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Michael Gira interview
FROM QRD QUARTERLYI guess pretty much everyone that's ever read an issue of QRD knows that Michael Gira is essentially the artist I admire most.I guess he's most famous for his band Swans, but he also writes & paints & he has two new musical projects called The Angels of Light & The Bodylovers. I was supposed to do this interview before a show, but there wasn't time so this interview ended up being conducted by mail; which maybe makes it feel a little more formal & less in depth... Read more...
Michael Gira's Angels of Light | Review
INK 19 | Frank MullenEcho Lounge, Atlanta, GA June 11, 1999Anyone familiar with Michael Gira's history with the Swans might know what they could expect from a performance by his latest project. Unearthing the haunted, dark side of the human experience, stripping away the veil of civility to reveal the pain and suffering of the world -- that was the Swans' specialty. And to a slightly lesser degree, Gira continues that approach with the Angels of Light, presenting intense and personal narratives from his unique corner of the world. The... Read more...
Michael Gira | Interview
Alternative Press | Issue 132 | Dave CliffordFollowing Swans' dissolution in 1996, Gira has pursued several projects, but the recent release of Angels Of Light's New Mother finds him once again fronting a full band to initiate a new form of musical menace.Since first maligning the blues in 1982 with his brutally antipathetic noise group Swans, Michael Gira has been experimenting with sound as catharsis, and exploring lyrical themes that posit that life, sex, work and death are humanity's only art. Following Swans' dissolution in 1996, Gira has pursued several... Read more...
Preview | Bowery Ballroom; Saturday July 3
TimeOut New Your | Issue No. 197 | Jordan N. MamoneRounded out by a crew of familiar associates, this tasteful ensemble fleshes out the performer's obsessions with pastoral American songwriting traditions.Michael Gira certainly has a passion for extremes. For the better part of the 15 years he spent leading avant-rock luminaries Swans, his name was synonymous with Herculean, confrontational noise that thrilled and repulsed audiences with its single-minded crunch. After taking that exhausting approach to its logical end, the frontman has gradually redirected his energy toward less brutal, though still... Read more...
The Angels of Light | Preview
The Dallas Observer | Robert Wilonsky one night a few years ago, the Swans played the Orbit Room's big room -though, in retrospect, played is probably the wrong word. That freaking band didn't play anything; God forbid you use a child's word to describe that torturous night - that black-and-white noise pouring from the stage like acid and thunder, and all that droning, tumultuous feedback. All I remember of that night is the frightful roar (imaging punk without, like, notes) and trying to locate even the slightest hint of a... Read more...
Fallen angel Swans leader Michael Gira returns with a new project
Mitchell Foy | Creative Loafing"I'm happy to put Swans behind me." It's practically the first sentence out of the mouth of the iconoclastic Michael Gira as he shakes off the weariness of his recent trip overseas. Happy? It's hard to believe. The image of the angry young man of the early/mid-'s80 ripping himself apart at the seams as the rest of the Swans slave away at their instruments is so deeply ingrained it's hard to imagine Mr. Gira being jubilant about anything. Yet with the release of New Mother, by... Read more...
Angels of Light to descend upon the Launchpad
Albuquerque Journal | Kenn RodriguezAmong avant-garde music fans, songwriter Michael Gira is legendary.Gira's Swans were known for their aesthetic as well as surreal approach to making music. Gira's Swans were known for their gothic feel, droning sonic industrial noise as well as asymmetrical, non-pop-song approach to song writing. Gira disbanded Swans in 1996, throwing himself into spoken word tours and travel before returning with two new musical projects: the more experimental Body Lovers/Haters and the band-orient-ed The Angels of Light The group's new album, "New Mother," released on Gira's Young... Read more...
Angels of Light | New Mother
The Rocket, No. 303 | Dave CliffordThe measure of any influential artist is their ability to summon the soul and emotion of collective history within the expression of one’s own personal experience.While countless contemporaries wallow in self-misery and miserable poetry. Michael Gira’s ruptured synthesis of blues, folk and rock music provides eviscerating portrayals of human life. His songs could be of his life, or they could be of our own – they’re universal in their message and, therefore, may touch all who listen. While the 17 majestic, narrative songs of... Read more...
Return of the Dark Angel
Philadelphia City Paper | A.D. AmorosiThe swan song of The Swans wasn't the end of Michael Gira.When Michael Gira was a Swan (or more accurately, The Swans), he made music grand, grieving and grotesque for over 15 years. There was romance in the crushing, industrial records Greed, Holy Money and Young God as well as disquieting ambience in the somber epics Soundtracks For The Blind and The Body Lovers. But The Swans are over. In its place is The Angels Of Light - a quieter yet no less forlorn project.... Read more...
Lisa Germano | Review
Spin Magazine | Lorraine Ali one of the decade's most painfully honest releases. September 1999Geek the Girl Lisa Germano’s third release, 1994’s Geek the Girl, is quietly devastating.  Recorded on four-track in her Bloomington, Indiana apartment, it chronicled the depths of fear- and romantic hope-with dark humor and biting clarity. “I wanted it to be a fun record about the silly things girls do, but instead I went where the songs took me,” says Germano, who served time as a fiddle player for both John Mellencamp and Bob Seger.  Unfortunately, Geek... Read more...

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