photos by Dana (distortion) Yavin

"Swans at Music Hall of Williamsburg. The most punishingly hot and loud show I've been to for a while. But pleasurably so, and they have a shirtless drummer named Thor. My brain is now a soft scrambled egg. Good night!" -snackish

"Watching the drummer from cop shoot cop be awesome w the swans reminds me how much I want a cop shoot cop reunion." -sethcdiamond

The Aquarian: You already recorded part of the new album in Berlin?

Michael Gira: We recorded the songs that we're playing live in Berlin, and also a portion of one that is built up from my guitar, my acoustic guitar. Now we have, at the end of this month's tour, we have another five days here in Upstate New York, we're going to record a bunch of new songs that I have written, and just build them up from the bottom up.

The album's going to be sprawling. I don't even know if you can call it an album--it's just a collection of music happening at the time. It can't be contained on vinyl, almost. It'd be like a six-vinyl set or something (laughs). So, I don't know how it's gonna be available, but we're just gonna do it and put it out later.

The legendary Swans returned to NYC at Music Hall of Williamsburg last night (9/27) as part of a pair of NYC dates with Sir Richard Bishop at the Brooklyn venue. The band do it again TONIGHT with the amazing addition of Wovenhand to the bill. Tickets are still available. Swans will ALSO be at ATP New Jersey (who recently added Edan and announced set times) this weekend.

More pictures from last night are below...

Continue reading "Swans & Sir Richard Bishop played MHOW (pics), do again tonight (tix still available)"

Shearwater (more by Chris Graham)

Shearwater are multitaskin'. The band is currently on tour with Damien Jurado (hopefully following Thor's guidelines) but managed to squeeze out a new album of quirky instrumentals entitled Shearwater is Enron via their Bandcamp over the weekend. The record, which was written/performed after The Golden Archipelago, is also available in physical form at ther merch table or on their website, and is one of two releases in the past two weeks for Shearwater frontman Jonathan Meiburg:

Two years before Shearwater's Palo Santo, JM made this off-the-cuff solo record in two days at the home of producer and fellow Austinite Brian Beattie. Recorded live to 2-track tape, and never issued in print except for a handful of burned copies, this haunting, subdued mini-album features Beattie's whimsical bass playing and a young-sounding Meiburg playing guitar and singing.

Check out Buteo Buteo available at their band camp too. And of course don't forget the Xiu Xiu collaboration that came out in October.

Shearwater and Damien will hit Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on 11/12 with Anni Rossi (tickets are still available). Current dates and some video taken on Friday are below.

Continue reading "Shearwater on tour, released some new stuff"

Thor of Shearwater/Swans (more by Chris Graham)

Behind those long golden tresses and rugged good looks, Thor is a warrior. Before, in-between and following appearances at 'Matador at 21' and Austin City Limits, the Shearwater percussionist will play dates with the reactivated Swans (tickets are still available to their show at Brooklyn Masonic Temple on 10/8).

After the North American Swans dates, that last through the end of October, Thor will go BACK on the road with Shearwater for a string of November dates with Damien Jurado. That hits Music Hall of Williamsburg on November 12th (tickets are on sale). After that, Thor heads to Europe with Swans.

All Swans and Shearwater dates are below...

Continue reading "Shearwater touring w/ Damien Jurado in between Swans tours (2010 dates) "

words by BBG, photos by Chris Bavaria

Dwid of Integrity

Billed as "The Show That Ends The World", heavy music label A389 Records celebrated six years of existence (and it's owner Dom of Pulling Teeth celebrated his 33rd birthday) at Sonar in Baltimore on Jan 8th & 9th, 2009. It marked the second year in a row that Integrity and Pulling Teeth graced the Sonar during one of the first weekends of the year. Integrity (featuring Dom on guitar) teamed up with Oak, Pala, and War Priest last year.

Dwid, PT & the gang were on board for the second night at the venue (along with Ringworm, Seraphim, Gray Ghost, and Gehenna), but Pulling Teeth also made an appearance the night before as the backing band for Jon Mikl Thor of Canadian metal greats Thor:

Jon Mikl THOR is an enduring icon of glam rock/metal, and one of the true originators of rock theatre. THOR's enviable career got off the ground with his appearance on the Merv Griffin Show in 1973 and he has maintained a steady pace ever since, selling hundreds of thousands of records. Over the last three decades, THOR has explored the tongue-in-cheek Sweet/Mott the Hoople/Bowie stylings, hard hitting metal moves of the 80Õs, and flirting briefly with Nu-Rock/Metal in the late 90Õs. - [Thor bio]

Slumlords (which also features Dom of PT), Deathammer (mems of Oak), and No Redeeming Social Value were also on board for the festivities, though the previously billed Starkweather were forced to cancel their appearance. No offense Starkweather, but from the looks of the near riot below, Baltimore did just fine.

More pics and a shit ton of videos from the melee are below...

Continue reading "A389 celebrated a birthday in Baltimore - pics (Integrity, Ringworm, Thor, Pulling Teeth, NRSV & more) "