Event Details
Date: Thursday, September 06, 2012
Start Time: 8:00 PM
Event Type: Concerts, Special Events
Last Updated: August 21, 2012
Views: 18
Sealed With A Kiss presentsSWANS + guests XIU XIUThursday, September 6th Doors: 8:00pmTickets are $23 and are on sale at Ticketmaster.ca + Ticketweb.ca + Zulu Records + Red Cat Records.After years of pursuing Angels of Light and recording and producing a diverse roster of artists for his Young God label, Michael Gira has decided to reconvene his legendary group Swans. As he says: THIS IS NOT A REUNION. Its not some dumb-ass nostalgia act. It is not repeating the past. After 5 Angels Of Light albums, I needed a way to move FORWARD, in a new direction, and it just so happens that revivifying the idea of Swans is allowing me to do that. The core group constituting Swans for this phase is Michael Gira / guitar / voice / mendicant friar act (original swans); Norman Westberg guitar (original swans); Christoph Hahn guitar (mid period swans and most angels); Phil Puleo drums, percussion, dulcimer 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 (angels, now also with Shearwater) This highly anticipated album is as powerful and diverse as anything Giras done, in Swans or otherwise. It opens with the epic, soul-crushing (bone crushing?) No Words/No Thoughts, but quickly veers to more pastoral terrain, then on to ever-ascending mono-tonal grooves, a filmic-folk idyll featuring Devendra Banhart on lead vocal that abruptly shifts to cataclysm, then on to more airplane-taking-off ascensions, art songs, and more lethal sonic pummeling. In short, this is the new SWANS album, a significant advance from where Swans left off and as challenging and emotionally demanding as ever. Increasing frustrated by the (self imposed) constraints hed set for himself in Angels of Light, Gira decided that the direction he wanted his music to take would be more appropriate under the moniker of the group he started in 1982 and retired in 1997. Though the new album retains an attention to detail in orchestration, and an underlying sense of melody on many of the songs, theres a deliberate shift towards sonic intensity, relentless, maniacal rhythms and alternately abrasive and soaring waves of electric guitar, qualities those familiar with the always-shifting sonic approach of Swans over the (now first) 15 years of its existence will recognize. This record immediately feels like Swans but is also obviously unique and moving into new territory. FROM MICHAEL GIRA:The Seer took 30 years to make. Its the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music Ive ever made, been involved in or imagined. But its unfinished, like the songs themselves. Its 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 the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and forcefeeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point theyll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my goal is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them Im a fluffy kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy!Praise for My Father Will Guide Me Up a Rope To The Sky (2010) The Swans are currently the greatest rock band on the planet... The Quietus[Gira] is looking for beauty, pure and simple, unfettered by meaning or standard songwriting notions of emotional resonance. The Wirea majestic return and, let us hope, a harbinger of more to come. BBC The rule book is torn up and incinerated here, but this shouldnt even be a surprise, considering thats what Swans made a career doing. Surprise! Swans arent dead. FACT pleasing proof they can outstrip even the most fearsome reputation. The GuardianSwans beauty is best with great beauty, black wings to another world NME Swans are alive, utterly. A terrible beauty is reborn The Wire Monstrous, beautiful, satisfying Mojo... For the last two years, one of the world's most bellicose bands has paid respect to its legacy largely by leaving it alone and tried to expand it by testing its old limits. Here, they do just that, beating past successes with the purpose of the present and showing that... this is exactly the kind of forwardpointing roadmark Swans deserve. Pitchfork