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SWANS BRINGS BLISSFUL CACOPHONY TO PORT CITY MUSIC HALL (Maine Today)
Written by: Robert Ker For a certain segment of the Southern Maine population, the Swans concert at Port City Music Hall on Feb. 17 had been circled on the calendar for some time, and with good reason. Not only are Swans one of the most celebrated cult acts on the rock circuit, but they are also the perfect live act for a city that is lined with crunchy snowbanks, coated in a thick layer of brown sludge and abused by angry, Arctic winds. The people of Portland have had enough... Read more...
Swans, Chelsea Wolfe @ Warsaw, Brooklyn (Stereogum)
By Doug Moore / June 14, 2013 - 4:26 pm Michael Gira prefers to call the version of Swans that emerged in early 2010 a reconstitution rather than a reunion. It is easy to see why the word choice matters to him; the term “reunion” comes with a great deal of historical baggage that simply does not apply to the band’s current iteration. They have been very busy, but not with nostalgia — only one pre-hiatus song regularly appears in their set list. Instead, they have gone on a creative... Read more...
CRUEL TO BE KIND: AN INTERVIEW WITH SWANS LEADER MICHAEL GIRA (Cincy Music)
By Nat Tracey-Miller on Monday February 23, 2015 9:11am When Michael Gira brought his post-punk outfit Swans back from the dead five years ago, it was amidst a bevy of nostalgia-driven cash grabs by ‘80s and ‘90s alt-rock heroes. Gira, though, was explicit about his intentions in the initial announcement: “THIS IS NOT A REUNION.” After spending thirteen years on other projects (notably the more acoustic-oriented Angels of Light), he simply felt Swans was the best name to use for the music he wanted to make going forward.  And what... Read more...
Swans Loudly Helped Thalia Hall Reach Transcendence (Gapers Block)
By Julian Ramirez It's incredibly hard to prepare for a Swans concert. It makes no difference whether you're familiar with Swans' leader Michael Gira and his experimental post-rock or not. Their live show is consistently visceral experience that tests the very idea of the band and the creation of music. Swans' songs have never been easy to take in as they dredge down to some very scathing and torturous sounds. Despite the inherent harshness, there is a longing for love underlining their existence that somehow become incredibly rewarding the more... Read more...
Swans blow fuse in Grand Rapids, plow ‘terrifying and thrilling’ sonic terrain (Local Spins)
by Brian J. Bowe February 24, 2015 Playing in front of a capacity crowd at The Pyramid Scheme, New York’s legendary post-punkers led by Michael Gira delivered intense, lengthy and improvisational musical pieces. A sold-out crowd packed The Pyramid Scheme on Monday for a dense and intense performance by post-punk legends Swans. Over the course of a two-and-a-half hour show, the sextet built a brutalist edifice of layered sound that was terrifying and thrilling. The group’s musical pieces rarely resemble traditional songs — they’re more sculptural than declaratory. But the... Read more...
SWANS' SENSORY OVERLOAD EVEN BLEW OUT MICHAEL GIRA'S AMP AT TREES (Dallas Observer)
It sounds like cathedral music at first. Then, like modern classical. A drone of swinging chimes and rumbling gong is Swans' overture. Each tone is so exactly measured that, initially, it sounds like stock music pouring forth from the venue speakers. Look closely though, there to the back-left of the Trees stage, and you can see him, or it: a dark figure chipping away at a spectrum of percussion instruments. He looks slight at first, then the shadows slip off his back, revealing a muscled creature like human skin wrapped... Read more...
Enigmatic Instrumentation, Atmospheric Elements Entrance Crowd (Oberlin Review)
Danny Evans, Arts EditorFebruary 27, 2015Filed under ARTS, Music, Recent Stories From the opening moments of their set at Cleveland’s Beachland Ballroom and Tavern Wednesday night, Swans made it clear that they did not plan on granting their audience a standard concert experience. The New York post-punk veterans, who performed for nearly three hours but only played six songs, started so quietly that attendees didn’t even register they had begun and utilized everything from a hammer dulcimer to wind chimes to a homemade viola in pursuit of auditory devastation. Clearly,... Read more...
Swans at Le National
If You’re Hearing This, You’re Already Dead On Thursday night, I went to see Swans. It was a viciously cold evening, snowing like hell, the wind whipping up and making my eyes water as I marched against the wind tunnel that is Ste. Catherine St., making my way toward Le National. My fingers were actually blue by the time I stumbled in the doors, I was greeted by a nose bleed as soon as I hit the wall of steamy heat inside. I sighed, and bought a drink. It was... Read more...
Concert Review: Swans and Xylouris White @ The Phoenix – Toronto (A Music Blog, Yea?)
I had certain expectations when I walked into the Phoenix concert theater on Friday, with Swans as the headliner I had prepared myself for a fairly loud evening. As I made it past the coat check I heard music that I wasn’t prepared for… klezmer music. Passing the stage, a large crowd basked in pale white light was gathered listening in relative silence to Xylouris White. Consisting of drummer Jim White and virtuoso Cretan laouto (lute) player George Xylouris, the the duo played a mix of jazz, psychedelia, and folk... Read more...
‘Young God’ Author Katherine Faw Morris Interviews Michael Gira of Swans (Flavorwire)
‘Young God’ Author Katherine Faw Morris Interviews Michael Gira of Swans BY JASON DIAMOND MAY 7, 2014 10:15 AM Young God, the debut novel by Katherine Faw Morris, is a dirty book. It’s full of the the kind of grit you can only pick up in the South, and it sticks in your teeth no matter how hard you try and get it out, with its lightning-quick paragraphs that sometimes take up entire pages. It’s a book with this crazy energy and angst, the type that has always made the South (where... Read more...

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