PRESS
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Pop Matters: The Seer Guides Us to Be Kind: Ten Great Songs by Swans 2.0
() - Michael Gira, SWANS
The Seer Guides Us to Be Kind: Ten Great Songs by Swans 2.0 Michael Gira was not making a mere semantic distinction when, following the announcements in 2010 that Swans would be coming out with a new album, he insisted that the group convened to makeMy Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope to the Sky would be a reconstitution, not a reunion. To those diehard fans of the innovative rock outfit that waited 14 years following 1996’sSoundtracks for the Blind, Gira’s words were—and still are—appropriately sage. While there are characteristics of what might be called “Swans 1.0” that remain in “Swans 2.0”—namely punishing walls of sound, expansive track lengths, and grim subject matter—the music Gira and his band of volume torturers have been making since Rope to the Sky is of a class all its own. Following the concise 44 minute runtime of Rope to the Sky, Swans decided to go full-hog, churning out two slabs of rock and roll at its most brutalizing: 2012’s The Seerand the recently released To Be Kind. At two hours each, these records provide listeners with a lot to be entertained by—but, like anything, there’s a price. When I spoke with Gira about To......
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The Crack magazine: Swans
() - Michael Gira, SWANS
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Entertainment.ie 'To Be Kind' Review | 5 Stars
() - SWANS
Who could have seen this coming? Thirty two years since they first emerged as the enfants terribles of the New York music scene, Swans have just delivered the year's most uncompromising, thundering and blindingly brilliant album so far. Nothing even comes close to this; To Be Kind is two hours of music of gut-wrenching intensity, a series of never-ending peaks that take the rudiments of rock music and summons up something that is strikingly original. With To Be Kind, Michael Gira and his cohorts have delivered an album that surpasses their critically acclaimed 2012 release The Seer in all respects. The days when listening to a Swans record was something of a masochistic experience, a brutal form of aural punishment are long gone; To Be Kind is arguably their most accessible album while still challenging and demanding more from the listener than any other rock band would dare to. It's a record that requires patience - two hours of music spread over just ten tracks with every minute resonating with a clarity of purpose and a vibrancy beyond the capabilities of most contemporary rock acts. Michael Gira turned sixty this year; it is incredible to think that he is still making albums as edgy......
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Live in Limbo Podcast with Michael Gira
() - Michael Gira, SWANS
Michael Gira is the founding member of Swans. After three decades of challenging music of which remains entirely humanistic in nature. In 2010, Swans returned to the music scene and created three albums, each earning more acclaim than the last. With their 2014 release “To Be Kind” they continue on this track with high praise from the likes of NME, Spin and Pitchfork. The Needle Drop’s Anthony Fantano gave “To Be Kind” a perfect rating, while LiL gave it a 9.7/10 On knowing when a track is right. Hint, it’s never right! Why “To Be Kind” clicks with today’s generation and society Gira listened to the first Jimmy Hendrix album on acid Performing at NXNE with St. Vincent and collaborating with her Gira highly recommends listening to Savages Follow link to find podcast recording: http://www.liveinlimbo.com/2014/06/12/capsule/capsule-33-swans.html...
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Swans Live at Cockpit | Leeds Music Scene
() - SWANS
It starts with the crashing of symbols before being joined by squealing pedal steel and distorted bass so loud you can feel your eyelids vibrating before finally gargantuan waves of doom-laden guitar join the fray. Things continue in this vein for the next ten minutes and in that time there is hardly a sound you would describe as music produced by the five faintly terrifying musicians (actually the bassist looks like your favourite hipster English teacher, which makes you wonder how he got mixed up in all this craziness) stalking the stage and yet there is something beguiling and hypnotic in the belligerence that is emanating from the stage.This then is the Swans live experience and it is all conducted by one Michael Gira, the uncompromising leader of the band for the past 35 years. For the most part his leadership consists mainly of instructing the band to play louder, which they do without question or hesitation no matter what their audiologists might have advised. A notoriously forbidding and prickly personality the singer has, before the first song has come to its shuddering conclusion, barked incomprehensible messages into the microphone, danced like someone enduring a voodoo exorcism and aimed a kick and......