The photo above is Kenny Bloggins doing his angry Michael Gira face, exhibited with the gatefold spread of the Can’t Find My Way Home 12″ by Swans. I love this single. It was a going-away gift from punk rock historian Uncle Bill Widener when I moved to Chicago. I like to crank it when I take my relaxation bubble bath, complemented by only the finest sacred oils and incense imported from India. This, among other reasons, inspired a little write-up on Swans.
First, boo’s been into reading rock biographies as of late. In the past month, she’s read memiors by Beatle wives Pattie Boyd and Cynthia Lennon, Clapton by Eric Clapton (not joking about the title), and Everyone’s Fucking: The Fleetwood Mac Story (okay, I am joking about that one). Now she’s in the middle of the new Sonic Youth biography, Goodbye 20th Century by David Browne, which she says is excellent. The first half of the book details Thurston Moore’s relationship(s) with experimental/no-wave luminaries in the New York area, Michael Gira in particular. She was excited to discuss with me all the reasons why Michael Gira, at least at the dawn of the ’80s, was pretty much a doo-doo head, albeit an intriguing one. Secondly, Swans is not recognized nearly enough for being a premiere shoegaze band, and as such, I wish to entertain an argument for this premise. And thirdly, M. Gira’s playing a show this evening in NYC for five binks. All these reasons seemed poignant enough to me to write an entry, so let’s begin, shall we?
Alright, so Michael Gira… not exactly a nice dude. Liked to throw chairs. Liked to administer beatdowns. Liked to drop storefront windows when on an evening stroll. Probably had a portrait of Marquis de Sade above his bed. Liked to act like a general bastard. Say what you will (or what Browne did in the book), Gira remains one of the most remarkably innovative artists of the No Wave era, and arguably, any era. Constantly evolving, keepin’ it loosey goosey (get it? goose? swan? el oh el), and never settling for complacency, Gira is to be respected and feared like the Old Testament God, not liked.
The legacy of Swans, for whatever reason, seems to be entirely encapsulated by their early years. In some ways, I suppose those years are the most sensational, so that can’t be unexpected. Swans started out, and is remembered by many, as an industrial prototype band – a grating, hedonistic, murky, violent outfit inspired by Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, and the Birthday Party (and louder than all three combined). The infamous Suicide show 23 Minutes Over Brussels ended in a riot. A whole lot of Swans shows ended in the same fashion. Skip to the part in this interview where Gira discusses the “Nitsch Performance.” Four to six hours of radness.
Swans are still constantly compared to noise and no wave groups on All Music and similar music data banks, despite the fact that Swans evolved a lot over the ’80s. By the early ’90s, Swans were completely unrecognizable. In part, such a trajectory can be traced to the moment when the mystic Jarboe rolled through and mellowed their shit out. However, it’s also obvious that Gira likes a wide variety of music, and opted to tweak the output of Swans to match what was most sonically interesting to him at any particular moment. Gira loved to experiment: “I used to make tape loops of grinding metal, a baby crying, slowed down, low-frequency synth noise, distorted screams, etc., and I’d put, say, a half-hour of each of these loops on its own cassette. Then, in the rehearsal space I had on 6th Street in NYC, I’d give each cassette its own tape player and hook each tape player up to its own SVT bass set-up, with the amps arranged in a circle, pointing inward, and I’d play the tapes at full volume, with me standing in the middle of it as the loops bombarded me.”
Which brings us to my favorite Swans album, The Great Annihilator. This is a shoegaze album, for all intents and purposes. Sure, there are traces of classic Swans in tracks like “I Am the Sun,” but swirly guitars, melodic vocal chants, seductive and silky textures – all that shoegazey shit – saturate the vast majority of Swans 12th proper release. “Warm,” for my money, is the apex of The Great Annihilator, and the reason why I get annoyed when Swans are packaged simply as a batshit crazy no wave group. I mean, they were, but only for a few years.
The mercurial Gira kept busy post-Swans, forming the excellent freak and psych folk collective The Angels of Light (who are renowned for amazing album covers as well). I’m including, for your consideration, “Song For Nico” from How I Loved You. Gira keeps his eyes on the folk prize with his label Young God Records, and probably goes camping with Devendra. So to bring the point back home again, labeling Gira or Swans as a particular ideal is quite short-sighted. I mean, dude went from a deadpan nihilist who liked to cover himself in animal blood to the friendly cowboy next door who refers to people as “folks.”
Gira’s not the only one who made a 360. Swans drummer Jonathan Kane released a swampy electric blues album three years ago titled February. I saw him open for guitar orchestra conductor Rhys Chatham. Despite how awesome it was to meet Kane, and how friendly and courteous he was, his meandering blues canticles are akin to a quote from James Ingram in Yacht Rock #11: “mellow, but not smooth… kinda shitty.” Still, such a startling change is exciting to see in music, considering that stagnation tends to be the modus operandi.
Anyway, back to Gira and his cowboy hats… you lucky New Yorkers (well, somewhat lucky… you dudes do pay, like what, $2500 a month to rent closet spaces) get to see Michael Gira play an intimate and informal last minute show at The Stone for only $5 USD, if you want it. The Arthur blog posted this message from Mr. G:
“Hello Folks, At the request of my old friend Jim Thirlwell, I’ll be playing a solo acoustic set for the final set of his month long programming of shows at The Stone in NYC Tuesday September 30 at 10 PM.
“My set will include 2 new songs (maybe a 3rd – I’m working on it), the Swans song ‘I Crawled’ from 1984 (ridiculous to play this song on acoustic guitar, but I think it works somehow) as well as various Angels of Light and other Swans songs.
I hope to see you there. In keeping with the informality of this show, I’ve asked that the admission be $5.”
I can’t go, being in a different time zone and all. So I’ll put on a Swans record or two and drop some windows instead. Sounds like a swell evening to me.
MP3 :::
Swans – Warm
The Angels of Light – Song For Nico
