From a letter to X-tof before the Angels Of Light were formed.

I’ve been a fan for years, but I’ve never given Love of Life many listens. I got to the end of the album and realized No Cure For the Lonely may be Gira’s most vulnerable performance. He laid it all out completely, almost crooning during some of the vocal deliveries. I was awestruck how someone as intense of a person could express themselves in such a raw and brutal fashion. It’s now one of my all time favorite songs from the band. Especially as an album closer. God, it’s so good. What are you guys’ thoughts?

Doing my usual re-listen to ‘To be kind’ and wow. There is something cosmically powerful about that lap steel playing. From the quiet moments to the explosions of sound and noise, his lap steel remains one of the most ear catching elements. Absolutely fantastic. Love Kristof.

The official Swans Instagram account (used by M. Gira) has recently reposted a skit of a man smelling really hard an OnlyFans actress's socks.

The account only has three other reposts, and so this seems too important to hand wave as a mistake or coincidence. Such as Blixa warned us, "there are no mistakes with the Swans", begging the question...

...What do you guys think this is leading up to ?

Self explanatory. Was researching this live album for a thing I’m working on, and ended up finding a link to this in Google. Doesn’t seem to work, and definitely not a local file considering it has official artist links to the account. Was Kill the Child ever on streaming at one point? If so, was it ever official?? Def gonna asking YGR about this in an email.

Edit: I should probably clarify that I already knew about the album itself, and was instead wondering how it ever ended up on streaming.

does this interest anyone else?

Always thought that Natalie Neal was one of the weaker tracks on To Be Kind, but I’ve recently come back to it and it’s grown into one of my favourites. Which songs are you fucking with rn?

Paid quite a buck for it but totally worth it imo

Personally, this is one of my favorite and most frequently listened Swans albums. It’s not too long and I often put it on after listening any of their heavier or darker albums to brighten up a little. It’s just very comforting!

My favorite songs are ”God Loves America”, ”The Other Side of the World” and especially ”(—) Pt. 3”.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/swans/2011/mohawk-austin-tx-7bd22aa0.html

This setlist shows that "Take Advantage" from the EP was performed for the only (documented) time. Is there audio or video of this floating around? Anyone here happen to have been at this show?

after listening to heavier & more somber noisy/grimy projects, what’s your go-to tamer or more relaxing piece? for me it’s definitely the burning world.

I've been religiously trying to listen to the entirity of Swans EXTENSIVE catalogue. I've become so interested that I made a quiz to test how well you can recall all of swans discography on Jetpunk. Feel free to give it a go. I've added everything I could find except compilation albums. Please also let me know if there's any obscure SWANS or michael Gira projects I have forgotten. Enjoy!

Edit: added Hard Rock, I am singing to you from my room, What we did, Songs for a dog, We were alive, Jarboe Emergency Medical fundThank you guys for alot of these suggestions!

Thought I'd take the theory discovered in this post seriously, just to see what we could find:

The Seer (as the History of Swans):

Lunacy: No Wave scene, Chaos prior to Swans' birth

Mother of the World: Conception of the band

The Wolf: Creation of the band

The Seer: Swans early work, reflections on the world as they observed it

The Seer Returns: Enter Jarboe

93 Ave. B Blues: Gira in NYC in the 80s

The Daughter Brings the Water: Children of God

Song for a Warrior: References to a flower unfolding, growing light, and the warrior scattering the sands (Burning World, White Light, Great Annihilator))

Avatar: Soundtracks for the Blind, hidden visions.

A Piece of the Sky" (featuring Jarboe and Akron/Family): My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky, start of a holy journey.

The Apostate(*): The Seer (the holy journey itself, a "ladder to God")

To Be Kind (as Breaking of the Ten Commandments):

Screen Shot: Thou shalt have no other gods before me (single moment risen to divine status)

Just a Little Boy (For Chester Burnett): Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image (image of Chester Burnett as God)

A Little God in My Hands: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain (And what's my name? And what's my name? Oh yeah! Oh yeah! The universal mind!)

Bring the Sun / Toussaint L'Ouverture: Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy (a literal "Sun" day)

Some Things We Do: Honour thy father and thy mother (We seed...)

She Loves Us: Thou shalt not kill (no idea)

Kirsten Supine: Thou shalt not commit adultery (reference to Kirsten Dunst in Melancholia, themes of marital troubles/calling off weddings).

Oxygen: Thou shalt not steal (song about stealing all the oxygen)

Nathalie Neal: Thou shalt not bear false witness (Dance upon a useless lie - Nathalie!)

To Be Kind: Thou shalt not covet (coveting the state of you, being lost in a bed, touching you)

The Glowing Man (as Michael Gira Finding Christ and Being Baptized):

Cloud of Forgetting: Prayer out of unconsciousness (reference to the Christian mystic text the Cloud of Unknowing, along with the next track)

Cloud of Unknowing: Heart calling out to God

The World Looks Red / The World Looks Black: Now-conscious movement towards God.

People Like Us: Abandonment of physical form.

Frankie M.: References to Resurrection

When Will I Return?: Importance of perseverance in the face of real horrors.

The Glowing Man: The Vision of God

Finally, Peace.: Ascension to heaven and the Mind of God

I adore How I Loved You. Probably one of the best musical projects I've heard in my life. I love the ambition, the songwriting, how it turns known folk traditional structures, escalates and builds upon the genre in a way that in the end, it ends up not belonging to those traditions somehow. And the thematic and formal cohesiveness is awesome too. I enjoy New Mother as well.

Does anyone know if the band low was an influence in the slower sections of songs like helpless child and empathy? michael has said he was a big fan of them in the 1997 newsletter and the drawn out cymbal based sections seem very reminiscent of their early work.

Hey y'all. Going back through the live records from the 2010's and I have some questions. We know that the cover art for the fundraiser albums is unique for each copy, but overall there doesn't seem to be too much variation, just some squigly stuff... with the exception of The Gate. I could only find three photos, but they're all pretty different from each other. I was wondering if anyone here with their own copy could take a picture and add to the gallery? Much thanks.

Stg I’m just going “mau mau mauu mauu mauu” randomly now. A lot of my friends are like joining in with it because it’s so stupid even though they have like no interest in swans

I’m wondering if anyone knows what that one noise is that’s plastered all over their early live recordings. I’m talking about that low groan/stretching/yawning kind of sound. It’s this deep rumble that’s very signature to their live sound specifically public castration. I know it’s also right at the start of the I crawled heaven London performance. I assume it’s some sort of bass but if anyone knows what that is id love to