Fuukk You, We Got Swans.

But I did run into Michael Gira and band wandering around a few hours before their set. Very cool, nice guy. 

I listened to To Be Kind alone on a car ride two weeks ago. Their music drains me, but not necessarily in a bad way. I was blown away by Bring the Sun and Oxygen, but some of it physically hurts my brain. I appreciate Swans. I think they're one of the punkest, don't give a shit bands out there. But they are not music for every day life necessarily.

My favorite activity to do while listening to Swans is grade papers. It works for housework alright, and it's good while just browsing the Internet. I often like drone-y, repetitive music while I am working on stuff in my classroom on breaks. Swans does a good job of that, along with Steve Reich & various metal bands.

Swans also took for me like 5 listens to get into. Sometimes music that I don't like at first and have to take time digesting becomes my favorite stuff, like Captain Beefheart for example.

I'm definitely the same way. A prime example would be Animal Collective and The Mars Volta. The first time I listened to both bands, I wasn't wowed by them, but could tell there was something lurking under the surface...just waiting to be realized. Eventually, they both just clicked with my brain and I've been smiling ever since Like you said though, lots of my favorite music is this way.


Regarding Swans, I like to listen to them during times I'll be uninterrupted for a bit. Whether it's driving (I do lots of long distance driving for work), cleaning the house, or just relaxing with my vaporizer. I find hypnotic/droning music pleasant many times in those situations.

That said, I definitely have to be in the right mind for them. Like others have mentioned, it can be draining music (in a good way).

I read in some interview that Gira's musical goal with Swans was "ecstasy". There are times when that is definitely achieved. Sometimes the music just swells and builds around you, til it threatens to collapse everything you know. All you can do it give in to Gira's mission and succumb to the pummel, there, you will find true ecstasy.

The first time I listened to The Seer, I was on the floor of my theater, completely unable to separate the real world from the images on the screen, sitting in shock from the rawness and colossal loudness of their work. 

For the first hour, it wasn't entirely clear to me if I was still alive, had a body, was hearing the album with flesh-and-blood ears, or simply experiencing some odd transitory state between life and death. Gira's primal growls echoed off the walls like some demon-dog, the nightmares on the edges of the path, while the thread of the album itself, a glimmer of hope in an apocalyptic world, burned. But in reality, there's no way to detail the experiential nature of music in such a way that someone who doesn't get it will suddenly have that clarifying moment. Swans isn't easy, their themes and messages are specific, the delivery method is a throat punch.

This is some sinister shiz we're dealing in when we talk about Swans. It's not music in the entertainment sense, it's music as an intellectual form that challenges our daily illusion. It's music to break the construct and threaten the mind.