Swans are following in a line of recently reformed bands that few thought would ever reform – particularly after making it clear that the last tour was a farewell event. Swans have announced a new tour and a new album but it will be without longtime member and vocalist, Jarboe. I am curious if this reunion was from an enticement from a festival such as Coachella as seems to be the case, I suspect anyway, for many of the other reunions. Whatever the reasons, I will be sure to go see them during this tour and am very curious what of the several stylistically disparate phases they will focus on. Myself, I am the biggest fan of the spurned ‘burning rabbit’ albums White Light… and Love of Life as well as Children of God, which, it seems, is, for whatever reason, considered a loathsome era as far as what I gather from statements from Michael Gira and others.
Jarboe, on the other hand, seems to be doing her own thing. She did a collaboration with Neurosis, has released numerous recordings, and recently toured her new band as the Living Jarboe. Here is a recording from the rescheduled show (stupid Icelandic volcano) at Union Pool. [Thanks to operative Mark.] This is a track from an earlier collaboration with Neurosis as performed by her current band.
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Download: Jarboe – Within (Live)
I saw Neurosis on the “Word As Law” tour, so when they came back through I thought I had a pretty good idea of what I was in for during the “Souls at Zero” tour in ’92. Man was I wrong. They really stepped it up, and even though they were really good on the previous tour, they were absolutely amazing this time around. It only got better for the “Enemy of the Sun” tour. This is a demo from the first track on “Souls at Zero.” The sound isn’t so hot since it’s clipping out all over the place, but it’s interesting to hear this early version of the track.
The new Neurosis record comes out next week. Amazon has the release date at June 5th but the Neurot Recordings website has it available in May, so who actually knows. I see there’s a “Limited Edition CD” that is being released, so if you’re into that, get on it. They are also releasing it as a double LP, which is more up my alley. I saw them a few months ago at The El Rey with Red Sparowes and they played a couple of the songs off the new record which are, according to the press release “enveloping, subverting the senses with surreal visions we’d swear were our own, cleverly jarring and disorienting consciousness beyond any footing in reality.” I don’t know about all that, but they were pretty good.
