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 In this thread, I am proposing a 12 week listening party to intensively go through the discography of one of the most influential and mysterious bands of the last three decades… SWANS. Who are Swans? It is the experimental, noise, post-punk, post-rock band of Michael Gira. He once described the reason for the moniker as "Swans are majestic, beautiful looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments." In the coming weeks, you will experience music ranging from some of the darkest, ugliest, most depraved music you have ever heard to the grandest moments of exquisite beauty. My love affair with Swans started in the mid-90's, when a very weird girl made me listen to Love of Life. The song In the Eyes of Nature particularly grabbed me, and I instantly went on a quest to acquire and listen to all of their material. This journey continues to this day, as there is still material that I have not listened to in depth. Rather then go on about their music, I figured the best way to appreciate it is to just get started with an extended listening session… One album or collection of EP's per week. Here is the proposed schedule, with links to the albums. I am starting a week late for those that need time acquiring the first album. Not sure you are up to it? Try this song. June 9: Filth (optional: Body to Body Job to Job compilation as well as the Swans debut EP) Recommended album/set: The 2CD set Filth/Body to Body Job to Job available here.   June 16: Cop/Young God Recommended album/set: The first half of the 2CD set Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money available here.   June 23: Greed/Holy Money (optional: Real Love [live] and Public Castration is a Good Idea [live]) Recommended album/set: The second half of the above set.   June 30: Children of God (optional: World of Skin, Kill the Child [live], Feel Good Now [live]) Recommended album/set: The two CD set Children of God/World of Skin available here.  July 7: The Burning World Recommended: the actual CD available here.  July 14: White Light from the Mouth of Infinity Recommended: the actual CD which is sadly out-of-print. Try Spotify or listen on Youtube.  July 21: Love of Life (Optional but recommended: Omniscience) Recommended: the actual CD's which are sadly out-of-print. Try Spotify or listen to Love of Life on Youtube here and Omniscience here.   Rest of the albums are still in print: July 28: The Great Annihilator  August 4: Soundtracks for the Blind  August 11: Swans are Dead  August 18: My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky  August 25: The Seer  Afterwards: Live Material, Angels of Light, Gira solo stuff, Jarboe, etc Please let me know if there are concerns or recommendations… Possibly to combine a couple albums per week to reduce this entire listening process. This material is vast though, so I think a week per album is best. Also, regarding purchasing SWANS material: Do check out Young God Records regularly. Michael Gira occasionally releases limited runs of his solo material, a recent live disk, or reissues. These are often done with really cool handmade packaging, even with each print being unique in its artwork, all done by Gira. These go pretty fast, and he also signs it and personalizes it for you ("Thanks <insert your name>!"). I have a few of his solo releases as well as Forever Burned (Burning World compilation) and they are all uniquely numbered and signed by Gira and awesome way to support the band. 80k fucked around with this message at 20:02 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 2, 2013 02:44
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Psycho Mantits posted:I realize you'll already have a ton on your plate, but is there any chance of you doing Swans Are Dead at some point? I feel it serves as a pretty good bridge between Soundtracks and My Father, though I may be somewhat biased as it's by far my favorite Swans album. Sure… I was sort of thinking the live albums can be worked in conjunction with the applicable album… But maybe Swans are Dead can get a special week. As for having a ton on my plate, I was just planning to listen and discuss with you guys. At least half the discography I have not listened to in over 10 years, so this is mostly a chance to reexperience it, and also hopefully help people to find a way to get into the band without being overwhelmed. This is more of a "listen and react together" thing than going into in-depth analysis, although any of that sort of thing would be great as well. Maybe we can add a 13th week for the live material?
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Jun 2, 2013 03:39
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Old Ash posted:I'm in for this. I listened to The Seer a little bit last year after seeing it show up on so many EOTY lists, but it was just so daunting a work that I could never really get into it. This project is also daunting, but if others get on board, I don't think it'll be a problem for me. Swans has always been a band that I hear talked about a lot but that I just haven't given time to at all (which is, sadly, true of other prominent artists as well - too much music, too little time, etc). The Seer was pretty overwhelming for me too. In fact, this listening session will be the chance for me to finally dig deep into it. Even after so many years of listening to Swans, I still have tended to gravitate towards the same small handful of albums. I'm starting to think that these long group listening sessions may be the best way to force oneself to really explore such prolific artists. For instance, I have listened to Coil for over 15 years, and I still can't wrap my head around their huge catalog. Maybe we can do that someday!
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Jun 2, 2013 03:50
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acephalousuniverse posted:This is a cool idea. I'm a big fan of the Greed/Holy Money era as well as a lot of the stuff collected on Various Failures. At one point this was my favorite band but I haven't listened to them much since they started getting Pitchfork popular in the last couple years. The Various Failures era is incredible, but it is too bad the albums are not intact. I was lucky enough to snag a copy of White Light From the Mouth of Infinity back when it was still easy to find, and it is my favorite alongside Children of God. Yep, I also agree Greed/Holy Money is incredible stuff. XMD 5a posted:I occasionally do a mini one-day version of this (ie: listen to a couple of tracks from every release in sequence) but a fully-fledged version sounds like fun. Was not sure about including the debut EP since it is so hard to find. Maybe add it in with Filth week for those that have it? Friends Are Evil posted:I'm totally up for this. Swans are a loving ordeal to listen to, but they're so worth it. Will any of Michael Gira's solo work or work with Angels of Light be covered? Drainland and How I Loved You are up there with some of Swans' best material. Yea, we should continue with Angels of Light and Gira's solo work afterwards. I would LOVE to do a Coil runthrough. For awhile, my friend and I tried to collect all the Coil releases but eventually gave up. I am still not sure how many we had left.
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Jun 2, 2013 07:23
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Well, I suppose those that have Filth can get started right away. We can still wait a couple of weeks before we start Cop so others can catch up. But if people request, I can move the schedule up a bit.
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Jun 2, 2013 18:18
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Electric Bugaloo posted:I'm so down for this. I actually just listened to the Seer for the first time last week and loved it. I also just checked YouTube and the full albums are all there as well. Not the greatest option, but at least one can fill in the gap for albums not available on Spotify.
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Jun 2, 2013 21:41
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God Of Paradise posted:Swans live records are often times better than their studio work. I recommend putting Omniscience and Swans Are Dead on here, and strongly recommend listening to the entirety of White Light From The Mouth of Infinity and Love of Life instead of Various Failures. Yeah, with the availability of White Light and Love of Life on Spotify and YouTube, I have taken out the links to Various Failures. I also added Omniscience to Love of Life week. I agree it is a great sounding live album. I am hesitant to add Swans are Dead to Soundtrack's week just due to the sheer volume, so I am thinking of adding in its own week... I guess 13 weeks is okay? (Edit: Whoops, I am an idiot… It looks like I had counted 12 weeks correctly in the first place accounting for Swans are Dead. I just forgot to put it in there. Fixed now). I also added Real Love, Kill the Child, and Feel Good Now to its applicable week as optional. I could add the rest of the live albums, but I really didn't want to overwhelm people. 80k fucked around with this message at 01:45 on Jun 3, 2013 |
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Jun 3, 2013 01:38
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Friends Are Evil posted:Just checked. White Light and Love of Life aren't actually on Spotify. They're most likely on YouTube, though. Dang, the previous folks mentioning Spotify availability must have been referring to Various Failures. Anyway, I put in the YouTube for both of those albums. Those will have to do for those who can't find them. I also put in Public Castration per your suggestion. I have to admit, it is not one of my favorite live albums, and I prefer Real Love and Kill the Child more, but it is definitely worth putting in there.
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Jun 3, 2013 02:47
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Electric Bugaloo posted:I was. I'm sorry about that. Heh, no worries. I did think it was a little weird that Spotify would have them.
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Jun 3, 2013 05:37
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dutch wife abc posted:Oh yeah, this would have to be my all-time favourite of theirs. Gets my vote for the coldest, most lifeless album ever made. I used to have a habit listen to it when grocery shopping, not sure why Looking forward to getting deeper into that one. I know a Swans fans who also loves that live CD, but I have not listened to it as much as the other early period live albums. So is anyone getting a head start on Filth? Does anyone think I should move the schedule ahead? I gave Filth a good listen last night. It is disorienting and all the adjectives typically used for early Swans apply: relentless, emotionally raw, brutal, repetitive, unsettling, cathartic. But I am surprised at how well it moves along, especially knowing what comes next in their catalog. Surprisingly listenable, very industrial sounding. It has been over 10 years since I've listened to this album, and back then, I did not feel like it was a very strong album. But I am already liking it a lot more. My first reaction with this listen was being impressed at how honest and confident it is and how well crafted it is, for what it is. I still think the first couple of songs are the strongest, but there is some incredible stuff in the second third. Also… the teeth on the cover are a totally normal set of teeth, but the way it is presented is just disgusting. I love it.
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Jun 3, 2013 17:17
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A sad bit of news: Not sure how many people know this, but Harry Crosby, the bassist on Filth and Cop, died January 7 of this year. I saw this on Jarboe's Facebook. I was listening to Filth again just now, and the gritty bass sound is utterly devastating. I'd actually be interested to know what equipment Crosby used. Such a crucial part of the sound of this record.
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Jun 3, 2013 20:35
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So I finally listened to the out-of-print debut SWANS [EP], which was appended to a now out-of-print Filth reissue, but unavailable with the current double-disk compilation. I know that Gira himself is not a good judge of which of the Swans releases are worth reissuing (his treatment of the post-Children of God era being an example), so I was totally prepared for the possibility that this EP would kick rear end. I definitely wasn't disappointed. Although three out of the four songs did not do too much for me, Sensitive Skin was incredible and might be a bigger hint of what was to come than anything on Filth. Gira's lyrics are hard to make out and his voice is neither aggressive nor characteristically deep, but the understated delivery as the rhythm plods along is very effective and menacing and makes this one of the more uncomfortable songs of this very early period.
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Jun 4, 2013 21:58
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LtKenFrankenstein posted:Are we still doing this? Because I listened to Filth for the first time last night and uh it kicked my loving rear end. I don't know why I slept on that one so long, I easily like it better than Cop or Young God for "Angry Swans" era, the super concise length of the thing lets it just get in, kick your rear end and get out. "Stay Here" goes so hard. Yep, today is beginning of Cop week so I'm going to start listening to it tonight. Did anyone else get a hold of the first Swans EP? That was definitely a nice surprise, with Sensitive Skin now being one of my favorites among early Swans era songs. 80k fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Jun 16, 2013 |
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Jun 16, 2013 18:45
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Anyone listening to Cop or Young God this week? Gave both a listen yesterday and loved it. However, I found myself immediately more drawn to Young God EP. The songs sound more expansive, more melodic, but still downright dark and terrifying. I Crawled may be my favorite and I can see why it has become one of their most enduring songs, being revived with live renditions up through their latest tour.
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Jun 18, 2013 19:30
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Anyone listen to Greed and Holy Money this week? Been listening to it for a couple of days. Amazing stuff. I was going to make a playlist to split them into their respective EP's, but have been just listening to them as presented on the compilation, which has the songs mixed together. It is hard to argue with how it is presented on this compilation, so I just decided to listen to it as is.
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Jun 25, 2013 18:11
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FalseParadigm posted:Hope everyone is still listening Awesome... Report back after the show! Sorry for ignoring the thread. It seemed to die off on Greed week and I got too lazy to update. I am still listening though. 
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Jul 18, 2013 06:39
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Dang, looks like they won't be coming around my way. Also the opening act Jenny Hval is awesome and shouldn't be missed.
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Mar 24, 2014 18:20
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 01:51 |
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I hope, by earplugs, no one is talking about those foam ones that you use for industrial purposes, or for sleeping. Those sound like poo poo and is guaranteed to ruin a concert experience. A $20 pair of musicians earplugs (ribbed kind) are so much better. Even better are ones molded to fit your ears, which I have been happily using for 15 years now, though expensive. My experience is that a $20 upgrade to musicians earplugs is the best bang for your buck.
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May 8, 2014 21:01
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