Not to be snarky, but this is so much cooler than a Pavement reunion.
New York industrial legends Swans are, according to band leader Michael Gira’s myspace, officially back and working on a new album. An acoustic demo by Gira of a new Swans song titled ‘Jim’ is up on the band’s myspace, and Gira claims in a blog post that “this, and many other new songs recorded in the same way comprise many of the new (rough versions) of songs under consideration, to be fleshed out on the coming new Swans album.”
Jane Jarboe, who contributed vocals to many of Swans’ classic material is unfortunately not involved, but original guitarist Norman Westberg is, as well as Christophj Hanh (guitarist for mid-period Swans and a member of Gira’s later band Angels of Light), Phil Puleo (percussion on final Swans tour and Angels of Light), Thor Harris (Angels of Light, Shearwater) and Chris Pravdica. There will also be “special guests.”
Swans spent the 1980s dwelling in the same New York scene as Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, and became renowned for their confrontational line shows and heavy duty industrial music. In the late part of the decade Jarboe joined, and the band began to introduce more acoustic instruments into their sound (there’s a fantastic 12″ single of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ from this period that Gira has claimed he regrets). 1989’s The Burning World, the band’s only major label release (on MCA) followed, but was a compromised record and was widely panned.
The 90s saw Swans perfect their pop side, releasing a succession of great full lengths: 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, 1992’s Love of Life, 1995’s Great Annihilator and 1996’s Soundtracks for the Blind. We’d basically recommend them to anyone.
Michael Gira will be self-releasing a CD of the acoustic versions of these Swans songs as well as a DVD of two Gira live shows, as part of a hand-made package titled I Am Not Insane. It will be released in a limited edition of 1000, and sold in order to raise money for the Swans recordings. More information is expected soon at the Young Gods homepage. Angels of Light is temporarily on hold for now.
Not to be snarky, but this is so much cooler than a Pavement reunion.
New York industrial legends Swans are, according to band leader Michael Gira’s myspace, officially back and working on a new album. An acoustic demo by Gira of a new Swans song titled ‘Jim’ is up on the band’s myspace, and Gira claims in a blog post that “this, and many other new songs recorded in the same way comprise many of the new (rough versions) of songs under consideration, to be fleshed out on the coming new Swans album.”
Jane Jarboe, who contributed vocals to many of Swans’ classic material is unfortunately not involved, but original guitarist Norman Westberg is, as well as Christophj Hanh (guitarist for mid-period Swans and a member of Gira’s later band Angels of Light), Phil Puleo (percussion on final Swans tour and Angels of Light), Thor Harris (Angels of Light, Shearwater) and Chris Pravdica. There will also be “special guests.”
Swans spent the 1980s dwelling in the same New York scene as Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, and became renowned for their confrontational line shows and heavy duty industrial music. In the late part of the decade Jarboe joined, and the band began to introduce more acoustic instruments into their sound (there’s a fantastic 12″ cover of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ from this period). 1989’s The Burning World, the band’s only major label release (on MCA) followed, but was a compromised record and was widely panned.
The 90s saw Swans perfect their pop side, releasing a succession of great full lengths: 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, 1992’s Love of Life, 1995’s Great Annihilator and 1996’s Soundtracks for the Blind. We’d basically recommend them to anyone.
Michael Gira will be self-releasing a CD of the acoustic versions of these Swans songs as well as a DVD of two Gira live shows, as part of a hand-made package titled I Am Not Insane. It will be released in a limited edition of 1000, and sold in order to raise money for the Swans recordings. More information is expected soon at the Young Gods homepage.
Angels of Light is temporarily on hold for now.
Not to be snarky, but this is so much cooler than a Pavement reunion.
New York industrial legends Swans are, according to band leader Michael Gira’s myspace, officially back and working on a new album. An acoustic demo by Gira of a new Swans song titled ‘Jim’ is up on the band’s myspace, and Gira claims in a blog post that “this, and many other new songs recorded in the same way comprise many of the new (rough versions) of songs under consideration, to be fleshed out on the coming new Swans album.”
Jane Jarboe, who contributed vocals to many of Swans’ classic material is unfortunately not involved, but original guitarist Norman Westberg is, as well as Christophj Hanh (guitarist for mid-period Swans and a member of Gira’s later band Angels of Light), Phil Puleo (percussion on final Swans tour and Angels of Light), Thor Harris (Angels of Light, Shearwater) and Chris Pravdica. There will also be “special guests.”
Swans spent the 1980s dwelling in the same New York scene as Sonic Youth and Lydia Lunch, and became renowned for their confrontational line shows and heavy duty industrial music. In the late part of the decade Jarboe joined, and the band began to introduce more acoustic instruments into their sound (there’s a fantastic 12″ single of ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ from this period that Gira has claimed he regrets). 1989’s The Burning World, the band’s only major label release (on MCA) followed, but was a compromised record and was widely panned.
The 90s saw Swans perfect their pop side, releasing a succession of great full lengths: 1991’s White Light from the Mouth of Infinity, 1992’s Love of Life, 1995’s Great Annihilator and 1996’s Soundtracks for the Blind. We’d basically recommend them to anyone.
Michael Gira will be self-releasing a CD of the acoustic versions of these Swans songs as well as a DVD of two Gira live shows, as part of a hand-made package titled I Am Not Insane. It will be released in a limited edition of 1000, and sold in order to raise money for the Swans recordings. More information is expected soon at the Young Gods homepage. Angels of Light is temporarily on hold for now.
