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Jackie Robinson’s Diary Vol.1 / Swans On A38
Shit!, I said, all chips on the table! . Before Swans took the stage, on board the ship at anchor, watching the purplish clouds, we talked or held our breath in reverence, and to get the best night out of sweet smoke, because if there’s a time to tune in – this must it. And let me make this a disclaimer: maybe I was tuned in too much; my shoes smell like a pair of rats; I often badly miss contact at shows where everyone is facing the stage, like an altar; and most relevantly, I hadn’t got into their reunion albums deep enough.
Swans really hurt, ears and heart, by their sheer volume. The ship A38 is famed for its excellent sound, but, strangely, Gira’s sonorities got trapped in the mix – coming loud and clear, but without the depth to his voice. Count crashes to 22 – a lighthook poises! or some such intermission. Huge blocks – a bit short of details -. cold shiny storm of steel, bluesy downcast drudge, and in the center: immediacy. They bared themselves – were hypnotic, to be kind – or focused beyond bias. Earplugs came with entry, but using them would have felt like betrayal.
Levels of experience (and how they lapsed):
shimmering transfusion swept legs, twitched back and back, off with poses at the joints, I was shaking + the sense of being in the moment (but noone really broke loose)-> communal
release and abandon -> surfing, fun in the sun ( more fun fun fun!) -> magic (a few waves) -> [magical] fairy tale (alas,only a few moments of that…you know, mythic reenactment – but maybe I went to the wrong show)
It was great, it was real, it promised rapture, maybe companionship, but I didn’t totally get it.
Back in the streets, I stopped by an old man playing a woodbox guitar and singing just beautifully to it. Bucolic songs,ballads – almost myths. Thank you, Swans! Thank you, Mr Péter Lóczi!
The Primal Brutality of Man
Swans of God
The Realization of The Primal Brutality of Man in songs
1. Children of God 2. Trust Me 3. Butcher 4. Money is Flesh 5. Blood and Honey
6. Lunacy 7. Power for Power 8. Song for a Warrior 9. Coward 10. A Hanging
11. Freak 12. The Apostate
From the album: Filth (1983): 7, 11; Cop (1984): 3; Holy Money (1986): 4, 9, 10; Children of God (1987): 1, 2, 5; The Seer (2012): 6, 8, 12
Swans are on Euro tour Oct 15: Budapest
Saint Francis with Swans
You’ve got only a limited time alive, so you’ve got to use your imagination. Otherwise, you’ll die of boredom, quick.
M. Gira
Life is too short not to fill it with real things.
Jeanette Winterson
The Realization of the Primal Brutality of Man
So, what can you do this autumn? Evening closes in fast already these days, the shadows on the streets turn blue quickly, then disappear. You realize that sometimes you’re listening to your own bones as they wait for the cold to creep into the days and slowly conquer them. And there is a special day.
The 4 of October has been the remembrance day of Saint Francis of Assisi for quite a long time. You know him for sure, the guy who wrote that strangely serene, yet beautiful hymn which you probably didn’t read, and who’s famous for preaching to the birds. That’s cute, isn’t it? You can visualize him instantly in faded sepia colors, as if he has just stepped out of a Zeffirelli flick, walking barefoot on the thick grass of a luscious park, stopping at a pomegranate tree to tell something really important, very poetic and easy to remember about God’s goodness (p.e. „Lookee here, God is good, capisci?”) to the nightingales and robins. There should even be a flamingo standing nearby, eavesdropping. Right? Fuck that.
Frances was a genuinely cool kid, so first he tried to help his fellow men and guide them. His original plot was to preach to his people and make them repent and then, you know, redemption, eternal life in God’s loving light and all that stuff. Only he realized that his people didn’t give a shit about any of those. On top of that, after graciously accepting his help they robbed him too, just to be on the safe side, and even would have killed him, if that was possible. So, when he admitted that his neighborhood was filled with dead men who were still walking and doing harm, he chose the nicer dead, and off he went to the cemetery, which at those times was more like an open-air person-rotting plot, not resembling at all to the very pleasingly landscaped parks which we know as cemeteries nowadays. There the dead were basically lying around and rotting silently, occasionally being chewed or bitten by this animal or that, but at least they did not kill each other any more. So there was this hippyesque kid immersed in conversation with these carcasses, and there were the crows too, nibbling on the eyes of the same carcasses. That’s how the legend started, anyway. You can take it for a fact.
First Experience with Swans
The Swans were just a band among the highly praised unknown others for me. Of course I heard about them many times, and the opinions were in superlatives. A bad word there wasn’t! So I didn’t care. There were many great bands, unrecognized by others. The Swans came and went often, I stayed at home.
Everything was very all right until the day before yesterday. That day I have begun to edit a long article in reference with Swans. In the beginning I didn’t want to listen to them, but finally yesterday evening I have done it first time ever. It was the brand new album „To Be Kind”. Frightful long tracks, some of them have strange titles. One of them dedicated to the legendary bluesman Howlin’ Wolf! Among the musicians: the new alt-pop diva, St. Vincent; founder of Cop Shoot Cop, Phil Puleo; a black soul from the Canadian call center hell, Al Spx (Cold Specks); Bill Rieflin (Minisrty, RevCo, Lard, KMFDM, Pigface, REM). Come what may, play!
Since I have done it three times. I can speak only in superlatives about it. In the first place their heavy psych-ritual music came Foetus and Lydia Lunch to my mind. In the second place: Neurosis and Nine Inch Nails.
The summit is „Bring the Sun”, a 34 minutes long little symphony about the Black Napoleon, Toussiant L’ouverture, leader of the Haitian Revolution. Haiti was French colony at that time. The revolt rose against the slavery in 1791 under the impact of French Revolution. It was successful, but the free and equal blacks and mulattos had begun to massacre each others without delay in fraternal concord. Toussiant L’ouverture was captured before the final victory, and died at the White Napoleon’s prison in France in 1803.
Some bad words (for security reasons): „She Loves Us” become tedious during its 17 minutes. So if you are in a show, this is the best time to go to pee, buy a beer and smoke something. For instance in this fall on their European tour,
03.18. – 19. Budapest
Inkább most
A 12.
