Since the Swans have been mentioned a few times I thought I'd put my tenpenneth worth in. I've talked about it on here before, but one of my favourite records ever is Swans' Love Of Life. I think it's probably worth a mention here more than the earlier stuff because no-one I know who's into the Swans ever talks about it. I guess it's not their classic dirge sound, it's very song based, but I think its totally excellent, a really deep heartfelt record. And some of my favourite lyrics ever:

No We Have Never Been Here
And We'll Never Be Gone
I Saw Your Voice Rise Up
And Cut Into The Heart Of The Sun
I Kissed The Lips Of A Girl
She Took Her First Breath When The World Was Young
I Felt The Cold Of The Air As It Burned By Empty Lungs
And We Have Never Been Born
And We Will Be Consumed
And Unreality Is Buried Beneath The Truth
And Though We've Never Been Here
We Will Never Be Contained
And Reality Is Naked Beneath The Moon

So We'll Go Down To The Ocean
And Wash Our Memory Clean
We'll See The World For The First Time
Through An Unburied Eye
And Though The World Will Stay The Same
And We're Certain To Die
We'll Raise Our Hands Up To Heaven
And Sacrifice Our Limitations
And The Pain And Frustration
Are Equal To The Bliss Of Release
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We'll Live For An Eternity
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We Could Never Have Been Born
And The Light That Surrounds Us
Will Take Us Into It's Arms
And When We Die We'll Disappear
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We're Here Just For A Little While
And Then Our Body Disappears

Into The Eyes Of Nature
Into The Arms Of God
Into The Mouth Of Indifference
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We Are Nothing But Experience
In The Eyes Of Nature
And We Will Live Forever
In The Eyes Of Nature

So yes, an album I love that no-one cares about.

Does anyone talk or care about the Van Pelt? Sultans of Sentiment is a fucking amazing record, but it seems to be very rarely mentioned. Maybe it is and I don't hear it.

ubercat wrote:

SecondEdition wrote:Cows - Daddy Has A Tail! - No one I know has ever heard of this band; a pity, I burned my next-door neighbor a copy of this...I think he likes it.

Best Cows record. An old band of mine played a number of shows w/ them
between 1989-1991. Shannon broke both his arms at our drummers place
when he fell through the roof. They were having an affair. Then for the rest
of the tour Shannon had a person hold up his horns with sticks. Like, he'd
do a trumpet part and the horn would come out of the crowd, taped to sticks
(duct tape). He had two casts that held his arms out like a bird ready for flight.
Hard to follow that. My Dad's A Fucking Alcoholic was in the set at
that time. Probably one of my favorite live bands.

Tim Taylor (r.i.p.) told me that exact story years ago. I think Brainiac did a handful of shows with the Cows.

I just picked up Soft Machine's 'Three'. If you don't hate noodly arty hippy stuff... well, it is really very good. Does anyone else like this crap?

Chapter Two wrote:Since the Swans have been mentioned a few times I thought I'd put my tenpenneth worth in. I've talked about it on here before, but one of my favourite records ever is Swans' Love Of Life. I think it's probably worth a mention here more than the earlier stuff because no-one I know who's into the Swans ever talks about it. I guess it's not their classic dirge sound, it's very song based, but I think its totally excellent, a really deep heartfelt record. And some of my favourite lyrics ever:

No We Have Never Been Here
And We'll Never Be Gone
I Saw Your Voice Rise Up
And Cut Into The Heart Of The Sun
I Kissed The Lips Of A Girl
She Took Her First Breath When The World Was Young
I Felt The Cold Of The Air As It Burned By Empty Lungs
And We Have Never Been Born
And We Will Be Consumed
And Unreality Is Buried Beneath The Truth
And Though We've Never Been Here
We Will Never Be Contained
And Reality Is Naked Beneath The Moon

So We'll Go Down To The Ocean
And Wash Our Memory Clean
We'll See The World For The First Time
Through An Unburied Eye
And Though The World Will Stay The Same
And We're Certain To Die
We'll Raise Our Hands Up To Heaven
And Sacrifice Our Limitations
And The Pain And Frustration
Are Equal To The Bliss Of Release
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We'll Live For An Eternity
And In The Eyes Of Nature
We Could Never Have Been Born
And The Light That Surrounds Us
Will Take Us Into It's Arms
And When We Die We'll Disappear
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We're Here Just For A Little While
And Then Our Body Disappears

Into The Eyes Of Nature
Into The Arms Of God
Into The Mouth Of Indifference
Into The Eyes Of Nature
And We Are Nothing But Experience
In The Eyes Of Nature
And We Will Live Forever
In The Eyes Of Nature

So yes, an album I love that no-one cares about.

I'm way into everything the Swans/M. Gira has done to date. He is the Werner Herzog of...some sort of music??

LBx wrote:The Up On In "Steps for the Light"

i know one other person who enjoys this album.

you now know two.

zach barocas is amongst my heros. they were a fine, fine band. they played a show upstairs at the Middle East circa 2000 that remains one of the best shows i've ever seen...

rayj wrote:I just picked up Soft Machine's 'Three'. If you don't hate noodly arty hippy stuff... well, it is really very good. Does anyone else like this crap?

you bet.

1 + 2 are great. Robert Wyatt's stuff is incredible. Shleep? WTF. so good.

kerble wrote:

rayj wrote:I just picked up Soft Machine's 'Three'. If you don't hate noodly arty hippy stuff... well, it is really very good. Does anyone else like this crap?

you bet.

1 + 2 are great. Robert Wyatt's stuff is incredible. Shleep? WTF. so good.

Oh yes. Now I need 1 and 2. My mom had them, and neither she nor myself ever put them on, to my memory. Now I gotta pay 20 bucks each+ for them...

The recording quality on 'Three' is kinda dark. I know it's live...sounds more like 60's production than 70's...still, the performances are pretty out of hand.

Couch Flambeau - Couch Flambeau



There... i said it.

Chapter Two wrote:Since the Swans have been mentioned a few times I thought I'd put my tenpenneth worth in. I've talked about it on here before, but one of my favourite records ever is Swans' Love Of Life.

Love of life and White light are easily my favourite Swans records, although the best lyrics of the records are obviously 'Failure'.

Years ago at work we used to play the 'Failure' game of making up new pay-off lines for the song: "the rat-infested tesco bag of failure", "the poo-stinking public convenience of failure", you get the idea. It's the perfect family game for long car journeys...