169 quotes found
"To the extent that I wear skirts and cheap nylon slips I've gone native"
"It’s hard to imagine where we would be without Sonic Youth. It’s unlikely another smart post-punk band founded around the same time — Big Black, the Meat Puppets — could have delivered us from hardcore’s fury quite the same way. What would indie rock sound like if Sonic Youth’s sublime din hadn’t enchanted and derailed all the college rock bands of the mid-’80s? We would have only been left with a bunch of sanguine Feelies rip offs, never having the chance to divulge a crush via careful mixtape placement of “Shadow of A Doubt.”"
"Sonic Youth albums aren’t as popular now as they were in the days of cassettes. That’s because now it’s a lot easier to say, 'Hey this song is going fucking nowhere, skip it.' Every single Sonic Youth song is a 'skip it' song. Every single one. Unless, of course, you enjoy hearing Thurston Moore sound like he’s dicking around with effects pedals at Guitar Center."
"No artist did more for noise rock’s reputation — or for that matter noise’s reputation — than Sonic Youth. They brought it to a wider audience, made a handful of hit alt-rock singles out of it, crashed grunge as it was happening, and became a beloved institution, despite the fact that the bulk of their catalog features some pretty weird stuff. Throughout the ’80s, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo amassed an arsenal of cheap guitars that they modified and through which they employed bizarre tunings as well as techniques like playing the strings with drum sticks. Their noise wasn’t just unique — no other band could replicate it."
"Hailing from Long Island, New York, with noise rock stalwarts Sonic Youth, Lee Ranaldo and Thurston Moore sought to tear down the idea of guitar-driven music completely. One of many struggling bands in a busy NYC scene, Sonic Youth emerged as Greenwich Village darlings, riding to the top of the heap through a string of genre-defying albums. The pair's viewpoint on their instruments was fresh, vivid and untethered to all established norms."
"Perhaps even more than Joni [Mitchell], trying to summarize the music of Sonic Youth with just one tuning is an exercise in noisy futility. The pioneering art rock outfit took advantage of countless unconventional and angular tunings through their run, frequently blending multiple dissonant tunings from different guitarists within one track. [...] The sheer multiplicity of tunings that Sonic Youth used caused all sorts of logistical hurdles for the band. They used cheap guitars that could only function in certain detuned ways and famously used drumsticks and screwdrivers on their guitars to achieve even more adventurous sounds and effects."
"Some boys I know They speak with broken mouths I have to sit inside their stomachs To find out what they're really about"
"All your kind they're coming clean They shut their eyes, their mess, their scenes All your kind, their spool and lance Their crash, their kiss, they harmonize"
"Then when you let it You asked for nothing Why don't you share it"
"You're like a missile kind Little kingdoms in your chest"
"Heart is pounding in his chest Reaches suddenly for his gun Ship is sailing in the west Flower that could be his fun"
"Used to be one of the rotten ones and I liked you for that Now you're all gone got your make-up on and you're not coming back Can't you come back?"
"You come in, check my time You got fornication crimes I've seen your hope on television Where you've been, wore my word They've got tricycles in skirts This is a mouth that needs religion"
"I'm sitting cold There was love You loved him Take him Trust in you"
"Heard about your wife and kids where we slept Felt their mouths with stitches at that were slowly lit Capture uniform this time because I couldn't quit Haven't felt the ground so cold without getting sick"
"All these people drinking lover's spit They sit around and clean their face with it And they listen to teeth to learn how to quit Tied to a night they never met"
"Market fresh Stand by me Where will it ever land Scar and stains, Emily Turn our little crab I could've meant it if you let me"
"Broken boys look good sitting on their shelves Silent waves responds expose to fear Library cards, rented faces, line up and make a train Hard parades with nothing skin Things that breathe way too thin"
"I got shot right in the back And you were there I said I was never coming back And you were there you were there I know the eyelids are under attack 'Cause you were there you were there"
"And you want to get away Oh where to go to When you want to get it out Oh how to get through If you want to get it all You can own what you choose And you want to live a lie And love what you lose"
"I'm just comin' here to come down I could be here I could move town Put my suits right on the guest list Saw my pa's boy Became weightless"
"No one in the world ever gets what they want, and that is beautiful. Everybody dies frustrated and sad, and that is beautiful."
"Life's just a mood ring we're not allowed to see."
"Laugh hard, it's a long way to the bank."
"Where your eyes don't go / A filthy scarecrow waves its broomstick arms / And does a parody of each unconscious thing you do / When you turn around to look it's gone beyond you / On its face it's wearing your confused expression / Where your eyes don't go"
"I've built a little Empire / Off some crazy garbage / Called the blood of the exploited working class / But they've overcome their shyness / Now they're calling me 'Your Highness'/ And the world screams 'Kiss me, son of God'"
"I don't want the world, I just want your half"
"A woman came up to me and said / I'd like to poison your mind / With wrong ideas that appeal to you / Though I am not unkind"
"There's only one thing that I know how to do well / and I've often been told that you only can do what you know how to do well / and that's be you / be what you're like / be like yourself."
"We can't be silent / 'Cause they might be giants / And what are we gonna do unless they are?"
"Everybody wants prosthetic foreheads / on their real heads."
"We were once so close to heaven / Peter came out and gave us medals / Declaring us the nicest of the damned"
"You said you were the king of liars / And I believed you and called you 'sire' / But I realize now that I have been deceived."
"Can't shake the devil's hand / And say you're only kidding."
"Triangle Man, Triangle Man / Triangle Man hates Particle Man"
"Is he a dot, or he is a speck / when he's underwater, does he get wet / or does the water get him instead?"
"He's got a watch with a minute hand / millennium hand, and an eon hand"
"Standing in my yard / Where they tore down the garage / To make room for the torn-down garage"
"/ applied by Magic Marker to drywall / I should be allowed to shoot my mouth off / I should have a call-in show."
"They revamped the airport completely / Now it looks just like a night club / Everyone's excited and confused"
"Time is flying like an arrow / And the clock hands move so fast they make the wind blow / And it makes the pages of the calendar go / Flying out the window, one by one"
"The name Laibach appears for the first time in 1144 as the original name for Ljubljana. It meant a city by the river. During the Austro-Hungarian empire it replaced the Slovene name Ljubljana. The name Laibach re-appears after the defeat of Italy when Nazis and collaborators failed, tortured and murdered the inhabitants of Ljubljana, who didn't believe in victory of Third Reich. In 1980 it emerged for the fourth time as the name of the youth culture group Laibach. The name now suggests a concrete possibility for the existence of a politicised art. In this sense the name couples the horror of totalitarianism and industrial alienation in its slavish form."
"Kill The Old, Torture Their Young"
"Convex, Concave"
"Scary Mary"
"Hope For An Angel"
"Waiting For Green"
"Bodies In Flight"
"Liberate the Illiterate (A Mong Among Mingers)"
"Diary of Always"
"Questions And Answers"
"Toys, Toys Toys, Choke, Toys, Toys, Toys"
"Wave Upon Wave Upon Wave"
"Only One Word Comes To Mind"
"Tradition Feed"
"Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies"
"Folding Stars"
"Saturday superhouse"
"Asexual Meat Kitchen"
"The Captain"
"God & Satan"
"Born On A Horse"
"Shock Shock"
"Cloud of Stink"
"Help Me Be Captain"
"Once an Empire"
"And when your newest kisser is peeking You dress yourself up tonight?Get all tangled up in arms and legs, it’s cramped up and Someone grabs a hold, do you go oh oh oh!? Should you go home? Theres something starting, don’t know why"
"Would you like to see me often Though you dont need to see me often ‘Cause I’d like to see you often Though I don’t need to see you often"
"Sometimes I’m naked and thank god sometimes you’re naked. Well, hello"
"Can I tell you that you are the purple in me? Can I call you just to hear you would you care?"
"And an obsession with the past is like a dead fly And just a few things are related to the “old times” Then we did believe in magic and we did die It’s not my words that you should follow, it’s your insides You’re just an inside. Adjust your insides. You’re just an inside."
"Isn't much that I feel I need a solid soul and the blood I bleed With a little girl, and by my spouse I only want a proper house"
"I don't mean To seem like I care about material things, Like our social status, I just want Four walls and adobe slabs For my girls."
"Sweet summer night and I'm stripped to my sheets Forehead is leaking, my AC squeaks and A voice from the clock says, "You're not gonna get tired" My bed is a pool and the walls are on fire."
"You've got to weigh all he said He helped you shape the way you play You've got to get rid of the mourning Sort out the habits of your mind."
"The Velvet Underground never sold many records, but, as many have said, it seems like every one of the group's fans went out and started a band."
"The Velvets straddled the categories. They were nothing if not eclectic: their music and sensibility suggested influences as diverse as Bob Dylan and Andy Warhol, Peter Townshend and John Cage; they experimented with demented feedback and isolated, pure notes and noise for noise's sake; they were partial to sweet, almost folky melodies; they played the electric viola on Desolation Row."
"R.E.V.O. — Realize Every Victory Outright."
"I just had the idea of putting on multiple hands on a guitar for a long time, and I just didn't have the right song, and when I heard the song, I said "That's the one that it has to be." I didn't have any idea it was going to turn out like that, but I'm glad we chose it. … It's an awesome song."
"You have to have an awesome core of people that you get along with."
"It was a complete surprise... totally."
"Gianni: The time has come … I don't want to yell it because we're… Sarah: Just do it — fuck it, those guys don't even hear us."
"I got this old guitar The strings are rusty But it's all I need."
"I got a shaker too The kinds of sound That wants to make you move. Bring in the uke It will complete the groove. Let's gather round and sing a song."
"There's no worries on the earth tonight We're all walkin' off the world tonight. Come on now everyone yeah Come on now everyone We're like a locomotive Under the big hot sun We're chained to the gang of rhythm The song is never done Come on now everyone yeah Come on now everyone Come on everyone."
"We got this melody Bring in the harmony like CSNY To write a tune you know will never die."
"And when the night is done These chains will hold us strong The chords will carry on Long after we're gone… oh… oh…"
"I say I rule the world. Don't cloud my vision I'm telling you — not today 'Cause I'm seeing straight. Made my decision. Made it through the shades of grey, Made it my own way. I materialize the feeling To carry on, to carry on I know some would say I'm dreaming But I carry on, I carry on, on."
"They say "no way", well, I say "I rule the world." Ain't afraid of the walls, Imma break 'em down. They stay the same — well I'm feelin' high as a bird. Ain't afraid of the ground — I'm a standing.I say yeah, yeah, yeah, they say no, no, no, they say slow, slow, slow, I say go, go, go — They say "no way" I say I rule the world."
"I've chased illusion And I watched them fade to black Throwing me off-track. Found Revolution. Found it in a simple fact. I ain't coming back."
"It's a dirty job, but someone's gotta do it."
"When you were here before, Couldn't look you in the eye. You're just like an angel, Your skin makes me cry. You float like a feather In a beautiful world. I wish I was special. You're so fuckin' special.But I'm a creep. I'm a weirdo. What the hell am I doin' here? I don't belong here."
"I don't care if it hurts. I wanna have control. I want a perfect body, I want a perfect soul. I want you to notice When I'm not around. You're so fuckin' special. I wish I was special."
"And the wise man said, "I don't want to hear your voice." And the thin man said, "I don't want to hear your voice." And they're cursing me and they won't let me be. And there's nothing to say and there's nothing to do.Stop whispering, start shouting. Stop whispering, start shouting."
"And if the world does turn, And if London burns, I'll be standing on the beach with my guitar. I wanna be in a band when I get to heaven. Anyone can play guitar And they won't be a nothing anymore."
"You can force it but it will not come. You can taste it but it will not form. You can crush it but it's always here. You can crush it but it's always near. Chasing you home SayingEverything is Broken. Everyone is Broken."
"I need to wash myself again To hide all the dirt and pain. 'Cause I'd be scared that there's nothing underneath. And who are my real friends? Have they all got the bends? Am I really sinking this low?"
"Drying up in conversation, You will be the one who cannot talk. All your insides fall to pieces. You just sit there wishing you could still make love. They're the ones who'll hate you When you think you've got the world all sussed out. They're the ones who'll spit at you. You will be the one screaming out.Don't leave me high. Don't leave me dry. Don't leave me high. Don't leave me dry."
"She looks like the real thing, She tastes like the real thing. My fake plastic love. But I can't help the feeling I could blow through the ceiling If I just turn and run.And it wears me out, It wears me out."
"They love me like I was a brother. They protect me, listen to me. They dug me my very own garden, Gave me sunshine, made me happy.Nice dream. Nice dream. Nice dream."
"Don't get my sympathy Hanging out the fifteenth floor. You've changed the locks three times He still come reeling through the door. One day I'll get to you And teach you how to get to purest hell.You do it to yourself, you do. And that's what really hurts Is that you do it to yourself, just you. You and no one else. You do it to yourself. You do it to yourself, ah."
"We're too young to fall asleep, Too cynical to speak. We are losing it, can't you tell? We scratch our eternal itch, Our twentieth century bitch. We are grateful for our iron lung."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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)"
"I'd tell all my friends, but they'd never believe me. They'd think that I'd finally lost it completely. I'd show them the stars and the meaning of life. They'd shut me away, but I'd be alright. Alright, I'm alright, alright."
"Breathe, keep breathing, Don't lose your nerve. Breathe, keep breathing, I can't do this alone."
"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."
"This is what you get. This is what you get. This is what you get. When you mess with us."
"When I go forwards, you go backwards, And somewhere we will meet."
"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."
"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."
"Pull me out of the aircrash, Pull me out of the lake. 'Cause I'm your superhero. We are standing on the edge."
"Flies are buzzing 'round my head, Vultures circling the dead. Picking up every last crumb, The big fish eat the little ones. Big fish eat the little ones, Not my problem, give me some.You can try the best you can, You can try the best you can. The best you can is good enough."
"Stop sending letters. Letters always get burned. It's not like the movies; They fed us on little white lies.I think you're crazy, maybe. I think you're crazy, maybe.I will see you in the next life."
"After years of waiting, Nothing came. As your life flashed before your eyes, You realizeI'm a reasonable man. Get off, get off, get off my case."
"I jumped in the river and what did I see? Black-eyed angels swam with me. A moon full of stars and astral cars, And all the figures I used to see. All my lovers were there with me, All my past and futures. And we all went to heaven in a little row boat.There was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt."
"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."
"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)"
"Are you such a dreamer To put the world to rights? I'll stay home forever Where two and two always makes a five."
"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."
"Yesterday's headlines Blown by the wind. Yesterday's people end up Scatterbrain there. Any fool can easy pick a hole I only wish I could fall in A moving target in a firing range."
"I keep the wolf from the door, but he calls me up. Calls me on the phone, tells me all the ways that he's gonna mess me up. Steal all my children if I don't pay the ransom And I'll never see them again if I squeal to the cops."
"How come I end up where I started? How come I end up where I went wrong? Won't take my eyes off the ball again. You reel me out, then you cut the string."
"I have no idea what I am talking about. I am trapped in this body and can't get out."
"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."
"I'm the next act waiting in the wings. I'm an animal trapped in your hot car. I am all the days that you choose to ignore.You are all I need. You're all I need. I'm in the middle of your picture, Lying in the reeds."
"Because we separate like ripples on a blank shore (In rainbows)"
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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)"
"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."
"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."
"Now as I go upon my way So let me go upon my way Born of a light, born of a light The wind rushing 'round my open heart An open ravine with my spirit wide Totally alive and my spirit light Through an open doorway Across a street to another life And catching my reflection In a window, switching on a light One I didn't know, totally alive, totally released."
"Hey, it's me, I just got off the train A frightening place, the faces are concrete grey And I'm wondering, should I turn around? Buy another ticket?"
"From roughly 1995 to about 2002, there was arguably no hotter band on the planet than Radiohead. It got to the point that fans worldwide could not wait to hear what was next from Thom Yorke and Co. Radiohead went from a true rock outfit to excelling within the alternative and art rock scenes while also not being afraid to throw in some electronica. There is not a better run of albums with , , , and in alternative rock history. Even today, Radiohead still has a major influence on the music scene."
"OK Computer was the last gasp of the rock monoculture: an incontestable, unrepeatable, and critically consecrated masterpiece of a genre that was too big to fail, yet too limp to preside over a new century. Picking up grunge’s challenge to macho rock orthodoxy, the bookish Oxford five-piece parlayed corporate resistance and righteous angst into an infernal assessment of mainstream conformism, petit bourgeois inertia, and cartoonish celebrity culture. But where grunge despaired at the gravity of it all, and Britpop buried its head in hedonism, Radiohead made a crucial distinction: Seeing the inferno of modern life in all its grotesque glory was not a curse to endure or escape, but a superpower to wield."
"Radiohead’s OK Computer would become such a resounding popular and critical success that it would essentially destroy an important subgenre — the Britpop of Oasis, Blur, and Suede — with the force of its implication: Three-minute songs about drunken nights or critiques of the English suburbs now seemed unspeakably tiny, and American grunge sounded noisy and antique."
"The melancholic wonder and mesmerization provided from the UK’s own Radiohead has always been second to none."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"”Stay Here”"
"”I was a Prisoner in your Skull”"
"”Hypogirl”"
"”The Seer”"
"”The Seer Returns”"
"Early Swans really is like little else on the planet before or since"
"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."
"…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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"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."
"I wanted Swans to be 'heavier', though. I wanted the music to obliterate — why, I don’t remember! I think it just felt good."
"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."
"Swans are majestic, beautiful-looking creatures. With really ugly temperaments."
"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."
"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."
"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."