PRESS

May 19, 2014

Rarely, if ever, is a band afforded as much praise, opinion, reverence – and time – as M. Gira’s Swans. Praise because more often than not they deserve it; opinion because more often than not different people hear different things in the music; reverence because there’s a significant lack of bands with such a monstrous catalogue (possibly only Nick Cave trumps Gira’s band in hit-to-miss ratio); time because, well, their last two records have – for better or worse – seemed to go on for an age. At some point when you’re listening... Read more...

Time Out London | "To Be Kind" Review

May 19, 2014

The New York noise veterans have created an awe-inspiring monster of a triple album – again When apocalyptic alt rock warriors Swans toured around the release of 2012’s monolithic triple album ‘The Seer’, one might conceivably have expected them to play a bunch of tracks from 2012’s monolithic triple album ‘The Seer’.But such petty concerns as ‘promotion’ do not bother band lynchpin Michael Gira, a granite crag of a man who gives every impression that he was in this world before the dawn of history and will continue playing thunderously... Read more...

The 405 "To Be Kind" Review

May 19, 2014

Taken at face value, you probably have to assume that the name Swans was chosen at least as a non-sequitur and likely, more deliberately, as an ironic counterpoint to the racket that Michael Gira's men actually made. How poignant, then, that it would actually come to evince some genuine validity in the band's later years; their 'reactivation' - Gira doesn't like the connotations of the word 'reunion' - has seen them carry themselves with such grace, such elegance, that you wonder why anybody guilty of resurrecting their old outfit purely for financial... Read more...

Guardian Guide | Swans Feature

May 19, 2014

Pitchfork "To Be Kind": Best New Music

May 19, 2014

Swans were hardly the first 1980s underground-rock fixtures to resurface in the new millennium, and they’re not the only ones who've resisted the nostalgic trappings of reunion tours to make a respectable showing as a rebooted recording act. But they are the rare band of their vintage who seem less concerned with living up to or building upon a past legacy than establishing a completely different one. In retrospect, the 14 years that elapsed between 1996’sSoundtracks for the Blind and 2010’s My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky were less a break-up-induced hiatus... Read more...

"Swans’ Michael Gira is Searching for God" | Wondering Sound Interview

May 19, 2014

When Swans emerged from the white heat of New York’s no wave scene 32 years ago, they sounded like nothing else. There were fellow travelers — groups like Sonic Youth and Mars, or contemporary composers like Glenn Branca — who shared their passion for dense, layered sound and extreme, ecstatic volume. But Swans’ leader Michael Gira was his own beast. By day a construction worker hauling concrete and girders, at night he turned into a sort of mad monk, taking the stage barefoot, tearing at his clothing and laying himself supplicant in... Read more...

eMusic "To Be Kind" Review

May 19, 2014

Charging ahead for two-plus hours with no apologies or concessions For nearly two hours, To Be Kind — the third album since 2010 from the reconstituted epic aggression syndicate, Swans — tests its audience’s limits by pressing its own boundaries. There is the Pentecostal burn of opener “Screenshot,” in which Michael Gira snaps out a series of edicts — “No need! No hate! No will! No speech!” — as though infractions are punishable by torture. The drums of “Oxygen” push like heavy fists through sheets of distortion and dissonance. During the 34-minute... Read more...

Crack Magazine Swans Feature | Interview with Michael Gira

May 19, 2014

“INTOLERANT, UNCOMPROMISING AND WEARISOME” – SWANS’ MICHAEL GIRA ATTEMPTS TO CONTROL THE MAELSTROM “I’m on a cliff that is crumbling”, a dogged voice recounts from an earlier conversation. “You have to hang on as long as you can.” The doleful croak trails to crisp silence until a gentle resemblance to laughter recoils around the room. Michael Gira, world-weary impetus behind Swans, may not have the most sanguine of mindsets, but the gristly wit is instantly discernible. As adverse and cankerous as this multifaceted musician is penned to be, it’s within... Read more...

Clash Magazine Essential Albums | Swans "To Be Kind"

May 19, 2014