Even hilarious at parts, I find myself bursting out laughing at how fucked up it is. How far off the wagon am I, is there any salvation left for me?
Both of these album sound unique, and feels really underappreciated. Welp, might as well post this. What do you think is your favorite song out of these two?
Mine is:
Greed / Time is Money: Fool and Money is Flesh
Holy Money / A Screw: Fool (#2) and A Screw (Holy Money)
Gira posted this almost two months ago.
For reference, I love their tracks 'God Damn the Sun' and 'Love Will Save You', so whilst amenable to all types, this is my preferred vibe.
Thanks!
Obviously most of the oeuvre wouldn’t fall in the category of traditional love songs lol - the only song I could think of would be Blackmail. Anyone better versed in the discog have more ideas?
Michael Gira, frontman of the band Swans.
He and Madonna briefly dated in the early 1980s in New York. At the time, Madonna was living and playing in a band with early Swans members Dan and Josh Braun.
As a massive fan of both, I’m spiraling down a rabbit hole trying to connect the dots regarding her track L.E.S. Girl; The song bio for L.E.S. Girl notes that it recounts Madonna's days as a Lower East Side girl experiencing a coming of age and falling in love in New York. In an interview with The Independent, she mentions living in an abandoned synagogue in Queens and breaking up with a boyfriend because he wouldn't let her be the singer in the band.
We know that during the early 1980s, Madonna was living and playing in a band with early Swans members Dan and Josh Braun. I am 100% convinced it is about Michael Gira.
Here is the evidence:
Take a look at the excerpt from Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore's memoir; He explicitly confirms the romance, writing: "Michael Gira was delighted, if not a little surprised, to share with us that he had a little bit of a thing going on with this buzzing sprite... Madonna moseyed over to where we all were to sit on Michael's lap". Moore later notes that the dalliance was short-lived and that they later drifted apart because they felt "too cool" for her pop music as she blew up into a global superstar.
In the Interview Magazine, Madonna openes up further about this specific relationship: "This guy I was dating who was a musician and I was in love with, was really an archetype. But I’m not going to say his name. If he had a Marlon Brando face, he’s hot. Who’s hotter than Marlon Brando?" If you look at photos of a young Michael Gira from the early '80s, he absolutely possessed EXACTLY that Marlon Brando archetype Madonna is talking about.
Knowing Gira's incredibly intense, uncompromising, and dark artistic persona, it makes complete sense why a relationship with someone as fiercely ambitious and pop-oriented as Madonna would be explosive and short-lived.
It honestly pains me to think about it. As a fan of both artists, imagining Madonna looking back decades later on her time with Gira with such a bittersweet, contemplative fondness, especially immortalizing it on a track like L.E.S. Girl, is breaking me.
Again this is just my dumb theory, and hopefully it'll land somewhere, loveee
I swear to Gira himself, everytime I put on Holy Money and hear A Hanging it gives me goosebumps. As a big fan of Industrial this album just clicks for me. The desperation and despondency in the vocals, the raw harsh guitars and foreboding percussion throughout the tracks really is something.
The "Currency Duo", I feel, always gets overlooked when talking about SWANS studio output. And if someone has something nice to say about it, it's always GREED that gets the praise. deservedly so, sure – but where's the love for HOLY MONEY? What do you guys think? Any standout tracks? Any parts that tickles your pickle?
Swans haven't always played a lot of their material live from what i have investigated, but if they had all the resources to make your favorite songs played live, what would those songs be?
Personally i really wished they played such incredible songs from white light, many of them were not played until 92 with love of life, but the majority of the songs where obviously from that album an other pieces from skin and early TGA songs.
The same i could say for TGA, the album was not really toured and the songs were played being in between a setlist full of of SFTB songs.
On the other line i think that if they had all the resources, hearing the 2012 to 2016 albums would be an absolute experience...
I've been a metal head since I was a kid in the 80's, especially extreme metal. fast forward to Hastings Books & Music, mid 90's, their used CD section.. I find SWANS - Cop/Young God on CD.. and I remembered seeing one of the dude's from NYC's Crisis wearing a Swans shirt and I love them, so I picked it up... first thought that went through my head upon the maiden listen... "Wow, I understand the other part of the influence on Godflesh, Neurosis & Dead World" ..
I sadly got into them at the very end of their first era, but have been fortunate enough to see them live during the next era ..and so it seems, their third era now ..
It was for a college project, it is quite swanny i think, hopefully not too much though since im not a swan im just a guy. Also the name i stole from swans sorry michael
Mine is probably sensitive skin
I love that scratchy sorta sound throughout the whole track
I've really begun to love this album, but I've always wondered if there is a specific meaning to some of the movie samples chosen. Example being pt.3 and the dialog of the deer hunting, and the second half of Her. I absolutely love the first half of Her with Gira singing and have always wished for a second verse, so I'm curious to note if this specific dialog is important to the theme of the album.
Would appreciate it if you checked it out.
Letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/film/the-nine-muses-for-albion/
i’ve been trying to get more into swans and decided to listen to The Seer on a road trip. i fell asleep (dw im not driving lmao) but not fully asleep, like the kinda sleep where your half awake. but either way i was having literal pipe dreams
and then the title track came on and the drone scared me awake 😭😭
don’t recommend sleeping to this album
Super happy with this absolute bargain, I love this album and it's so hard to find on physical media for a good price so I definitely got lucky with this purchase. What do you guys think of the album/The Angels Of Light as a whole?
