Swans

SWANS
 
 
Swans  are an American experimental rock band formed in 1982 by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira.  One of few acts to emerge from the New York City-based no wave scene and stay intact into the next decade, Swans have become recognized for an incomparable sound which has transformed throughout their career and contributed to the development of such genres as noise rock, post-punk, industrial, and post-rock.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 

In 1982, Certain General signed with the New York independent record label Labor Records and issued their first release, an EP called Holiday of Love.  The mini-album was produced by Peter Holsapple of the dB’s and mixed by Michael Gira of the experimental rock band Swans – “an interesting pairing if there ever was one”, said Nick West in a review for Bucketfull of Brains.  (I don’t know much about Swans, except for their startling 1988 cover of the Joy Division masterpiece, “Love Will Tear Us Apart”).  According to Wikipedia:  “Holiday [of Love] garnered rave reviews, among them a Trouser Press piece that cited the disc as being created ‘for all the teenage devils of the world’.” 

 

(March 2015)

 

Comments