Swans Releasing New 2 CD Studio Album: Fall Tour Dates
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Howlin' Wuelf Media
Dear Greg
Swans will be undertaking their first round of North American touring celebrating the August 28 release of the 2 CD set The Seer, the second new studio album from Swans since their reactivation by band primum mobile Michael Gira in 2010 after a 14 year hiatus. The touring line-up is: Michael Gira - guitar, voice (original Swans); Norman Westberg - guitar (original Swans); Christoph Hahn - guitar (mid period Swans and most Angels Of Light); Phil Puleo - drums, percussion, dulcimer etc etc (final Swans tour and most Angels); Chris Pravdica - bass and gadgets (Flux Information Sciences / Services/ Gunga Din); Thor Harris - drums, percussion, vibes, dulcimer, curios, keys, etc etc... (Angels / Shearwater). Opening act on all dates is Xiu Xiu. I'm hoping you'll consider advancing this show with a feature, CD review or advance blurb. The Seer was recorded by the touring line-up at Studio P4 and Andere Baustelle in Berlin, by Kevin McMahon and at Marcata Studio, Gardiner, NY, by Kevin McMahon. Additional recording was done at Trout Recording, Brooklyn, NY, engineered by Bryce Goggin. The album was mixed by Kevin McMahon at Marcata, produced by Michael Gira. Gira says of the new album, "The Seer took 30 years to make. It's the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I've ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it's unfinished, like the songs themselves. It's one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade. The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they'll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while. Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I'm a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy! "
Oh man, this thing is a doozy. A merciless two hours of pummeling Glenn Branca-esque metal and desolate tumbleweed doom from the recharged alt-noise legends, spanning two CDs or three pieces of vinyl. The massive guest list could be a summer preview in itself: Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker of Low, classic Swans sparring partner Jarboe, and the whole damn Akron/Family on background vocals. Christopher Weingarten/Spin.com 6/26
... He has become a folk hero, essentially, to a coalition of musicians from indie-rock to grindcore to electronic composition, from million-selling bands to metal and the art-pop underground. Tool, Neurosis, Big Black, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Godflesh, Xiu Xiu, Battles - bands and musicians to whom power relationships and confrontation in sound verge on philosophy or religion. Perhaps the spectrum is so wide because Mr. Gira isn't part of any particular musical tradition. Literary, artistic, maybe...Ben Ratliff/Sunday New York Times 9/5
...Though he forged a reputation for punishing live shows in the 1980s, blasting audiences at downtown venues such as the Mudd Club, Mr. Gira gradually steered Swans from the Stygian to the sublime... The songs that he finally put together for the album are richly imagined and painstakingly executed, evoking everything from campfire songs to the dissonant ritual horns of avant-garde Viennese composer Hermann Nitsch. There's a colorful dynamic range, darkly poetic lyrics that reach from the gutter to the stars, and a kaleidoscopic piece called, in true Gira fashion, "You F---ing People Make Me Sick," which features guest vocals from singer Devendra Banhart, whom Mr. Gira signed to his label in 2002... then they leaned into a swirling, relentless piece of music that started loud and grew exceptionally louder, an overlay of guitars, bass and percussion generating a mysterious cloud of overtones, floating above a vertiginous drone. Mr. Gira, who eschews cochlear protection himself, intoned the lyrics in a baritone a bit north of Johnny Cash as the drums crashed concussively... Steve Dollar/Wall Street Journal 10/6
Michael Gira founded the seminal NYC band Swans in 1982. Quickly infamous for their punishing, brutal and repetitive onslaughts of sound, extreme volume levels, and the self- abusing, abject shouts and growls of Gira's sloganeering vocals, Swans gradually transformed over 15 years, ultimately venturing into harsh mechanical proto-industrial rock, to sprawling shifts of texture and perspective (see the bucolic atmospheric folk idles and martial stomps of their much heralded Children of God double LP from 1987), to gentle acoustic-based songs, and finally on to their ultimate statement, Soundtracks For The Blind (1997) which somehow incorporated all of these elements at once, across well over 2 hours of music in one album. At this point, Gira called it quits after 15 years of relentless touring and productivity, and disbanded Swans. Since 1999 Gira has released his music under the name Angels Of Light. He also produced and released music through his label Young God Records. He's been responsible for such notable talents as Devendra Banhart, Lisa Germano, Akron/Family, and James Blackshaw. http://www.myspace.com/younggodrecords http://www.myspace.com/swansaredead http://younggodrecords.com/home/658457004524-the-seer-cd
SWANS North American Tour Dates - +A Hawk and A Hacksaw supports 0/10/2012, New York, NY, Bowery Ballroom+ 10/11/2012, Boston, MA, Paradise Rock Club+ 10/12/2012, Washington, DC, Black Cat Mainstage+ 10/13/2012, Philadelphia, PA, Union Transfer+ 10/14/2012, Raleigh, NC, Lincoln Theatre+ 10/16/2012, Orlando, FL, The Social+ 10/17/2012, West Palm Beach, FL, Respectable Street+ 10/18/2012, Tallahassee, FL, Club Downunder+ 10/19/2012, Atlanta, GA, Terminal West+ 10/20/2012, Charlotte, NC, Tremont Music Hall+ 10/21/2012, Knoxville, TN, Valarium Club+ 10/23/2012, St Louis, MO, Firebird+ 10/24/2012, Chicago, IL, Metro+ 10/25/2012, Toronto, ON, Lee's Palace+ 10/26/2012, Montreal, QC, La Tulipe+ 10/28/2012, New York, Ny Bowery Ballroom w/ Devendra Banhart solo 10/29/2012, Brooklyn, NY Music Hall Williamsburg w/ Devendra Banhart solo Howard Wuelfing Howlin' Wuelf Media 215-428-9119 http://howlinwuelf.com/ http://www.youtube.com/user/howlinwuelf http://howlinwuelf.blogspot.com/
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