Swans

Michael Gira's New York band, from no wave abrasion to long-form drone, whose Soundtracks for the Blind (1996) holds the 15-minute "Helpless Child".

No wave to Young God

Swans formed in New York in 1981 or 1982 out of the no wave scene, around Michael Gira, born in Los Angeles on February 19, 1954, who moved to New York in 1979 and played in Circus Mort. Early members included Jonathan Kane, Sue Hanel and Thurston Moore. The abrasive early records are Filth (1983), Cop (1984) and the Young God EP (1984); Jarboe joined in 1985 (some say 1984), and Greed and Holy Money (both 1986) and Children of God (1987) followed, with Gira and Jarboe also recording as Skin and World of Skin. The Burning World (1989) appeared on Uni/MCA, which collapsed on its release, leaving it unpromoted, per the Brooklyn Rail. After that they recorded for Gira's Young God label: White Light from the Mouth of Infinity (1991), Love of Life (1992), The Great Annihilator (1995) and Soundtracks for the Blind (1996).

The farewell tour ended in London on March 15, 1997. Gira told PopMatters in 2012 that it was also sheer exhaustion, after fifteen years with not much reward. He formed Angels of Light and wrote books, The Consumer (1995), The Egg (2018) and The Knot (2022). The live album Swans Are Dead came out in 1998 on Young God.

The return

Swans reunited in 2010 without Jarboe: My Father Will Guide Me up a Rope to the Sky (2010), The Seer (2012, 114 in the US), To Be Kind (2014, 37) and The Glowing Man (2016), with the last shows of that line-up in November 2017. Pitchfork ranked The Seer 17th and To Be Kind 85th among the best albums of 2010 to 2014. Since 2019 there have been Leaving Meaning (2019), The Beggar (2023) and Birthing (2025), and a live album, Newly Sentient Being (2026). Gira told Interview in 2010 that live it is like being in a sweat lodge on LSD or something.

Wikipedia lists Godflesh, Napalm Death, Neurosis, Nirvana, Tool and Isis among those influenced; Justin Broadrick said Swans paved the way for him. Nick Soulsby's oral history, Swans: Sacrifice and Transcendence (Jawbone, 2018), draws on over 125 interviews, and Marco Porsia's documentary Where Does a Body End? (2019, 161 minutes) premiered at IndieLisboa on May 3, 2019.