PRESS
-
Lisa Germano | Review
()
Pittsburgh Post Gazette | Ed Masley Songwriter Lisa Germano puts honesty first Friday, June 20, 2003Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic In "Nobody's Playing," the melancholy opener to "Lullaby for Liquid Pig," Lisa Germano rhymes "places to drown" with "all that you feel is you're going down." Other songs on one of this year's more unsettling treasures deal with addiction both to alcohol and friends. Germano knows this kind of effort isn't "everybody's cup of tea." That doesn't bother her. What bothers her is the people who like it but find it depressing or dark. "I want it to be something that you feel good to listen to," she says. "I don't want it to be hard. I just think it depends what you're going through. If you're going through some of these things, I don't know if you'd feel devastated as much as you would go, 'Gosh, other people feel this way.' I always think of it as being a little more uplifting, actually, to know that other people are dealing with some stuff." The key, she says, is to actually listen to the record. "I just think it's kind of a tough thing to take the time to listen to," Germano says. "And I don't mean......
-
Michael Gira | Interview
()
Sex and Guts Magazine | Mark ReynoldsMichael’s White HandsMichael Gira has occupied a very dark corner in rock music—if you can even still call it that once it drifts into these sinister alcoves—for two decades. Fifteen years of that were as the frontman for a band called Swans. If you don’t know that name, go and educate yourself posthaste, as you’ve got a lot of history to catch up on. Suffice it to say that this band witnessed more musical (and personnel) growth than any band to spring from New York’s noisy No Wave scene of the early 80’s and turned and burned countless ears over the course of the beautiful and bad trip. In 1997, Gira killed Swans, absolving himself of the baggage associated with that name in order to effectively start anew. If anything, this move opened the floodgates—since then, he has recorded no less than ten albums under his own name and such monikers as Angels of Light and Body Lovers. He has produced albums by the likes of U.S. Maple and Larsen, and he continues to spread various gospels via his increasingly prolific record label, Young God Records, which has released albums by Calla, Flux Information......
-
Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home
()
EVILSPONGE.ORG | by KharybdisThe music requires your attention. It seizes it, and doesn’t let goWhen I sat down 2 months ago (Brendan’s going to skin me) to review the newest Angels of Light album, Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home, I thought it was going to be a simple task. After all, I have a deep appreciation for all things Gira, though more unkind folks might deem the level of my interest unhealthy. But what’s important is that I’m familiar with the man’s work. I’ve enjoyed the tribal/industrial bludgeoning of Cop and Body to Body/Job to Job from the early Swans. I absolutely revel in the layered, damp swath of The Great Annihilator and Soundtracks for the Blind. I blazed through Gira’s text, The Consumer, and slipped into overwhelmed sleep listening to The Body Lovers. And when Angels of Light released New Mother and How I Loved You, I devoured these gems, embracing the new direction in which Michael Gira was taking his music. So, I figured I could jump right into the new album, immerse myself in it, and have a thoughtful review done in a few days. Man, was I wrong. The thing is this: I couldn’t pick......
-
Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home
()
Performing Songwriter Magazine | by CLAY STEAKLEYIt’s weird and beautiful and greatMoody, plodding and strangely moving, Swans founder and all-around musical badass Michael Gira and friends in The Angels of Light have fashioned a piece of independent rock brilliance in Everything Is Good Here. Part Joy Division, part Lou Reed, part choir from hell, this record is somehow melodic and anti-melodic at the same time. With tunes like “Kosinski†touching on something between U2 and Peter Murphy and other broken, darkness-tinged songs like “The Family God†evoking Leonard Cohen, this record is as far-reaching in its sonic character as it is in emotion. It calls to mind Will Oldham and Lambchop, but more focused than the former and more ambitious than the latter. It’s weird and beautiful and great....
-
Devendra Banhart, Oh Me Oh My...
()
noreasterzine.com | by Antonia SantangeloInterviewDevendra Banhart is an odd fellow with a unique voice. A musician, painter and poet, this graduate of The San Francisco Art Institute has been compared to everyone from Nick Drake to Tiny Tim. Currently living in suspicious New York City quarters, Devendra is promoting his 22-track debut entitled, Oh Me Oh My…The Way Goes By The Sun Is Setting Dogs Are Dreaming Lovesongs Of The Christmas Spirit. A musical stream of consciousness, the disc released on Michael Gira’s Young God label captures Devendra’s raw flair. Oh Me Oh My… demonstrates different sides of Banhart’s vocal approach, ranging from the shrill vibrato of “Nice Peopleâ€, the untamed, yet soft whispers of ‘Charles C Leary†to the temperate folk number “A Gentle Soulâ€. Upon first listen, one may be concerned that their player is acting up, but this disc was recorded on faulty, broken down equipment –which actually gives the work an additional sense of style, tape fuzz and all. After enjoying the album, I was given the chance via noreasterzine to sit and have a talk with the artist, but things didn't go quite as I had planned. The face-to-face opportunity was shattered by the mother......