9. Bug by
Dinosaur Jr.
8. Live: The Delicate Sound of Thunder by Pink
Floyd
7. Gimme Indie Rock! by Shurojit, Rajshekhar & Anindyo
6. White Album '88 by The Beatles
5. Expose
Yourself to Kids 7" by Natalie Merchant
4. Read My Lips
by Bush
3. Small World by Huey Lewis and the News
2.
Go Fuck Yourself by Menudo
and hey, you're right on this one, too. it's pretty yet sad.
i STILL don't want to listen to it that much though. i like sad songs when they're thrown in
with a bunch of non-sad ones. makes 'em stick out more. like
"sweet and lowdown" on "in on the kill taker." that's sad and it stands out,
dogggggg.
Say what you will about Steve Winwood (what the hell, punch him right in the face for all I care) but Swans understood the etheral dynamics of "Can't Find My Way Home," the same way that they pulled an organic longing out of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart." Coincidence? I think not. Genuis? Just maybe.
I'd have to take exception. I'm not sure I agree with a lot of Swans fans that Children of God is their best, although I think I liked it more than you. I'm a huge Swans fan, and I really can't stand The Burning World. even Michael Gira doesn't really like it. Bill Laswell was brought in to produce this one, in a possible attempt to get a little mainstream acceptance. Obviously the mainstream is no place for Swans. Regardless, Laswell put his signature on it, most things that Laswell touches turn to BO-RING. There's a reason why there are no Material albums in your review list (Painkiller was cool but we can blame John Zorn/Mick Harris for that).
ONE! (1!) The Burning World demo
ONE! (1!) The Burning World outtake
Hello Mark, long time no e-mail. Anywho...
I think Eye is a pretty good man. At least, that's what I've heard.
This fuckin' prick is my favourite Swans-making-music album. I have to
separate THIS Swans from Body To Body Swans - my favourite from the
era that made me want to crawl back inside Mum, until they went away.
Different band, different reason to play them.
Great album. Kind of a halfway between WLFTMOI and TGA. The best song
is almost certainly either "Her" or "God Loves America", but the
title track is a close second.
Makes a nice little surprise doesn't it to hear a swans live album which is good quality AND has a good set list? It's a shame though that there are still alot of great songs from this era that aren't on any of their live releases. One of the tracks seems to take a loop of Eyes of Nature, but I want the whole song - certainly more than I want to listen to BLACGH - DAHWEEAHWEEAHWG!! Jesus!
Yep. I had a (dubbed) cassette of this in the mid nineties. Man, they
must have been something to see! I'm now listening to an official,
mint cassette I got from eBay today. I couldn't find a CD copy under
$100,000. It's a little more muffled than I like, but I think that's
my tape deck, more than anything. I haven't bought a cassette since I
was 12!
This album is so fucking good... I think, it's not about depression as much
as it is about exhaustion, about totally running out of steam, emotionally
and mentally. It does take a lot of time to get into, though.
2. If you keep sending depressing text messages to women, they'll mail you their vagina.
3. You can't depend on others for your happiness. Okay, bartenders. But nobody else.
4. Cherish every moment, because one day you'll be old. Only for the one day though, then you'll fall off a bridge.
5. This single features live versions of two The Great Annihilator tracks. Recorded live at The Flesh Club in 1996, "I Am The Sun" builds over six minutes from a Led Zeppelin "Friends" sound(kind)alike to an awesomely intense drum-blasting moan'n'droner. Recorded in a December '94 VPRO radio session, the two-minute "My Buried Child" is marred by a Tori Amos-style fake Southern drawl.
6. Apparently women aren't attracted to guys who spill popcorn butter down the front of their shirt and try to get it out by splashing water all over themselves so it looks like they wet their pants.
7. Although it may seem perfectly logical while you're high on dope, you're not likely to catch a fish by pouring bacon fat into the water, waiting for a bacon-loving fish to show up, and stabbing it with a hunting knife.
8. When performing karaoke, it is considered impolite to finish every song by screaming "FUCK YOU!" at the audience.
I totally agree with you. It has some songs I really like, but most of it I'm tempted to skip to the next track on most of them. A few of the speech bits are sort of funny, but I don't want to sit through five minutes of little bleeps to hear a slightly funny thing I think is actually supposed to be scary. the last song, where Michael is singing about "Jesus, you're my only god, step inside me lord" I actually liked that song, but it should have ended the cd. It would be better if they kept all the songs with singing and made it into one short disc instead of boring us with 2 and a half hours. a sad end for one of my all time favorite bands. I hope Michael's making better music with Angels of Light, and Jarboe's doing better solo.
If you are an M. Gira fan as I am, then why don't you have anything on his latest project "Angel of Light"? Judging from the bands you like, I believe you would enjoy them. I highly recommend the latest release "Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home".
This is a good live album. "I See Them All Lined Up" and "The Final
Sacrifice" are sublime here, as are "Blood Promise" and "The Helpless
Child". The real standout may be, however, "The Sound". For some
unknown reason, I just love that song. Same with "Blood and Honey" on
Children of God. I dunno. The latter gets points for being sinister.
Maybe it's just because it is genuinely soulful.
In response to the stuff about the live albums in Swans Are Dead review:
Just started listening to these guys. Great stuff. First thoughts
are that they sound like Joy Division if Joy Division didn't totally
suck ass.
Nobody fines you for illegally downloading music....LIKE A COP!!! Therefore, please purchase some Swans CDs at a legal forum such as that pointed to by this link, in life today. (Click on the album covers to access LOW LOW used CD prices)
Back to Mark Prindle and Estelle Getty - LIVE! On Broadway! 2Together!