experimental-rock

"Gira would often lose himself in the music, closing his eyes intently while performing, or flailing his arms wildly and dancing on stage with the fervor of a cult leader who had just drank some potent snake venom."

"Early Swans really is like little else on the planet before or since"

"Swans' path was not without potholes: an infamous cover of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" jumps out as one of the worst things they ever did, and Gira has more or less disowned an entire chunk of his back catalog. But even the missteps offer substance greater than most bands could imagine."

"I wanted Swans to be 'heavier', though. I wanted the music to obliterate — why, I don’t remember! I think it just felt good."

"”Stay Here”"

"”The Seer Returns”"

"Going forward … things will be simpler and more intimate for Swans. When that time comes, I look forward to discovering a fresh path towards a new sonic terrain in which to dwell."

"In its earliest incarnation, Swans set out to inflict itself upon the listener –- violation and domination set to post-punk sludge, meant to break you down, bend you over, and tear right through. Mastermind and sole constant Michael Gira drew on the writings of Jean Genet and the Marquis de Sade to sculpt his repetitious tirades, while an ever-shifting live band channeled the urban blight of no-wave and industrial into something much worse. The early records remain some of the most unapologetic, uncompromising sounds ever recorded."

"Granted, it’s not like Swans bludgeon you to death like it’s 1985 anymore, as the band’s sound has, of course, evolved significantly over the years to incorporate more dynamics, nuance, but perhaps most importantly: suspense. Case in point was their opening number, “The End of Forgetting,” which started out sounding like the aural equivalent of watching the sun rise from space, while steadily building in intensity/tempo before ultimately swelling into a massive, all-consuming crescendo that felt like you were being sucked into a pulsar by the end of it."

"By 1986/7 Swans had run its course with the physical assault of sound that we had employed previously for the most part. I wanted to move on to other things and didn’t want to get stuck in some style, which in our case had the potential of becoming cartoonish if we’d continued in that direction. So, I pushed the music into unfamiliar territory."

"…a cacophonous rhythmic throb which drew on post-punk, industrial, doom metal, NYC avant minimalism and the blues; a sound which was matched by Gira's often nihilistic, anti-natalist and existential lyrical concerns ... delivered in a stentorian and messianic manner."

"”I was a Prisoner in your Skull”"

"”The Seer”"

"With the addition of Jarboe on vocals and keys –- she was the only other constant from '84-'97 –- structures began to shift, songs coalesced into singable, hummable things, and Swans burst outward in a cruel bloom of contradictory sounds. The first transitional records saw the original stew of post-punk and sludge retrofitted to stuttering industrial beats while softer, piano tracks started to appear. Before long, each passing record took on a new persona, and each shift saw the band's vision grow exponentially in texture and scope. Gira's obsessions -- power, religion, sex, death -- remained constant, but his impressionistic, shouted rants found new strength when he adopted a baritone croon and learned to tell stories, softening his attack to serve a higher calling."

"The whole idea of being a noise band at this point is the most conformist, conservative, consumerist, brain-dead route you could take. I think it would be more adventurous to sing at a Holiday Inn."

"”Hypogirl”"

"The Slave EP was a sound that I always wanted to hear, just the bleakest and blackest. The minimalist approach of the music, that was what really influenced me. It was non-genre-specific, with a total lack of baggage... purely abstract, surreal, and violent. It communicated to me in a very special way, and taught me that heavy metal could be stripped of everything and reduced to its most primal form. ... Swans ... paved the way for me."

"It started in the sewer. Ugliness embodied. Noise like you’d never heard. The bellowing drawl of an unhinged slave driver, spitting abuse and mantras of degradation. "Nobody beats you like a cop, with his club." "Someone weaker than you should rape you." Lyrics sailed past pitch-black into some deeper, darker void of nastiness. The music was supposed to hurt. This was NYC in the early '80s. This was Swans."

"Closing track “Finally, Peace.” may end the album on a reflective high point, but by album’s end, I lay paralyzed, unable to decide if I desired a repeat or a reprieve. Unsettling as it may be, this conflict is a testament to Swans’ unparalleled ability to translate the absurd violence of the human condition into music that’s as intoxicating as it is intense."

"Swans are majestic, beautiful-looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments."

"But as unhinged as Gira may have seemed at times, such compulsions felt fully justified during performances of “The Merge,” for example. With the help of Dana Schechter, who added another wickedly groovy and powerful bass guitar to the mix, the band conjured up a truly intoxicating, almost tribal-flavored sonic swirl that had most of the crowd hypnotically nodding and grinding away to the relentlessly rhythm-heavy intensity of the music."

"Loveless isn’t just an essential alternative rock album, it’s also one of the best albums of the 90s. It’s like an overwhelming out-of-body experience – transcendent beauty with a capital ‘trance’ – and its reinvention of sound, texture and mood in rock music sounds as radical now as it did in 1991. My Bloody Valentine spent two years in the studio perfecting [their] formula: a dizzying blend of roaring guitars and sensual vocals from Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher. Loveless is a classic that’s spawned many imitators but has no peer."

"Though they could easily be considered an “experimental” group as well, Dance Gavin Dance are the Sacramento-born post-hardcore group that, though the lineup has changed quite a few times, have always held a special place in alternative music history. Their influences range from MF DOOM to the Temptations, as well as other post-hardcore groups such as At The Drive-In. Mixing harsh and clean vocals, they take note from classic hardcore and prog-rock genres, though it’s the technical attention and structuring of the songs that set DGD firmly in the post-hardcore hall of fame."

"You could say, shrewdly, that Loveless combines two main modalities of the ’90s by being the greatest rock album that is made almost entirely of samples—drum loops, guitar feedback, vocals, all sent through an Akai S1000, which could then be triggered from a keyboard—creating a singular melding of dream-pop and acid-house and hip-hop that defined a new genre called shoegaze. You could say its underlying philosophy remains as relevant as ever: that sleepiness is a largely underrated state of being, that our unconscious impulses are far more truthful than our conscious behavior, that the best music should feel like it could go on forever. You could say that its chief architect, Kevin Shields, is influenced by no one more than fellow Irishman Edmund Burke, the 18th-century philosopher who coined the Romantic ideals of beauty and sublime, and who wrote that the richest emotional response from art comes from the “terrible uncertainty” it can elicit."

"Gather up the lost and their souls (Don't hurt me) Into your arms (Don't hurt me) Into your arms (Don't hurt me) Gather up the pitiful (Don't hurt me, don't hurt me) Into your arms (Don't hurt me) Into your arms (Don't hurt me)"

"Are you such a dreamer To put the world to rights? I'll stay home forever Where two and two always makes a five."

"I want you to know He's not coming back. Look into my eyes, I'm not coming back.So knives out, Catch the mouse. Don't look down, Shove it in your mouth."

"Open your mouth wide, A universal sigh. And while the ocean blooms, It's what keeps me alive. So why does this still hurt? Don't blow your mind with whys."

"Oh, why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I want peace and honesty) Why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I want to live in the children's land And you know maybe, maybe I) Why don't you quiet down? (Maybe I'll wander the promised land I want peace and honesty) Why don't you quiet down? (I want to live in the promised land And maybe wander the children's land) Quiet down! (Yeah, and there, there we can free)"

"There's an empty space inside my heart Where the weeds take root, so now I'll set you free. I'll set you free."

"Like I've fallen out of bed from a long and vivid dream, Finally I'm free of all the weight I've been carrying."

"I don't want to be your friend. I just want to be your lover. No matter how it ends, No matter how it starts.Forget about your house of cards, And I'll do mine. Forget about your house of cards, And I'll do mine. And fall off the table, get swept under Denial, denial."

"When I go forwards, you go backwards, And somewhere we will meet."

"Just as you take my hand, Just as you write my number down, Just as the drinks arrive, Just as they play your favourite song. As your bad day disappears No longer wound up like a spring Before you've had too much Come back in focus again."

"Transport, motorways and tramlines, Starting and then stopping, Taking off and landing. The emptiest of feelings. Disappointed people Clinging onto bottles. And when it comes, It's so, so disappointing.Let down and hanging around Crushed like a bug in the ground Let down and hanging around."

"A heart that's full up like a landfill, A job that slowly kills you, Bruises that won't heal.You look so tired, unhappy. Bring down the government. They don't, they don't speak for us.I'll take a quiet life, A handshake of carbon monoxide."

"Maybe you'll be president, But know right from wrong. Or in the flood you'll build an ark And sail us to the moon."

"This is my way of saying goodbye Because I can't do it face to face. So I'm talking to you before- No matter what happens now You shouldn't be afraid Because I know today has been The most perfect day I've ever seen."

"Then into your life, there comes a darkness, There's a spacecraft blocking out the sky. And there's nowhere to hide. You run to the back, and you cover your ears, But it's the loudest sound you've ever heard. And all we trapped, ragdoll cloth people, We are helpless to resist Into our darkest hour."

"I have no idea what I am talking about. I am trapped in this body and can't get out."

"Limb by limb and tooth by tooth, Stirring up inside of me. Every day, every hour, Wish that I... was bulletproof."

"Blame it on the black star, Blame it on the falling sky, Blame it on the satellite That beams me home."

"In the next world war, jackknifed juggernaut, I am born again. In a neon sign scrolling up and down, I am born again.In an interstellar burst, I'm back to save the universe."

"Don't get any big ideas, They're not gonna happen. You paint yourself white And fill up with noise, But there'll be something missing.Now that you've found it, it's gone. Now that you feel it, you don't. You've gone off the rails."

"Rows of houses all bearing down on me, I can feel their blue hands touching me. All these things into position, All these things we'll one day swallow whole.And fade out again. And fade out."

"Sometimes you sulk, sometimes you burn. God rest your soul. Oh, when the loving comes and we've already gone Just like your dad, you'll never change."

"This is what you get. This is what you get. This is what you get. When you mess with us."

"I am the key to the lock in your house That keeps your toys in the basement. But if you get too far inside, You'll only see my reflection."

"Breathe, keep breathing, Don't lose your nerve. Breathe, keep breathing, I can't do this alone."

"When I am king, You will be first against the wall. With your opinion, Which is of no consequence at all.What's that? (I may be paranoid, but not an android)"