Posts Tagged ‘swans’

SWANS To Headline Roadburn Festival 2011

Posted on Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Roadburn is very proud to report that New York’s legendary and recently resurrected SWANS have been confirmed as the headliner at Roadburn Festival 2011.

Featuring band members Michael Gira (original SWANS), Norman Westberg (original SWANS), Christoph Hahn (mid-period SWANS and most Angels of Light ), Phil Puleo (final SWANS tour and most of Angels of Light), Chris Pravdica (Flux Information Sciences / Services/ Gunga Din) and Thor Harris (Angels of Light, currently Shearwater), SWANS will headline Roadburn on Saturday, 16 April 2011.

Emerging from the New York underground in the early 80s, SWANS made their mark with a series of highly influential dark, abrasive, brutal and growling noise albums that served as an outlet for their unsettling ruminations on alienation, depression and the depravity of man.

After 15 years of touring and constant productivity SWANS disbanded in 1997. The band’s recent revival finds Michael Gira seamlessly shifting from Angels Of Light mode to the more heavier and noisier origins of SWANS, as showcased on the band’s forthcoming album, My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky, which basically starts where Soundtracks For The Blind/Swans Are Dead left off.

According to Stereogum.com: “The purists may want to crucify me, but Swans’ first studio album since Soundtracks is also one of SWANS’ best, most relentlessly dark and beautiful albums to date. Gira remains angry/venomous, but he’s introduced a kind of time-won wisdom (and guest spot via his three-year-old daughter) you wouldn’t find in the nihilistic ’80s” -Brandon / Stereogum.

Roadburn Festival regards SWANS as the single biggest influence on the burgeoning doom / sludge / drone scene aside from the obvious likes of Black Sabbath. SWANS‘ canon of work can be heard and felt throughout the entire festival and in most of the bands invited to perform. It is a massive understatement to say that we are looking forward to the formidable and brutal sonic waves and the extreme volume levels that SWANS will bring to the festival. We are still pinching ourselves that the fever dream of this highly anticipated resurrection has become a reality.

(First, SWANS will head to Vera, Groningen to perform their gorgeous sonic poetry and crushing brutality on 23 November 2010. SWANS will also be playing Le Guess Who? Festival, Utrecht, Holland on November 24th).

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Posted in 2010, Festival News | 25 Comments »

Supersonic Festival 2010, Birmingham UK, 22nd – 24th October

Posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010

Following the news that the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival will be headlined by Napalm Death, Swans, Godflesh and Hallogallo (feat Steve Shelley of Sonic Youth), Capsule are pleased to announce that a limited number of individual day tickets are now on sale, priced £20 (Friday) and ...read more

The Quietus: Track-by-track – Michael Gira On Swans’ My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky

Posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010

Michael Gira has reactivated his No Wave / industrial / apocalyptic folk project Swans for the first time in 13-years, so who better to ask than him for a track-by-track review: The Quietus: What appears at first to be field recordings of church bells (but is actually percussion) and squealing, ...read more

Swans: New Track Available For Streaming (Stereogum Premiere); Early Album Review by UK’s ATTN Magazine

Posted on Sunday, August 1st, 2010

“Eden Prison”, a brand new song from Swans is available for streaming HERE, courtesy of Stereogum / Haunting The Chapel and The Quietus (down below). The track comes off the band’s full-length, My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky , which will be available September 27 ...read more

Godflesh To Play Supersonic Festival, Birmingham

Posted on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

Following the news that the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival will be headlined by Swans, Capsule are hugely excited to announce the second headlining act, Godflesh. Acclaimed by many as founders of the industrial metal movement, Godflesh will be returning to their Birmingham roots to play the ...read more

Swans confirmed for Holland’s very own Le Guess Who? Festival

Posted on Wednesday, May 26th, 2010

Already confirmed for Supersonic Festival in Birmingham on October 24th, Swans, headed by sonic genius Michael Gira, will kick off  Holland’s very own Le Guess Who? Festival on Wednesday,  November 24th, Tivoli-De Helling, Utrecht, Holland.  Le Guess Who? will run for 5 days, from Wednesday, November 24th to Sunday, November ...read more

First Acts Announced for Birmingham’s Annnual Supersonic Festival

Posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

Following the news that the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival (set for 22 – 24 October 2010) will be headlined by Michael Gira’s massively influential NYC band SWANS, Capsule are excited to announce a first round of live acts who will also perform at this year’s festival, ...read more

Swans Headline Supersonic Festival 2010; New Festival Dates 22 – 24 October

Posted on Wednesday, April 28th, 2010

To launch the 2010 edition of Birmingham’s acclaimed annual Supersonic Festival, Birmingham promoters and curators Capsule are excited and proud to announce that Michael Gira’s massively influential NYC band SWANS will headline this year’s festival, which takes place from 22 – 24 October 2010. Tickets are now on sale! Featuring ...read more

Michael Gira: I Am Not Insane CD / DVD Released

Posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010

Swans, the fiercely independent, post-punk eardrum perforators are to reunite. “I have decided to focus my energy on Swans once again”, says Michael Gira, “I’m reactivating that project.  A new album is in the works, and touring will follow in fall of 2010. In order to help raise funds / ...read more

Back from the dead: Why I welcome a Swans reunion

Posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010

Lovingly pinched from Guardian.co.uk: The fiercely independent, post-punk eardrum perforators are to reunite. But there’s plenty of evidence that they are motivated by more than just a big pay cheque Asked in a 2006 interview if he would ever consider reforming Swans, the band he led from their birth in ...read more

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