Comments on: The Intimate Horror of Michael Gira

By: Pawel Nobody

Pawel Nobody — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 01:18:49 +0000

Thanx for Gira! Maybe I become old (39), sure, but it’s hard to find such personas in music industry today. Gira is definitely one of the most important guys out there. Kind of Francis Bacon (my favorite painter) in music picture! Love the guy, Love his teeth & cry & independence. His live shows are always great, like a dying animal’s performance, unforgettable, beautiful, he is a punk mystic, old fart now but still incredible!!!

By: Paul Komoda

Paul Komoda — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:52:51 +0000

Thanks for posting this!

As I seem to be going through the throws of my latest bout of musical disillusionment, the works of Swans still waxes imperiously within my fevered brains.
Taking the “Way-Back Machine” to circa-1987…my SVA days:
I remember that the first time I listened to GREED I absolutely hated it!
Some time later my friend Sadie(an acquaintance Lydia Lunch, and Jim Thirwell to name a few) made me a tape of Children of God and the effect it had upon me was profound to say the least(.Jarboe’s indelible presence was a key factor). I gave Greed a second listen, and this time was unequivocally won over. Happens that way sometimes.

I still find it incredible that the early Swans had the whole sludgy”grindcore”sound down back in the fucking-80’s.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 02:25:14 +0000

That thing about the maggots eating the woman alive cannot be true, because maggots do not eat living flesh, The woman would have to be dead already for the maggots to go to work on her.

Otherwise, and interesting article.

By: Jon Munger

Jon Munger — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 00:04:45 +0000

A couple years ago this roommate of mine shoved The Consumer in my hand and said “Read this! It is the most fucked up shit ever!”, or something to that effect.
Being a horror writer, I decided to tear through it and digest everything I could, discard what I didn’t want and leave the carcass for the birds. Upon reading the first page, I lost the ability to chew, as it were.
The Consumer, to this day, remains one of the most challenging books I’ve ever read. Built from alienation so profound it bordered on transcendence, Gira teased the reader, threatened them with climax, and often simply dropped a story, almost as if he grew bored of it. Reading it is like an anxiety attack.
After two months of slogging through this book, I set it down and said to myself, “why do I bother? This is how you do it.”

By: Filipe Russo

Filipe Russo — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:17:47 +0000

“When I think competition, I think capitalism and Darwinism.
They’re one and the same.”

And to think that this is just a trace of individualism, even when someone thinks about society it’s a individual with superficial and/or deep interests of having or not having a society, of liking and/or not liking it, of thinking or not thiking about it. I think human life is somehow hive-like, humans from each sector doing their work for society’s, life’s and their species sake, and even bees compete with each work when they are looking for something sweet. Competition is everywhere and even far away from societies and needs, are too!
But it would be good living without it? Individualism is what makes every one unique; what we are and what we do with what we are is a lot based in our individual choices, opinions and experiences. Commom-sense, consciousness, ethics and the law are what, in thesis, protect every one and they are always changing, We are always changing. Everything is! But only if we could find a way that everyone accepted of being just enough polite without been robotized and still remain individualistic in what concerns one’s integrity. That is an utopia I would like to live in.

Hope this is not boring or that bad written.

And Good Interview! I’m glad to remember Swans music, it has some special meanings to me.