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Louder Than War Profile
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Swans wins Hardest Working Band Award AIM Awards
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http://thequietus.com/articles/18724-watch-swans-aim-awards WATCH: Swans AIM Awards Christian Eede , September 9th, 2015 09:00 Michael Gira accepts award for Hardest Working Band or Artist from AIM; watch his acceptance speech below This year's AIM Independent Music Awards took place last night celebrating the work of independent musicians and labels. Among the night's winners were Skepta for Outstanding Contribution to Music, FKA twigs for Independent Track of the Year with 'Two Weeks' and Young Fathers for Best 'Difficult' Second Album. Also victorious on the night were Swans picking up the Hardest Working Band or Artist Award. Unfortunately, Michael Gira and co. couldn't be present at last night's ceremony - perhaps they were too busy working to attend - so above you can watch a masked Gira accept the award with a video message in his absence. Gira recently announced that the next Swans studio album would be the last from the group in its current incarnation with future projects to take on a different, as yet unconfirmed shape. Swans are also currently using a crowdfunding method to fund the recording and production of that next studio album by releasing a live album entitled The Gate. You can find out more information about......
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NME live review
() - M. Gira, Michael Gira, NME, SWANS, to be kind, young god
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SWANS PUNISH A SOLD-OUT CROWD AT WARSAW IN GREENPOINT (Village Voice)
() - M. Gira, Michael Gira, SWANS, young god
Better Than: Standing in front of a sputtering jet engine. On Friday night at Warsaw (261 Driggs Avenue) in Greenpoint, Swans performed to a sold-out crowd of masochists, who seemed to welcome the punishing drone as though it were candy. Many in the crowd wisely wore earplugs. The sheer volume of Swans easily overpowered anyone who was silly enough to forget their pair at home. Speaking in purely referential terms, only My Bloody Valentine is louder. But while My Bloody Valentine's legendary 20-minute dissonant noise-pummeling takes place in the middle of "You Made Me Realise," Swans maintained that level of intensity for their two-hour set, giving in only occasionally for Michael Gira to scat-sing or for the band to transition between songs. Opening for Swans was the Brooklyn-based black-metal quartet Liturgy. Having recently reunited again as a four-piece band, their sound was crisp and cohesive. Notably absent from Liturgy's performance was Hunter Hunt-Hendrix's high-pitched screaming; instead the vocals resembled Gregorian chants, perhaps if Kurt Cobain took up the cassock. Though the abrupt change in vocal style was hinted at on the recorded version of "Glass Earth", there was a conspicuous sense of confusion among the crowd for a moment when......
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Los Angeles Times Live Review
() - Michael Gira, SWANS, young god
Like the opening moment of a meditation session, the rock band Swans commenced the first of two sold-out nights at the Roxy in West Hollywood with the ringing of a gong. The gesture, driven with delicate mallet bumps by multi-instrumentalist Thor Harris, was a signal, a directive to the packed club on Wednesday: You are here. Turn off those noisy machines inside your skulls and in your pockets and focus on the Now. Over the next few minutes, the tone gained heft, a kind of thickness, and one by one the five other Swans appeared, grabbed an instrument and started adding to the hum. What grew from electric guitars, a yowling lap steel, bass and percussion evolved into a heaving mass, one that seemed to sway as it gained volume. Ten minutes in, this hum, still lacking a basic rock rhythm, was a cascading rumble of harmonic overtones, feedback and echo, like a locomotive on looped tracks whooshing by again and again at full speed. It was awesome, and it only grew from there. At the middle was the imposing Michael Gira, 60, statuesque with a carved face, stringy shoulder-length hair, an intense presence girded by a spiritual devotion to......