Swans - Mtv interview + clips with Michael Gira and Jarboe 1992

[malkooth]

Temporary rebellion before people go on to become consumers. You got that right Michael. 

[FractalBolt]

Anyone who calls Swans "gothic" music has no idea of gothic music at all, and has no knowledge of musc outside of his/her narrow categorizations.

[portalsofmadnes]

the love of life video is pretty good

[afsbjah2]

It's hard to believe mtv used to have bands on like swans and aphex twin

[lionstanding]

Best live show ever.....Orbit Room, Dallas, Texas....a frigid frozen February in 1997....with an audience of maybe 50 people....

[FractalBolt]

Second that, I fucking hate it when people call certain music with a dark undertone "gothic"... pretty fucking annoying.

[TheGreaterGood80]

I think the closest thing Swans were initially was industrial. However, after a while it seemed as though they became "dark country"

[bloodyrockfire]

@TheGreaterGood80 the genres they played over time are varied.I would preferably call their 90's material 'neofolk' rather than country even though Gira plays no more than 1 or 2 chords.The guy knows exactly what he's up to.His honesty is exemplar, as is his charm.

hmmm... dark country haha:D

[FuzzyCabesas]

@GayForJohnnyDepp93 Music on MTV doesn't make any sense...

[nonfictionstory]

if i saw swans on mtv when i was visiting my parents and doing my laundry, i could drop dead happy knowing that humanity is back on the right track. power to the people.

[GayForJohnnyDepp93]

Swans on MTV?

That doesn't make any sense...

[MarsCoban]

Swans are Swans. Period. They do what they want to do.

[evillurkswithinusall]

Calling Swans "Goth" is just as inaccurate as calling them Metal!

I mean, maybe Goth in the terms of being grotesque. Gira writes about some pretty disturbing things, but to think of them as the black nail polish cheese that's normally associated with the label "Goth" is laughable.

[NightmareGanon]

@evillurkswithinusall Actually, some of their early songs are pretty damn metallesque.

[jugwinedrunk]

A couple of creepy folks right here. Bad Joy Division cover, Gira is unbelievably pretentious, the music is also fittingly pretentious. That's my 2 cents, see ya in hell

[youknowyourrite1]

@jugwinedrunk that's a load of shit either way. especially the word pretentious,that word gets thrown around so much i don't even know where to begin.i'd love to see your defintion of that word.most people claim it means a person who uses big words without knowing it's meaning.but from what i can tell,it seems like alot of pricks use it because they like to think music has laws and there are only certain ways of making it.a kind of guy that took music theory,and listens to technical death metal.

[brainboob]

@youknowyourrite1

I think the word pretentious is usually used to describe something that someone else lacks an understanding for. So they label it 'pretentious' as a defense mechanism. When you ask them what is pretentious about it, they have no answer. 

[FractalBolt]

This was back when Mtv didn't suck, right? Because right now they blow so much ass it's not funny anymore.

[Jon217t]

the videos a screw and new mind are good the others not so much

[youknowyourrite1]

i don't care what anyone thinks michael.. those microphone antics were part of some of the most beautifully twisted and darkest shows i've ever seen. and i don't know why man but those things are like heroin to me. i watch them every day and i loved the fact that it always scares the living daylights out of all the predictable people. they are really like no other. check out some of their live vids from 85-86.

[vansrok1]

Swans makes the worst videos ever.

[redshaftedflicker]

One of the only bands to scare the living fuck out of me still to this day. amazing band to say the least.

[theboywhospokeclouds]

That last clip of Amnesia is AMAZING! Would love a full recording of that!

[ShivaChaosRitsuka]

This was real MTV, now that chanel with the same name SUCKS DICK!!

Swans are a so fucking awesome band......

[Rizimar]

The "Saved" video reminds me of some of the trippier stuff from Ministry's Tapes of Wrath

[zackjmack]

I dig the fact that he mentioned American Music Club(Mark Eitzel) and also that he equated himself with Led Zeppelin and more honestly with Robert Plant. Early Zep, you see a different Plant, but in the later days he became this corny dancing doll of sorts, which Gira describes. I'm glad that Gira has been aware enough not to fall into that trap. He's much more intelligent and literary than most people realize. The Swans weren't Satanists, ever. They poked fun. They fooled most of us.

[pentagrimes]

ARGH!I;d wanted to see this again for so long, because that Amnesia video was amazing..wish it didn't cut off before the vocals..anyone got the rest of it anywhere?

[TheGreaterGood80]

i don't enjoy the Swans. I've given them plenty of tries and it just never took. However, I respect them and their influence on other musicians. Gira is an intelligent and dedicated guy

[swans1997]

What you like is what you like. Never was much of a Soundgarden fan, myself, but I respected their integrity and they had some good tunes. Saw em' twice live in their early days. Being a resident of Seattle.

[scratchacidyow]

Let's say you're surviving off of Kraft Mac and Cheese. As far as Kraft is concerned are you a consumerist bastard? Yes, a rather good one. How the fuck can "punk rockers" avoid consumerism in America? And who the fuck cares. Nirvana rocked, Swans rocked, people sucked and still continue to do so, regardless of their spending habits or career ambitions. As long as human beings are dominant, self interest will always prevail. As it probably should. Unless you have a better idea.

[swans1997]

To me, he was rather being kinda cynical about the alternative ethic of resisting pop ctlture & commercialism, really. That's what I was getting at with the Nirvana kids crack. Not really the food you buy. I'm sure Cobain probably subsisted of "Mac & Cheese", ha ha. You gotta eat.

[scratchacidyow]

Yeah, I love Nirvana, but the whole "we never meant to be famous" thing was bullshit. But I definitely don't fault them for wanting to be that big. I mean they did it without making shitty music. Which is definitely debatable, but in the context of modern rock, lets say from a Nickelback/foo fighters reference point, they were pretty bad ass. My point was that the implications behind the word yuppie are kind of complicated and ambiguous. Just rambling really, either way I fucking love Swans.

[swans1997]

What I like about Gira was he never got onto that "we never meant to be famous" trip , it was to me, it's ok, as long as it's MY music on MY terms. I don't reject popularity, it just depends on WHAT IT IS, for me.

[wordupassholes]

@scratchacidyow But they didn't, really. They evolved from the underground scene in seattle and they did enjoy it as a small following. Then all of a sudden Geffen takes interest and whoop: Grunge explodes, whitout any intention of it at all. I personally would hate to be as famous as they are now.

I mean come on, 11 years after Kurt's death people STILL worship him.

[spuffchops70]

@wordupassholes Why are you talking about Nirvana? Does anybody need to hear anything else about this band? This clip is about Swans. A most intelligent, excellent and criminally underrated band. SWANS! (Not Nirvana.)

[wordupassholes]

@spuffchops70 I dunno, this is a super old comment but my guess is that someone brought it up and being the pathetic loser I am, I have to reply

[lessthanpinochet]

@scratchacidyow Dude, two things i wanna say to you: 1) Scratch Acid were awesome!

2)Awesome comment, in the Western world it is plain impossible to avoid consumerism. People who rant against it don't realize that in order to be a non-consumer you have to rely on other consumer's money to survive. If you want to be a 3rd world country, consumerism is a necessary evil.

[swans1997]

Alternatives= "temporary rebellion, before they go on and become consumers". Ha Ha Nirvana kids becoming yuppies.

[Sleguiza]

swans are not gothic, their just freaks...i love it

[ants4rocket]

I really don't like it when people call Swans 'gothic', just cuz some of their songs are depressive and bitter, I prefer to think of it as Swans music - gothic is much too narrow a term for it I think.

[camille37766]

@ants4rocket

Entirely true. I'm sick of people calling Swans gothic. Listen to goth, sure none of it sounds like Swans. They're something special.

[thecrikster]

@ants4rocket It's a little closer to industrial to me, but even that probably isn't a good fit.

[GEETARS3]

@ants4rocket

Pre Children Of God stuff is definately NOT music, LOL!

[spuffchops70]

@GEETARS3 I useta think along the same lines, but I bought the 'Body to Body, Job to Job' album recently, and there's some great stuff on there...still not most people's definition of 'music', maybe, but some great, abstract, rhythmic stuff going on. I wouldn't describe some of that kind of stuff as 'industrial', even.

[GEETARS3]

@ants4rocket

Its pretty much Anti Musical in pretty much everywhere, and thats why I love it.

[tryanglz]

@ants4rocket

indeed,

no wave is so more fitting

[JukeboxHeartbreak91]

@ants4rocket it's just a sheepish tendency to have to put labels on every little thing to make us feel like we understand it better. god forbid something comes up that we can't label.

[Rapchaid]

@ants4rocket who called them gothic lol

[ParadoxIncarnate]

@ants4rocket

I would say that in a sense Swans are gothic, but there is way too much to their music to be summed up in one word or restricted to any genre.

[FractalBolt]

@ParadoxIncarnate There's absolutely nothing "gothic" about Swans' music...

[alejandro15187]

Cool, Gary Oldman's got a band!. Just kidding, Swans rule.

[posthumanhero]

funny how towards the end he mentions led zep and they play a live swans clip which kinda sounds like a led zep loop -- the rhtyhm section i mean.

[livershot]

Yeah that sounded really cool. Sounded like a Zep breakbeat

[nasalscarecrow]

Nice one for uploading this, never seen it.

[beowulven]

Snootchie bootchies.

[Timmybear]

I didn't really see the point in Jarboe being there. Other than a smile and a silent laugh, she said nothing during the interview.  Seemed a waste, as she is very articulate on her own.

[spuffchops70]

@Timmybear She was probably just feeling wasted from the fatigue of another SWANS tour. She has said in interviews that she found the constant low budget travelling from country to country very hard. As anybody would. I suspect that SWANS did not have Belgian chocolate profiteroles in their riders.

[aaazzzza]

Could there be anypne more pretentious than Michael Gira? He's immensely talented, but boy does he have an ego.

[policestory]

How was anything he said in the video remotely pretentious?

[posthumanhero]

i hate that word 'pretentious'...it's disenabling and condesnceding and usually meaningless.

[policestory]

agreed.

[Timmybear]

@posthumanhero - I agree. I had a teacher in Grade 8 who called me that. I took out the dictionary, looked it up (I already knew what it meant, but I was making a point) and said: 'It says here that it's about pretending to understand things that you don't. I DO understand it, so I'm not pretentious, and I'll prove it.'

[posthumanhero]

@Timmybear lol

[nickhoffer]

I believe he's so talented that it's ok that he has somewhat of an ego. If I was the musical genius that is Michael Gira, I would have quite the ego myself.

[alejandro15187]

It's just the hater's man, fuck'em. Gira's the scariest man in rock. I love'em

[AmazingPurpleCat]

@alejandro15187 Scariest man in rock?

But he sounds like such a nice guy..

[spuffchops70]

@nickhoffer I don't find him particularly egotistical compared to the majority of people involved in the music scene. Especially today's so-called 'alternative music scene'. Yeasayer? Devendra Banhart? Florence & the Publicity Machine? 'Alternative'? Pfffttttt.......

[mikem1234]

He just brings a different perspective to music than most. That's not "pretentious."

[wordupassholes]

I did try to get into the newer swans, I really did.

But I just couldn't do it. The later stuff is incredible though.

[Sandbag209]

lol at the evolution of michael's hair throughout this

[temporaryguy]

The Berlin live he's talking about is on Youtube too, search Beautiful Child.

[temporaryguy]

Swans were on MTV? Wow, MTV used to be cooler. And Swans seem to have been most popular around 1989 so

[alvareo92]

it's just The Burning World era.

[temporaryguy]

I know that, that's why I said 1989 (the year Burning World was released hurf durf)

[alvareo92]

lol okay

[circusmort]

I was at the Edinburgh Venue for that gig - I was waiting for the doors to open when Paul King (MTV 120 minutes presenter) left with the camera crew - he looked pretty pissed off too, thought Gira must've given him a hard time :D

[Xythantiops]

Ha Ha Ha "The Audience looked pretty Bovine.."

[cowboystitching]

Swans, amazing music, horrible horrible videos

[johnmoser01]

The Screw video is fricken awsome. Love of Life too. Those are the only two I've really seen though.

[giantgorillastudios]

The videos for "A Screw" and "Love of Life" are badass, but yeah, the other videos are pretty goofy, especially the video for New Mind.

[JavaJr69]

@giantgorillastudios forget the videos and listen to the music.

[giantgorillastudios]

Agreed 100%. However, I was responding to someone who was talking about Swans' music videos.

[JavaJr69]

Yeah — sorry — I came into the discussion kinda late. It's nice to see there a plenty people to appreciate Swans.

[Doc4orUgs]

@cowboystitching hey man.... i like their videos, love of life is great especially. kind of overly art'ed, but i like their possibly OWN take on their songs and what they did to them, with videos, if they did them... all the ones i've seen were good, but kind of tripped out stuff, only good while high maybe...

[johnmoser01]

@cowboystitching I disagree

[Rapchaid]

@cowboystitching but they fit? why do you think that?

[dukeon]

SWANS rule.

[brasikurtz]

thanx !!!

[tralalalatum]

GREAT!

[see27beats]

stupendous.