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Creative Loafing Jarboe Interview / Atlanta Show Preview
Former Swans collaborator Jarboe reflects on Michael Gira’s influence, Atlanta’s place in the group’s history, and staying positive Jarboe joins Swans tonight (Fri., July 22) at Terminal West. CHAD RADFORD JULY 22, 2016 Swans are on the road, playing songs from the group's latest album, The Glowing Man. It's the last stand for the current incarnation of the group. On July 21, word spread that former Swans collaborator and longtime Atlanta resident Jarboe is making an appearance with the group tonight (Fri., July 22), at Terminal West, singing the World... Read more...
Blurt Glowing Man Review
SWANS – The Glowing ManAlbum: The Glowing ManArtist: SwansLabel: Young God Release Date: June 17, 2016 The Upshot: Two-disc culmination of the direction the band has taken since its reactivation seven years ago, stripping Michael Gira’s lyric themes to the core amid colossal walls of sound. BY MICHAEL TOLAND If you’re gonna announce that your latest album is the last by this particular iteration of your band, you better have something special on your hands. Fortunately, Michael Gira does with The Glowing Man, the fourteenth album by his band Swans... Read more...
Nakid Magazine NY Show Review
SWANS: ‘THE AGONY OF MICHAEL GIRA’ LIVE IN NYCText + photography by: A.F. CORTES Every Swans show seems like a masochistic ordeal of sonic survival. Michael Gira and company are on a mission to annihilate the audiences’ ears with a constant repetition of monotonous riffs at the decibels of a volcano’s explosion. But, as in any dysfunctional relationship, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.   In this iteration the band feels heavier in layered melodies and lighter in percussion. The first noticeable element was the absence of the... Read more...
Scotsman Concert Review
Gig review: SwansAmerican noise rock pioneers Swans have been blowing minds and blowing speakers on and off for the past 30 years, but their current tour will be the final one for the band in its present incarnation – one which includes a charismatic man called Thor on dulcimer. Oran Mor, Glasgow **** They are an imposing bunch in many ways – their grizzled sage of a frontman Michael Gira has cult leader potential while the rest of this band of warhorses are cut from similar cloth to Nick Cave’s... Read more...
Spiegel Swans in Hamburg Feature
Swans live in HamburgBOOM! BOOM! BOOM! Keine Band ist live lauter: Die Swans sind seit über 30 Jahren berüchtigt für Konzerte an der Schmerzgrenze. Bald werden sie von der Bühne verschwinden. Zeit, sich noch einmal ihrem Lärm zu stellen. Um die Liveauftritte der Swans ranken sich Legenden. Es geht dabei meistens um die infernalische Lautstärke, die immer wieder Menschen im Publikum in die Ohnmacht gezwungen haben soll. Einmal, das war in den Achtzigerjahren, hat die Band in London angeblich in einem kleinen Club eine Musikanlage aufgebaut, die gereicht hätte, um... Read more...
Get In To This Interview
Michael Gira – “I’m just an amoeba prodded by a pin on a tray under a microscope” – death, time and the future of Swans Michael Gira of Swans sat down with Getintothis’ Rick Leach to chat about the approaching cataclysm of death, the impossiblity of time and whether or not he is into sport.  It seemed somehow appropriate, in an odd sort of way, that Getintothis were speaking with Michael Gira, founder and driving force behind Swans, on the very day that the Rosetta space probe was being deliberately... Read more...
Louder Than War Interview
INTERVIEW : Swans talk in depth on eve of UK tour Written by johnrobb8 October, 2016 Swans tour the UK this week – we are hoping to the show at the Ritz in manchester on Sunday but there are other shows…all details and tickets from here Swansong! (Of a sort) The mighty Swans are just about to end one of the most creative cycles in rock history, the band whose last four albums have stretched music into stunning, visceral and hypnotic shapes are about to throw everything in the air... Read more...
The DA Glowing Man Review
U92 on the review: Swans' "The Glowing Man" by Nick Koban-Hogue Swans, in their current form, are finished.  Four studio albums in total constitute the second chapter of the post-rock group’s career, and these albums have all been critically acclaimed. Thankfully, “The Glowing Man” lives up to the high standard set by the previous three, and the band's career as a whole.  Fortunately, frontman Michael Gira said Swans will continue in another form with a higher focus on collaborations. In its original form, Swans was raw.  The group's simplistic and... Read more...
Impose Interview
MICHAEL GIRA of SWANS TALKS MUSIC, PROCESS, AND INSANE ENERGY LEVELS “I’m comatose from having been on tour essentially for seven weeks.” by MEREDITH SCHNEIDER  Swans has existed – in some form or another – since 1982. In its early inception, the music project was praised as unique avant-rock/post-punk sounds, and held that description to some extent through the band’s breakup in 1997. In 2010, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira – the founding member of, and creative force behind, Swans – decided to make the project a living, breathing work... Read more...
Rawckus Glowing Man Review
SWANS - THE GLOWING MAN MUSIC, REVIEWSSBY ERIC KOENIG Surrendering to powers greater than yourself is terrifying and ecstatic; once you do, you are opened to a whole universe of possibility, in all its enormity. With The Glowing Man, Swans and band leader Michael Gira have finally given full surrender to their musical impulses and released a powerful culmination of their career—and my album of the year. It is, to make a horrible pun, their swansong. Announced as the last album of this incarnation of Swans, The Glowing Man feels... Read more...

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