Swans

What's early Swans about? is Gira making fun of the things he writes about or does he actually follow/believe them? I'm talking about songs like Half Life, Power for Power, Weakling, Stupid Child, Time Is Money (Bastard) and also the whole Children of God album, is he just making fun of religion and religious people? I'm specifically curious what you think Swans is trying to convey in songs with rape like Time is Money.
[spoiler]Swans is my favorite band by the way.[/spoiler]

its about the greed and hypocrisy of fundamentalists and politicians

That's a happy Gira.

early lyrics were about pure anger, spite of society and living in your own filth.
...I guess I don't read into lyrics that much, I listen to early Swans to feel anger or get pumped up.

Swans' early lyrics were a commentary on power relations (particularly work), and a reaction to the Reagan era specifically. The short, repetitive lyrics in particular was inspired by advertising. Everything before Children of God is somewhere between observation and satire, while Children of God itself is an exploration of religion without any intent to condemn or condone.

this

>power relations, Foucault, satire, exploration of religion durrrr

And I do love Swans, don't get me wrong

yeah i think he just screamed shit that sounded good

>I don't read into lyrics that much
exactly, that's poetry, not music

Don't know that much about American politics, what did Reagan do that it was bad for the people?? I say this cause it's something that I've noticed with some people, I don't know even know why Reagan is popular

During that period, Gira was working back breaking construction jobs for low wages and, like many blue collar workers, struggling with alcohol and drug addiction.

If you put yourself in the mindset of such a person, early Swans will make sense to you. It's the sound of alienation, resentment, and existential rage.

most genuine misanthropy in music

Early Swans is based almost entirely on power. Power for Power is about people who use other people, and Gira takes this to every extreme which I think is the source of a lot of the rape imagery on Filth and Cop. It's using other people to the extreme through things like domination and manipulation, especially using the power of a boss (Michael needed the money from the soul crushing work to keep himself alive)

I took it literally at first, but it's almost gallows humour seeped in extreme rage

I'm not a big swans fan so maybe this is obvious to you guys but I happened to just be reading a later interview of his where he talks about his songwriting a bit
part 1

part 2

>Well, I dunno? You thought it was about religion or something? No, I don't sit down and write from abstract concepts like that
>... I set out iwth a kinda feeling or idea and try to get at that through either direct or elliptical means -- whatever I feel is appropriate at the time. So the songs are about, I guess, modestly, the end of the world. Some of them are just simple songs about people I knew and some of them are about... regret really... Exercises in regret or resignation.
>... No, I haven't made that kind of grand statement. I couldn't possibly hope to live with myself as a human being if I said something like that. I really don't know the answers to those kind of questions. I'm barely able to formulate whether I exist or not.
>... It's a song and I really don't like talking too specifically about the lyrics because I don't want to kill it for the person who listens to it, not that it's just an amorphous grouping of words that anyone can interpret any way they want but at the same time, I don't want to define it too clearly because it ruins the main thing that someone should get when they listen to a bit of our music, which is their imagination moving a little bit.

thank u, interesting stuff

I'm not American myself, so I can't tell you about the social climate of the time definitively, but from what I gather there's a particular kind of machismo associated with Reagan's terms. The US recovered the swagger it had lost from Vietnam and the social crises of the 60's and was ready to swing it's dick around again, reflected in action blockbusters, hair metal and conspicuous consumption at home, interventions in Central America and the Middle East abroad. Thing is, all this pomp and bluster had it's negatives too - Wall Street culture and the concentration of wealth, long-term consequences from aforementioned foreign operations, and a general entitled shitheadedness in the culture at large. It was the latter that I believe Gira was reacting to.

Also not an American but Reagan deregulated a lot of restrictions put in place after the crash in '29 which allowed businesses to expand mostly unchecked, it was a large contributor to the rise of the era of ridiculously indulgent corporatism we live in

>Jarboes wearing an Op-Art cap and looks like an Acid House victim
Swans x bleep when?

A Screw is fucking danceable, user. Just read an interview with her yesterday about how she was really into industrial dance circa 85

>tfw no jarboe waifu

>Gira was purportedly the perpetrator and victim of a rape?

Anyone have any details on this? I always read he was able to avoid being raped in prison by the skin of his teeth but saw a man gang raped every night (he sings about it on Blind)

I always assumed he had committed a sexual atrocity, possibly with a child but does anyone know what this article is referencing?