Mutation posted:

We need to talk more about the loving horse in Bring the Sun. There's a loving horse in Bring the Sun!

Quantum of Phallus posted:

They recorded that horse specifically for the track, there's a good recent interview on p4K with Gira.

Beyond sane knolls posted:

Listening to Swans' discography in reverse sounds like the ultimate recipe for a several-week long depression to me. Like a recommendation I'd make as a sick joke on someone.

So yeah, Rageaholic, I'll be wantin' a trip report asap.

kirkjames posted:

Got a Michael Gira tattoo today. Now my swans obsession is permanent.

kirkjames posted:

Got a Michael Gira tattoo today. Now my swans obsession is permanent.

Bigup DJ posted:

I literally smelt horse when I heard that horse.

Hidden Mother posted:

Listening to Soundtracks For The Blind for the first time in years and, my word, I'd forgotten how strange it is, even (or perhaps especially) coming from Swans. I'm still not entirely sure whether I really enjoy it or not but it's definitely got a really weird, dark atmosphere that's absolutely like nothing else I've ever heard.

Rageaholic Monkey posted:

I still haven't started my reverse Swans journey yet, but I will. I have The Seer, I just need to prepare myself to listen to it. If that's even possible...

Skittle Wood posted:

Found the Burning World at Amoeba in SF for $12 so I'm pretty excited to finally give it a listen after going through most of the readily available albums.

Skittle Wood posted:

Found the Burning World at Amoeba in SF for $12 so I'm pretty excited to finally give it a listen after going through most of the readily available albums.

Cymbal Monkey posted:

Gira himself said he hates that album.

Michael Gira posted:

I abhor that record. Bill Laswell is a very good producer, but we didn't mesh well. I was intimidated and sang in this cramped, monotone way. It didn't sell, and we got dropped.

Mutation posted:

Speaking of Gira saying things, does anyone have that interview where he talks about the goat killing/blood orgy thing?

Mutation posted:

Speaking of Gira saying things, does anyone have that interview where he talks about the goat killing/blood orgy thing?

Cymbal Monkey posted:

This is an excellent post and I agree with all of it. My recommendation is actually to work through their discography backwards, and slowly. Really digest every album, listen four or five times at least, which I know is a ten hour time synch for three albums, but it's worth it, there's so much there that you'll miss your first time through. Swans, in my experience, get more challanging as you move backwards, broadly (The Great Annihilator being the biggest exception I can think of, being almost acceptable to put on in polite company). I love Swans but I've never managed to get into Holy Money and before.

Mutation posted:

Speaking of Gira saying things, does anyone have that interview where he talks about the goat killing/blood orgy thing?

quote:

SECONDS: Tell me about what happened during the Nitsch performance you were part of?
GIRA: That was in Venice, CA, around1978-79. A woman I was involved with at the time ran an arts organization that presented stuff that wouldn't otherwise be seen in any institutional or established art context. The Nitsch event was more of a ritual than a performance in that it lasted about four to six hours and was right there all around you - not on a stage - in a storefront that had been emptied out for the occasion. Strung up in this white room were the skinned carcasses of two lambs, ropes stretching out from each limb to the floor and ceiling so that the dead meat was suspended in mid-air. Something like a hundred gallons of lambs' blood and entrails had been supplied in vats as well, and as a series of young boys, naked and blindfolded, were brought out on a stretcher, the blood, etc. was poured through the carcass and over the tender youth's bodies, into their mouths, etc. This obscure series of ritualized actions was directed by Nitsch himself, who was this little fat guy dressed in black like a priest without a collar, with a pasty white Austrian face with ruby red moist lips, sort of like you might picture a bloated and drunk Napoleon-figure, and he was wearing this one oversized black rubber glove on his right hand, and with it he'd direct people. He'd gathered a sizable orchestra of street people, punks, volunteers, and with a raising or lowering of his black hand they'd let loose with a really loud squall of noise played by horns, drums, whistles, anything that made sounds, so this roaring cacophony punctuated or egged on the Mass taking place. Everyone was drinking lots of wine from jugs that were passed around; the idea was to get drunk as possible and revel in the blood and sound, and eventually it just built to a point where the boy volunteer sacrifices started shaking in uncontrollable convulsions. By this time- after hours of the overwhelming surges of sound, the stink of the meat and blood- the room had filled a couple of inches deep in blood and offal and everyone was just wallowing in it. Really wonderful! A couple of the assistants, who were pouring the blood and just and just generally executing Nitsch's commands- actually it was the kipper Kids, who'd met Nitsch once in Austria- got carried away and cut the bottom ropes so the blood was flying everywhere. Half the audience was naked by this point and blood-soaked and in a drunken dream state. Eventually the blood was pouring out the door onto the street outside and the police came. It was funny to see them in their neat blue suits amidst the slaughter...I don't really remember too much beyond that, because I was so drunk myself and it was so long ago, but the main thing I took away from the event- besides a stink that I couldn't wash off for weeks- was the sense of being overwhelmed by the blood and sound, the way it slowed down time, and I wanted it to go on forever. In a way it was a really pure religious experience. I think I hosed like a wild beast that night. By the way, there are now a few CDs out of the music from Nitsch's rituals, and I highly recommend them, though naturally they're really hard to find.

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

Argali posted:

more rewarding and influential than the last two, which are a real mixed bag in my opinion. (The Seer was a study in pointless overindulgence.)

quote:

(This summer, Swans are even playing the odd free festival date in outdoor public squares, which could conceivably earn them a few new fans in the grandparents-and-strollers demographic.)

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

Here's the full thing.

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

interview excerpt.

Uncle Boogeyman posted:

Here's the full thing.

sharktamer posted:

On my way home from seeing swans in brixton. Rad as gently caress and so intense.

Worst loving crowd though. If any of you were squeezing past over and over to get booze in the middle of songs, eat a dick.

sharktamer posted:

On my way home from seeing swans in brixton. Rad as gently caress and so intense.

Worst loving crowd though. If any of you were squeezing past over and over to get booze in the middle of songs, eat a dick.