Swans tour dates! Maybe this will be the year I finally go to Detroit????

You guys, I am being forced to make THE HARDEST DECISION OF MY LIFE. I have this $250 travel voucher on American Airlines, and I can't decide where to go. I want to visit my friend in LA who I haven't seen in a year plus. But SWANS are playing in New York. I would totally hate myself if I missed this Swans "not a reunion" tour. Wait...maybe that's what Swans would want????


Oh God, I drank too much coffee I think I'm going to die.

09-28 Philadelphia, PA - Trocadero Theater
09-29 Washington, DC - Black Cat
09-30 Boston, MA - Middle East
10-01 Montreal, Quebec - Pop Montreal Festival
10-02 Toronto, Ontario - Lee's Palace
10-04 Detroit, MI - Crofoot Ballroom
10-05 Chicago, IL - Bottom Lounge
10-08 Brooklyn, NY - Brooklyn Masonic Temple
10-09 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom
10-22-24 Birmingham, England - Supersonic Festival

New Swans! New Swans! OMG!

It's a 2010 miracle! Today Michael Gira, or his intern, or whoever updates the Swans MySpace page changed the band's display name from "Swans Are Dead" to "Swans Are Not Dead." Like a hard-rockin' phoenix rising from the ashes of the late 90s, the group's reformation announcement has sparked a light of nihilistic hope (???) in my icy goth heart.


A new song, "Jim," is available for your listening pleasure on the aforementioned MySpace page. It and several other acoustic versions of tracks that are being considered for the new Swans album will be available on a super limited (1000 copies only) release called I Am Not Insane, which also includes a DVD of two live Gira performances. This is a homemade release. YEAH THAT'S RIGHT MICHAEL GIRA IS SITTING ON THE FLOOR IN HIS LIVING ROOM RIGHT FREAKIN' NOW SEWING UP THE LITTLE PAPER SLEEVES AND CUTTING OUT PICTURES FROM FASHION MAGAZINES TO USE IN COLLAGES FOR YOUR VERY OWN PERSONAL ALBUM. I know because I put a camera in his house.


This release, which will be available from Young God Records, goes towards defraying the cost of recording the new Swans album.

But what I'm really excited for is...TOURING. Yes, tours (multiple) have been promised.

In addition to M. Gira, the following people have signed on:

Norman Westberg – Guitar (original swans)
Christophj Hahn – Guitar (mid period swans and most angels)
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, etc etc... (angels, now also with shearwater)

Dream dream over this new unholily awesome Swans/Angels of Light hybrid

By now, after the last three posts I did late last night about awesome new records from HTRK, True Widow, and Bibio, you are probably thinking, "Wow I wanna be in a band with that girl." Then perhaps you looked at your large collection of Swans records and sighed and thought, "Hmm, wait a second there, friend-o. I better make sure this lady's into venerable NYC noise purveyors SWANS. But how?" Well, search no more, dude! Because OMG OMG I am so excited about this news.


It seems that Michael Gira has been playing a few shows, previewing new material that he considers just a little more Swans than his more recent, more creepily folky project Angels of Light. And now he wants to release a Swans/Angels of Light HYBRID ALBUM. His answer to an audience question after a recent show, when asked if perhaps the aforementioned unholy hybrid would tour was a resounding "maybe," but wow let me tell you that "maybe" lights up my heart. If you're in NY, check him out. He's playing some of these new jams after new Young God label signee James Jackson Toth (Wooden Wand) opens.

07.25.09 – Brooklyn, NY – Issue Project Room

(PS--The title of this post is a reference to a song by Swans side project World of Skin, for the uninitiated/forgetful. Please do not think I have started reading books about the creative process and how to let loose your inner dream diva. It's nothing like that. I may say "wow" a lot but I am at heart still deeply, deeply secretly goth. JUST SO YOU KNOW.)

I kinda love Michael Gira

What happened to Michael Gira? When did he go from being the deadpan sociopath with songs about torturing an ex-lover to the cuddly drifter who would help fix your car when it broke down on a lonesome dark highway and never even once think about braining you and stealing your identity? As you may or may not know, once my favorite abrasive anti-consumerism NY outfit Swans dissolved in 1997, M.Gira got busy releasing albums from superhippie Devendra Banhart and the impressively-bearded Akron Family (amongst others) on his Young God Records label. He also released several haunting Americana-y albums as a solo artist and with the excellently-named Angels of Light collective.

Sure, artists change direction all the time. Nick Cave went from leaping around a fire with a severed pig head in the Birthday Party's "Nick the Stripper" video to writing the introduction to the Gospel of Mark. In 1986, Siouxsie Sioux released a song about sewing someone up in the carcass of a dead horse (the song is "An Execution" and it's the only Banshees track I refuse to listen to ever again--ICK). In 2003, she added guest vocals on a cynical but still TOTALLY BANGIN'!!! dance track by the Basement Jaxx. Peter Murphy went from making stage entrances in coffins with Bauhaus to playing an acoustic guitar in front of a background of passing clouds in the video for "Cuts You Up". Yet, these artists--despite all the changes and sometimes surprising career moves--have somehow managed to retain their formidable and vaguely menacing images, (OK, Peter Murphy is debatable. I say the Coachella hangin'-upside-down-like-a-bat performance rectifies any regrettable early '90s video choices), whereas Michael Gira now comes off like the dusty eccentric who befriends one of author Carson McCuller's adolescent protagonists before drifting off into the backroads of rural 1950s America.

Not that this is bad. In fact, it kinda makes me love him MORE. Just look at the picture above! He's a troubadour who has seen it all, a man who's been everywhere but is at home nowhere, the gravel-voiced jack-of-all-trades sitting next to you at Mickey's Diner with a cup of black coffee and a slice of cold apple pie. Here's an excerpt from his MySpace page that tells you where M. Gira's head's at right now:

I now live in the Catskill Mountains, and I also run the record label Young God Records. It generally consumes most of my time, but I accept that. It's my "day job" but quite a decent one, though tedious at times. But I've had the great pleasure of being able to produce or co-produce many of the acts on the label, have always learned something new from working with the musicians involved, and am delighted to be able to bring their music out into the world. Some of the music YGR has released (aside from my own work): Devendra Banhart, Akron/Family, Lisa Germano, Mi and L'au and a great deal more. If you're interested, go to younggodrecords.com ...that's all I have to say about myself, in fact I've said too much!

Ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to give him a hug and listen to his stories of life on the road (or in New England). I bet he makes the best apple cider and maple syrup on the farm I imagine he has. (Apple cider, maple syrup=so New England.) Like David Lynch, Michael Gira was also kind enough to release a new album, We Are Him the day after my birthday in September. You can hear a few excerpts on Gira's not-at-all-creepy myspace page or check him out one at one of these excellent venues:

10.26.07 - London, UK - Shoreditch Town Hall (as part of {The Wire} magazine’s 25th anniversary festival)*
10.27.07 – London, UK – Monto Water Rats
11.10.07 – Chicago, IL – Lakeshore Theatre

*with the Boredoms