When I get my hands on some money I'll ask it's dirty face "Where the hell have you been?"

The Swans were an interesting band; they started out as art-noise, just pure fucking chaos for the sake of pure fucking chaos and then turned into this giant miasma of overwhelming sensation that was -- if not more subtle or delicate, at least less hostile. The only other band whose change from what they started out as to what they became is more dramatic is probably Wire (punk to arty electronic-pop, kinda? And always with that skewed way of seeing things that made them brilliant).


"I don't know...do you think 'cop' or 'raping a slave' really work acoustically?" 

The first few Swans albums are just pure fucking punishment (cf. COP/YOUNG GOD/GREED/HOLY MONEY or FILTH/JOB TO JOB, BODY TO BODY, two compilations of their earlier recorded works,) but mid-period Swans went into a weird folk/pop/goth headspace, like Current 93 convinced Joy Division's Ian Curtis to try his hand at some fucking love songs for once, and it came out this weird goth-pop-folk bastard child, not really romantic but not really anything else. Latter-day Swans is reminiscent of Godspeed You Black Emperor! (which is a neat trick, since they predate GYBE!) in the majestic crescendos and pure fucking fill-every-available-space-in-the-air-with-glorious-sound (cf. the entirely magnificent THE GREAT ANNIHILATOR or their final (wait for it....) swansong, SOUNDTRACKS FOR THE BLIND).

The Swans were one of those revolving doors bands that have one or two central figures and then everyone else changes so often that you don't remember their names (unless you're obsessively devoted, in which case you'll know that the roster includes Sonic Youth's Thurston and Ranaldo, Godflesh's last (and Jesu's current) drummer Ted Parsons, Roli Mossiman (who stole the name "Young Gods" for his band,) among lots of others. The first few Swans records were strictly Michael Gira with whoever was in the band at the moment, but somewhere around the GREED/HOLY MONEY era, Jarboe joins and her vocals add both more aggression and a soaring beauty to the quieter moments that puts Gira's violent raging moments into starker contrast.

So. The songs:
"Failure" and the Joy Division cover "Love Will Tear Us Apart (Jarboe Version)" are from their middle period -- there's a version of "Love Will Tear Us Apart" with Gira singing, which is equally good, but I wanted to listen to Jarboe's gorgeous voice. Gira's deep voice makes "Failure" as great as it is, with that cynical, sardonic and mordant tone throughout. "When I get my hands on some money, I'll ask it's dirty face: "Where the hell have you been?'". Fucking great. These were originally on the excellent but not really representative-of-the-swans-in-general albums "Love of Live" and "White Light From The Mouth Of Infinity", both of which Michael Gira disliked very much. So if you want to get them, or more stuff in this vein, you have to go for the stuff he wanted to keep from this era, which is on the "Various Failures:1988-1992" double-CD set.

"I Am The Sun" and "MIND/BODY/LIGHT/SOUND" are both from latter-era Swans, from "The Great Annihilator". An excellent introduction point if you haven't heard them before, since it's brutal and punishing but still melodic and not overwhelming (unless you do what you ought to and crank the record 'til your speakers burst).

Maybe some other stuff like Children of God or really early (FILTH) or late (SWANS ARE DEAD) stuff later. All links are yousendit.com links and will expire in a week. Get it while the gettin's good (and check out their more recent stuff -- Gira's Angels of Light band is GREAT as is Jarboe's work with Neurosis (haven't heard her solo stuff).