That interview guy made me hit stop stop even before Gira appeared. Does this make me a bad person?

Edit: OK, I persevered, and the host guy became more informative than annoying, then a different interview guy did a pretty good job. Sorry about my initial rection above.

Don't worry, I had the same painful reaction at first.

Thor Harris suffers with Major Depression.

I fuckin love Thor. I met him before the Sep 5th show....such a nice person. And the fact that he is so open about depression and has done this work about it makes me love him even more.

The show was fuckin fantastic. I didn't recognize some pieces, mixed amongst the TBK/Seer bits, and I assumed they were pre -2010 which I know fuck all about. Turns out they are all NEW. Frankie M especially blew my fuckin mind. Will we get another epic studio album in 2016? Soundtracks was at the merch table for $15!! It's so fuckin ambient in comparison to their latest work. The Sound might be my new favourite Swans song though. TBK/Seer is what got me into this band, and I'm so fuckin happy that I got to see them in this incarnation.

I should have went to this show :(

Bought a ticket to the Prague show this October. :)

Swans Expand World Tour into 2015

Swans 2014/2015 Tour Dates:
11/22 – Utrecht, NL @ Le Guess Who Festival
11/23 – Copenhagen, DK @ Vega Main Hall
11/24 – Oslo, NO @ Rockefeller
11/25 – Stockholm, SE @ Slakthuset
11/26 – Helsinki, FI @ Tavastia
11/28 – St. Petersburg, RU @ Kosmonavt
11/29 – Moscow, RU @ VOLTA
12/01 – Poznan, PL @ Eskulap
12/02 – Gdansk, PL @ Klub B90
12/03 – Warsaw, PL @ Basen
12/04 – Athens, GR @ Gazi Music Hall
12/05 – Thessaloniki, GR @ Bloc 33
12/07 – Brighton, UK @ Drill:Brighton
12/08 – Nottingham, UK @ Rescue Room
12/12 – Brooklyn, NY @ Warsaw


01/17 – Hobart, AU @ Mofo Festival
01/24 – Melbourne, AU @ Sugar Mountain Festival
01/27 – Tokyo, JP @ O-East
01/28 – Osaka, JP @ Club Quattro
01/30 – Hong Kong, CN @ The Vine
01/31 – Tapei City, TW @ Legacy
02/03 – Shanghai, CN @ Mao Livehouse
02/04 – Beijing, CN @ Yugong Yishan
02/17 – Portland, ME @ Port City Music Hall
02/18 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theater
02/19 – Montreal, QC @ Theatre National
02/20 – Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theater


02/21 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall
02/23 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Pyramid Scheme
02/24 – Cincinnati, OH @ Woodward Theater
02/25 – Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
03/01 – Mexico City, MX @ Nrmal Festival at Deportivo Lomas Altas
03/23 – Philadelphia, PA @ Union Transfer
03/25 – Baltimore, MD @ Baltimore Soundstage
03/26 – Richmond, VA @ The Broadberry
03/27 – Carrboro, NC @ Cats Cradle
03/28 – Atlanta, GA @ Terminal West
03/28 – Knoxville, TN @ Big Ears Festival
03/31 – Jacksonville, FL @ Jack Rabbit’s
04/01 – Saint Petersburg, FL @ State Theater
04/02 – Pensacola, FL @ Vinyl Music Hall
04/03 – New Orleans, LA @ One Eyed Jacks
04/04 – Dallas, TX @ Trees
04/06 – Austin, TX @ The Parish
04/09 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
05/21 – London, UK @ Roundhouse

Coming to my town. To a fine new venue in my town. But I probably won't be able to go because it's on a Tuesday. So sad to have to work for a living.:( Maybe I should just be one of the 48% who expects the government to take care of me from cradle to grave so I can just pursue leisure activities. Hey, with that last sentence, maybe I can work for Mittens Romney!

Holy Fucking shit I might actually be able to pull off getting to one of those US shows.

Nice. I am so ready for another live Swans experience. I think my eardrums have finally started to heal up after the last one.

You have adequate time to put in a time off request, surely. Just shoot your boss an email ad say you're pretty sure you're going to have swine flu on the 24th. Or if you're working for a corporation, just give up some vacation hours or something.

The Cincinnati gig is actually the one that looks most promising for me. I looked into the Grand Rapids gig, but it's a long drive and the venue looks ... well, fairly I'll equipped for a Swans gig. Tiny, with lots of windows. Might as well seal uranium in a dishcloth. Gives me a bad feeling.

It's not just work, I have family stuff going on as well. But I'm not ruling it out. If you do end up going to the Cincy gig, let me know and maybe we can meet up. A word of warning about The Woodward Theater, though. It's not the tiniest place in the world but it ain't the largest one, either. I would advise earplugs.

Thanks. I would really like to check the place out. But my schedule isn't perfectly malleable either, and I can't honestly say if I'll be free myself.

I feel your irritation at having to work for a living... I'm honestly in the same boat, and last spring I felt the full sting of a lay-off for the first time in my adult life, after years of busting my ass for the same corporation. It's almost comical how disposable people are, and how little hard work actually matters when you're in an at-will position and your superiors have personal issues with you. So I'm in no position to piss off anymore employers, considering how lucky I am to have found another positon.

Years of working 50 hour weeks, putting my own goals and "dreams" on hold, and despite it all, I'm at the mercy of rich assholes who "work from home" half the time.

Money sucks. Fiends rule.

I don't mean to make it sound like "working for a living" is some cruel and unusual form of punishment that only the most unlucky bastards have to deal with. I'm sure just about everybody on SYG works very hard.

But then there's the assholes who don't do a thing, and take advantage of government subsidies that are supposed to go to the severely disabled and disadvantaged. That's what I mean when I say I "feel you." That shit drives me crazy.

I was taken somewhat aback by your original post. Not that it offended me, just wasn't sure what purpose it had in this thread???

I have a buddy who has an office job in Dallas and he just about refuses to attend a concert on a week night because of work the next day......as if staying up late and getting up early is that big of a deal.

Swans are worth doing whatever you must to see them live.

A little something new from Swans to be thankful for......

I've been living with Soundtracks for weeks, and it took a while to hit me, Man. I mean, it has everything plus the kitchen sink too. Makes The White Album sound like Foo Fighters. It's such a beautiful album. (I couldn't call Seer or TBK "beautiful".) Took me a long time to realize that Animus and The Sound are the same song, huh? ie With variations, separated by a CD switch and a Jarboe gem. The centerpiece of this 142min epic. I will not conquer this for a very long time. At first the various styles present made me dislike it, because it didn't sound "whole" like TBK or Seer. It sounded broken. Twitterish. ADD. But now it sounds whole, "of a piece", a mood.

I'm drunk.

Im just glad you're finally digging into the band's back catalogue. Soundtracks For The Blind is different because it's a different band. The Swans of the 2010's are excellent, but you can't really call any of their work "no-wave"... Swans circa Soundtracks were an entirely different beast. It's important to recognize the differences and give all incarnations of the band equal play time if you want to truly appreciate the band.

Kinda like Sonic Youth, really. I mean, look at how different Bad Moon Rising is from, say, Rather Ripped... or, christ, even EVOL & Sister, the albums that immediately followed. Now Sonic Youth didn't have anywhere near the same kind of personnel changes... But the two bands have a lot in common... philosophically if not always stylistically.

But man- Soundrtracks is a glorious, ambitious weird fucking masterpiece. I don't know if I'd say that it makes the White Album look like a Foos album (ha!) but it's on the same creative level.

I'm drunk too.

I've listened to this at least five times over the past couple of days......love all the different ways to breath, Oxygen.

Oxygen is great. I've only really listened to the album in full, consecutively on my iPod, either at work or in the car, so it's been hard to isolate specific tracks that I like more than others. But Oxygen is one that I know is near the top.

I'm trying to go through some of my preferred rock-type albums from 2014, because it feels like it was just an electronic year for me. But To Be Kind, Drop by Thee Oh Sees, Dub Thompson's 9 Songs and Perfect Pussy's Say Yes to Love have all held up extremely well, so maybe I've been selling the the good-old post-punk & indie a bit short.

Can't wait to see Swans in 2015. Can't fucking wait!

Maybe the next Swans release can be all new stuff recorded live on this tour.

Swans Are Alive.

Well, I wouldn't mind a live album in the vein of Swans Are Dead, Swans live are much better anyway. Don't think they've captured the ferocity of their sound on these post-reunion studio records. Last time I listened to To Be Kind it sounded quite flat.

That's part of the problem with being an unbelievably inventive live music act. Again, I can't help but think of Sonic Youth. On record, I definitely had my preferred tracks, and even a few that I occasionally skipped, like "My Friend Goo" and "Rats." But live those songs seemed to hit whatever target they missed during the recording process. "Rats" actually became a favorite of mine after hearing it played live a few times. "My Friend Goo" remained a fairly skippable track on an otherwise perfect album, but live it took on an energy of its own.

I Really don't know if I agree that their recent studio albums haven't compared well to the live versions. There's definitely an seamless quality to their shows that makes the songs sound perfect regardless of where they're placed, but I think The Seer in particular actually has some moments that sound quite a bit better (or at least as good in some hard to explain way) on record than on stage. "Avatar" has such a moody opening, that I prefer listening to it in the car during a snowfall than I would in a club during a sweat-fall (yuck).

To Be Kind is different, I guess. It comes from a somewhat more kinetic place than Seer or My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky, both of which feel to me like a band easing into a new version of itself, and because of this, possibly feeling a bit more comfortable in studio than out in the open.

But I'm reeeeeally bored, so keep that in mind when you read this nonsense.

Why fuck with a system that has worked so well? If they went "all new," it would probably be in their best interest to *not* include some of those new songs on the next record, in the spirit of not showing too much of their hand. The current arrangement makes the live albums as sought after as the studio albums *because* of the live versions the mix of works in progress & then-established favorites. People buy the live records to hear the band annihilate their new songs, and to get an idea of what might come next.

You wouldn't want the live album to just be a bunch of demo jams of songs that are going to sound better later would you? Then what reason would you have to listen to it after the release of that album?

Y'dig?

These past two Swans records I think nailed it. Checking youtube and listening to the live dvd I almost like the records better. The production is superb, balanced, textured. The stage show has more volume but these records are fine. Comparable to how Sonic Nurse accurately captured the feel of that epic Nurse tour

Yeah, but I heard the album "Nurse" before I saw the live "Nurse." I don't think I'd have ever learned to truly appreciate that album had I not decided to see them that year.

Because I heard the material on the LP before I heard it live, I felt like the album was a bit "iffy" for a sec. Once I saw them play it live (a few times before the end of the summer) I developed a proper level of admiration for the songs. After that, the album became another one of my proper all time favorite SY releases.

Thank god I didn't take that year off. If I had there's no telling how I'd rank Sonic Nurse... But it would certainly be below WM. Now I consider it an obvious part of an obvious multi-movement Sonic Renaissance that found the band in top form much like they were between Bad Moon and DDN.

Back to Swans though, I think I agree that the've nailed the last 2 albums... I merely think I'd extend that statement to include My Father..., which is not as good as the Seer, but ever so slightly better than To Be Kind. Don't shoot me. That album could have easily sucked. Many probably expected it to. But it really doesn't. It could have been a disaster, but instead it was a strange and beautiful epic conjoined twin to the band's previous releases.

But maybe I'll feel differently aboht To Be Kind after I see it played live. It's been known to happen.

The live DVD that came with, 'To Be Kind' sounds much better to me compared to the double CD set, 'We Rose From Your Bed With The Sun.'

Um, actually, the live with new stuff inbetween studio records are pretty good, aren't they? I'm thinking REM New Adventures In HiFi. Not just demo jams but fuckin finished realizations....LIVE. Having said that, I can't believe someone thought Seer/TBK sounded flat on recent listens. "Flat" is the last thing these muthafuckers will ever be in my world. My life purpose has become anticipating what Swans will do after Seer/TBK. The current tour seems to be a long one, so maybe 2017 before the next grand pronouncement? Part of me demands another 2hr studio tweaked monster, but Gira likes to keep us on our toes, I think. I was at a Sep 5th Swans show. If they can record a shitload of new stuff and pull an REM I could be very happy indeed.

I cannot imagine My Father without the 46min second CD Look At Me Go. I never found a satisfactory explanation for that 2nd CD, but I surmise that Gira was not happy with the initial release and he tried (very successfully imho) to enhance it. CD1 alone is very tentative / warmup to what would follow.

Swans in session on Marc Riley, tonight!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04tpmrt

Dänke!

(Danke?)

Really getting into To Be Kind, also been revisiting the Seer and getting even more into that as well. I've never heard My Father Will Guide Me... so keen to check that out now as well. Definitely plan to see them live next year, last time I saw them in Edinburgh was fairly incredible.

i just saw them in brooklyn a couple of nights ago. it was very very good.
i think in another life gira could be a benevolent cult leader. tho maybe that's what he is in this life?

Almost absurdly well-put. I couldn't have said it better myself.

I think it's definitely possible that he was an evil southern preacher... Or perhaps an early Mormon sect leader in the late 1800's... Some kind of resurrectionist or evangelical... Maybe the type who draped himself in animal skins at the solstice.. Who knows? But I can definitely see some kind of creepy captain of religion or industry. Like a Daniel Plainview or what have you. HOWEVER-- if reincarnation is in fact a thing-- I tend to believe that one vascilates back and forth between benevolence and malevolence, live by life.

So if any of that completely speculative guesswork has any merit whatsoever, then it would follow that Gira's either evil as fuck now, or that he was evil as fuck in his former life. He may be a cult leader, but he's certainly not a malevolent force in this life.

Btw: What was the Setlist like? Any opening act of note?

From setlist.com

Frankie M
A Little God In My Hands
The Cloud of Unknowing
Just a Little Boy (For Chester Burnett)
I Forget
Bring the Sun / Black Hole Man


A few I don't recognise tbh.

Frankie M was the opener in September show I was at, and it fuckin blew my world. Fuck me I can't wait for the next album. We are living in a time and place where Swans can do no wrong. I think.

The new Swans stuff as far as I remember from the gig is pretty funky.

liturgy opened. they were pretty good. the singer didnt do the screaming/howling thing with reverb but sang normalish and it was the weakest part of their set. the guitars and bass sounded good and their drummer greg fox is so good.

gira said at least one was a new one maybe more...and yeah there was an element of funk to some of the songs. not in a bad way either...

for what it's worth one of the members of pussy riot was standing next to me hanging with the guitar player from the yeah yeah yeahs

Anybody seen Swans this year?

After seeing them at a short outdoor festival set, I saw them on Friday in Toronto. Good show but I was a little underwhelmed to be honest (It's easy to hype up Swans too much I suppose). The set seemed to be waaay too drone-y (even for Swans!) which is incredibly hard for me to say.

My biggest beef though was the removal of "The Apostate" from the setlist and replacing it with some boring drone song they are coming up with. The apostate is absolutely killer live so I was a little heartbroken about missing that incredible lap steel sound that Christoph does throughout and that 2nd half dance break. Also by taking out "the Apostate", Christoph seemed to have little to do during the show and was often found just toking on his little portable vaporizer thing. The show just didn't have as much groove as we've come to expect from reformed Swans.

That being said, groove was certainly present in the closer "black hole man" which was the highlight of the set. But waiting almost 3 hours to get to a groove was definitely testing my patience a bit. Not bad at all, but just not what I've come to expect from Gira & co. in recent years.