Audio By Carbonatix
“SWANS ARE NOT DEAD.” That was the post on Michael Gira’s MySpace page in 2010, stating plainly the guitarist/singer/songwriter’s intent to resurrect his old group, which emerged in the early 1980s from the same New York no-wave scene that spawned kindred noise-rock spirits Sonic Youth before disbanding in 1997. Since re-forming, Swans (with a lineup that includes longtime guitarist Norman Westberg, but, notably, not mainstay keyboardist/vocalist Jarboe) have released three records, all to critical praise: 2010’s My Father Will Guide Us Up a Rope to the Sky; this year’s live album, We Rose From Your Bed With the Sun in Our Head; and the sprawling two-disc set The Seer, an album Gira claims was thirty years in the making — and one that plays like the culmination of his lifelong obsessions with sex, violence, anger and depravity, as well as relentless musical experimentation.
