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The track list for To Be Kind "leaked": 1. Screen Shot 8:04 2. Just A Little Boy (for Chester Burnett) 12:39 3. A Little God In My Hands 7:08 4. Bring The Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture 34:05 5. Some Things We Do 5:09 ----- 6. She Loves Us 17:00 7. Kirsten Supine 10:32 8. Oxygen 7:59 9. Nathalie Neal 10:14 10. To Be Kind 8:22 Promo copies are supposedly out. Can't wait.
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Mar 18, 2014 21:41
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:51 |
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Song's amazing. Very Krautrock-y. Really excited to the rest of the album as the new songs from when I saw them in '12 and on Not Here/Not Now are sublime. I think this kind of production will suit them well. There's a guy on a different message board I visit who has access to a promo copy wrote about A Little God after others heard it: "This is one of my least favorites from the record so if you love this then the album will blow you away." He also posted a track-by-track review of his, which I 've posted below (disclaimer – I believe he said he was drunk when he wrote it): 01 Screenshot 8:05 - begins with a simple bass riff that carries the song throughout - hypnotic mantra - builds and builds into a wall of sound - HERE. NOW. HERE. NOW! - very much a intro track that brings you into their brand of hell 02 Just A Little Boy 12:40 - laid back groove. ominous and brooding. - "I'm just a lil boy!!!" Michael sounds so loving creepy during this line! - evil laughter (sounds cool in headphones, possibly Annie Clark?) - last two minutes things begin to pay off with small explosions - one of my favs simply because of Gira's spooky as gently caress vocal delivery 03 A Little God 7:08 - surprisingly optimistic! especially coming out of the last track - jangly psychotic piano lurking in the distance - you could almost dance to this - horn/synth explosions near the end!!! gently caress THIS RULES!!!! 04 Sun Toussaint 34:05 - this is my goddamn JAM!!!!!!! - opens with a brutal loving thrashing, relentlessly beating the poo poo out of you - when the lashes are done and all is calm, Michael begins his monk-like chant - I'm drunk now - ten minutes in and things begin to intensify - SUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNN - My neighbors officially hate me because this poo poo is so loud - after the torment, things die down with toy instruments and horse noises - FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.....DOOOOOOMMMM - noise bliss into referee whistles....the bass is building and bringing us back in - TOUSSAINT! (there's 11 mins left! wtf! my brain can't handle this!) - nice little tongue roll Gira - space-jazz section...something is coming/cumming... - I'm American so I have no idea what the gently caress he is saying right now - FREEEEEEEE....DOM Dom dom.... - Beautiful cries of desperation. Can't believe I've been in this 30 minute trance - HERE....WE....GO!!!! My ears are loving destroyed! - That was beyond intense....goddamnit!!! 05 Some Things We Do 5:09 - violin plucking and swells with another "we...." mantra - really needed this relaxation - I take that back....this sounds like Hitchcock chillin' on a beach - Michael is describing the human experience - "we love...we love...." 06 She Loves Us 17:01 - first 4 minutes sounds like smoking crack at Christmas - piano drip drone... - brutal free form noise-pump...rhythm section is killing it right now - 7 minutes in and a repetitive groove begins to build, kinda funky - love that lead guitar part (almost sounds like Gary Numan synth or something) - MOW MOW MWEOWWWW! (Michael has been watching too much Super Troopers) - HALLELUJAH! - Michael is screaming "gently caress gently caress gently caress!" as if he were Tim "The Toolman" Taylor and accidently hit his finger with a hammer - groove collapses and falls apart at the end into choir of discontent - WHOA! just added another brutal riff near the end for the gently caress of it 07 Kirstin Supine 10:33 - another needed break. calm but anxious - okay this has to be Annie Clark doing the harmony behind a nice bell melody - full band finally kicks in about halfway through, church bells and all - repetitive rhythm section building over drone guitars and strings - no real pay off 08 Oxygen 7:59 - okay I guess this is the climax I was looking for - similar to the live version as far as I can remember - the goddamn drum and bass on this song!!!!! - heaviest track on the album - BRICK HOUSE!!!!! - this is what you wanted from Swans 09 Nathalie Neal 10:15 - weird Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom garbly intro - another of my favs I'd like to add - jangly piano thing is back - woman voice over. sounds like it's recorded from a cellphone - I love the groove of this song - NATA LEY EH EH EH EH EH EHHHHHHHH - "Live forever in this song....Natalie!!" Did this chick pay $500 to Gira? - Probably the catchiest melody - Desert outro "Na...Na na na na...Nathalie" - Wow this is over already 10 To Be Kind 8:23 - string and choir intro - piano melody behind Michael's lyrics - "There are millions and millions of stars in your eyes!" - the band begins to swell and crash into a formless drone - again lashing and lashing and lashing, beating you into the ground - ends with a formless drone into vicious loving destruction
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Mar 22, 2014 00:03
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^ How it leaked was that you can listen to 30 second preview snippets on the Young God site for the page, but if you click past that first 30 seconds you can listen to the whole song. You gotta keep clicking so it's a bit tedious, and the quality (96 kbps) isn't great, but yep, there it is. http://younggodrecords.com/collections/frontpage/products/to-be-kind
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Mar 30, 2014 01:43
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Looks like they just shared Oxygen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jSdTBGhDSg
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Apr 15, 2014 15:22
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NPR First Listen has To Be Kind up for streaming: http://www.npr.org/2014/05/04/308392426/first-listen-swans-to-be-kind
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May 5, 2014 05:48
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I wore earplugs when I saw them for the first half of the first song (which I believe was To Be Kind), but when it dropped, the sound just came through muddled and murky, so I took them out and enjoyed it a lot more. I was standing back by the sound board, so not too close to the speakers. Didn't really feel much pain/temp hearing loss afterward.
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May 8, 2014 19:00
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Yeah I'll admit after hearing the chorus of "wear earplugs" online about seeing them live, I didn't do enough research and bought up some lovely foam plugs. Maybe (hopefully) if I get to see them again I'll invest in some higher quality earplugs.
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May 8, 2014 22:33
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Snagged this from setlist.fm: (Unknown – "Frankie M") A Little God In My Hands Oxygen (Unknown – "Sunlight, please don't go") The Apostate Bring the Sun Miguel, can you give some more details about the show? I'm thinking of doing a road trip out west in September and possibly catching them in Portland
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May 15, 2014 16:32
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Here's a Swans song from 1983 played and sung entirely by 11 to 13 year olds, with tape effects: http://www.popmatters.com/post/193370-swans-ill-cry-for-you-audio-premiere/ quote:Swans frontman Michael Gira says to PopMatters, “I vividly remember recording this song in late 1983 in NYC, because we hired child musicians—boys and girls ages 11 to 13—to play our instruments. It took a lot of gentle (and some not so gentle) coaxing to get them to play like us, with that unique, ‘dragging’ feel that Swans employed at the time, but with a lot of work, we all succeeded. The boy who sang in my place did a particularly good job, I think. With a little tape manipulation, a seamless replication. We didn’t release this song at the time because we couldn’t get legal approval from all the parents, but now it’s available.”
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May 14, 2015 19:42
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I'm Executive Producing
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Sep 3, 2015 03:33
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Are the live albums done and shipping soon? I didn't see anything about when we should expect to get them.
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Sep 5, 2015 17:34
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Got notice mine shipped, with expected delivery on Tuesday, but from tracking information it looks like it'll be here this afternoon!
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Oct 10, 2015 18:20
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Got it, ripped it, listening now woo
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Oct 10, 2015 22:05
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Ugh this is gross. gently caress. Might have to change my producer cred on the new album. Some dude posted this on /mu/ so take it with whatever sized grain of salt that means to you: 
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Feb 26, 2016 03:57
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Ok all the talk of this seeming "out of character" for Gira needs to stop unless you have spent a considerable amount of time with him, yeah?
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Feb 27, 2016 21:23
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Gira's ex-wife (and wife at the time) commented on all this a few days ago in the comment section of an article on rape culture in the music industry: http://observer.com/2016/03/i-stand-with-kesha-why-men-should-address-musics-rape-culture-problem-right-now/quote:Hello. My name is Siobhan Duffy and I am Michael's ex wife. The wife married to him (together for 12 years) while Larkin and Michael worked together. It is shameful what Ms. Grimm has done. Michael is not a rapist. And we will be making a more offical statement soon with proof of either her instabilty and her intent to ruin Michael's life work. Michael and I divorced in 2011. In 2013 Larkin wrote me on Facebook messenger (not a public post) which starts..."Dear Siobhan, I'm Sorry, I'm sorry,I'm so, so, sorry for being an immature manipulative untrustworthy whore,losing my way,being constantly high, and not follwoing my conscience when you welcomed me into your home." She goes on to tell me about the drunken night of fooling around that never included coitus. And many people that worked with both Larkin and Michael reveal that she was bragging about it at the time and finding it laughable that he was afraid his wife (me) would find out. She taunted him with telling me. When she wrote to me and spoke to Michael about it, I asked him to remove her from his label out of respect of me. Larkin claims that when she confronted him with rape, which never happened, he removed her from the label. Another false statement. And this one Facebook post has brought his 30 plus career and his name into question? It seems the media does not fact check anything anymore. Making false claims of rape can ruin someone's life, but also it undermines every true report of rape. And as seen from above, Larkin is now trying to capitalize on the current hot topic of rape in the music industry. She even mentions Kehsa in her FB post. Yes Larkin, you finally got your name in Billboard, but at what price to Michael and his family?
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Mar 5, 2016 18:02
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So it has. Oops
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Mar 5, 2016 21:11
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 23:51 |
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BBC radio played probably about half of The Glowing Man (title track) the other day, which you can stream here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b079cnvh Starts around 53:00
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May 13, 2016 01:54
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