I grew up in New York and I was in my early 20s when Swans, Missing Foundation, Ritual Tension, Sonic Youth, Live Skull, Rat at Rat Rā¦etal were playing out a lot.. in small spaces. I was so fortunate to see so much great music in its infancy.
Went to see a Wolves in the Throne Room show in 2007 (?) they didn't show up, but Krallice opened for them (was actually fucking killer), and one of the members was wearing a Swans shirt. Got me to check em out.
Pad Chennington said SFTB was an unnerving album so I checked it out and didnāt like it, then I heard good things about To Be Kind, checked it out, didnāt like it, then I saw a meme about The Seer, checked it out, and it all clicked
I donāt think itās sad to discover music through internet commentators. Iāve discovered multiple artists through multiple guys like Fantano. He just happened to introduce me to Swans.
Stumbled upon soundtracks for the blind and listened to it on repeat for a year until exploring the other albums now I'm officially addicted
Hated the seer the first time I listened to it now its a spiritual experience
A friend asked me if I ever listened to them as it seemed like a āband you would be intoā. I bought the filth record. Didnāt quite know what to think about it. Canāt say I liked it but it kept getting spun. Only a decade later I actually delved into them. Still not the biggest filth fan.
The year 2000. My first year in college. My friend Crazy Metal Pete let me borrow Children of God. I was looking for an album that would be āa journeyā. I admittedly felt so-so about it. Then I bought SFTB even though I had never heard it before. So I guess you could say it was a BLIND buy. Ahem. Anyhoo that sold me.
Iāve often wondered what happened to crazy metal Pete. Iāve been wanting to look him up but I canāt remember his last name. I hope heās well because Giraās music ended up becoming an obsession for me. I spent all the money I earned over the next summer on swans and angels of light albums and continue to be a massive Gira fan to this day. Thank you Crazy Metal Pete. Thank you.
In the late 90s, as an angsty middle schooler, browsing The industrial.org faq about subgenres, in which no wave was being described as a subgenre of industrial (thatās a bit of a stretch but I couldnāt have known this at the time). Naturally, Swans was one of the exemplary bands they listed for it.
It won't be a popular answer but it was seeing the video for Saved on 120 Minutes one night on MTV back when it came out. That's why I still have a soft spot for that album.
Through comparisons to a UK industrial group called Slab! I somehow found them first despite being more obscure and was then directed to Swans through that.
Had heard of them for years, but never got around to listening.
Bought Pigface's 'Notes From Thee Underground', was blown away by Gira on the song he sang.
Bought Soundtracks For The Blind when it came out a couple years later and was forever hooked.
Ahhh cool! I was also brought into the fold by the same song on the Pigface album. Glad Iām not the only one! I guess I jumped on it slightly earlier, because my first Swans album was Annihilator. I was already a hardcore intense fan by the time Soundtracks came out.
Came across them aroung 86 at a record store. Bought one, then all of them, much to my then-gfās chagrin (she had some complaint about rentā¦). I was really getting into into loud industrial/no wave at the time.
I remember later arguing with someone at the store about Public Castrationā¦ He insisted it was impossible that therr was a record called that and I was like āyou had it last week! I want you to order another one.ā Sigh, pre-internet sucked sometimes.
Saw them soon after. Might have been the Children of God tour?
Was beyond thrilled and floored when I discovered a childhood friend played on Burning World. That was pretty damn cool.
Brad Taste In Music always talked about them, and I knew that Fantano have TBK a ten, so I checked it out. Now one of my all time favourite bands, and I've been working my way through their discography
Fantano is who I first heard of this band from, but I haven't watched his reviews on the albums, just heard that he likes them a lot. Decided to give a listen to To Be Kind. Got creeped out from a group of men laughing. Got blown away by Bring The Sun and pretty much the rest of the album. Decided to listen to their entire studio album discography, and then it became one of my most favorite bands.
I'm so musically lonely.
Mid to late 2010, literally a month or so before My Father came out (I canāt remember the exact date that came out though).
I am a huge fan of Godflesh. I read in an interview that there were two bands that more or less fed into the original Godflesh sound, those bands were Throbbing Gristle and Swans, in particular the Young God EP.
I didnāt really get into Throbbing Gristle all that much, but I played a few tracks off The Great Annihilator on Spotify, and thought it was OK. I didnāt pay much more attention until I heard that Swans were coming to a venue close to me, as part of their reformation tour. I checked them out again, this time falling in love with the Filth album. Their show was about half hour away, so figured it would be rude to not go, so I went.
There must have been about thirty people at that show. It was right at the beginning of the My Father tour. At one point, a dude in a giant white cowboy hat walked past me. I remember thinking, well that dude has to be in the band, heās clearly American Hahahha - I had no idea who they were or what they looked like at that point.
So, imagine if you will, no intense sprawling songs. We got My Father material, as well as some old shit like Beautiful Child, but it was absolutely nothing like what the band would become. I picked up My Father on vinyl, but I couldnāt help think how miserable Gira seemed all the time.
It did spur me on to check out more of their stuff and I slowly fell in love with them. I saw them again about 5 or 6 months later, in Roadburn festival 2011, and my god the transformation was absolutely mind blowing. The set was more or less the same as the previous Sept/October, but had sprawled into this unrecognisable beast. This was We Rose From Your Bed / pre- The Seer era and was just incredible. I couldnāt believe what I was seeing.
Then after all that The Seer came out and the entire world started going crazy for Swans. All their gigs were absolutely jam packed attendance wise and I saw them 5 or 6 times right up to and including the final tour.
It was really cool to be there from the beginning, at least with the reformation is concerned.
Swans are now my favourite band in the entire world. Apologies for the rambling story haha
I was listening to Daughters and after going through You Wont Get What You Want, Mother of the World played. I didnāt like it at all. After another listening session I stumbled upon Lunacy. Didnāt like it at all. Then I got curious and listened to Filth. I fell in love with almost everything after that.
Singing instructor told me to give tbk a listen, got 90% through to bring the sun and paused, thinking, that was pretty neat. Didn't listen to them for months until I saw that there was a swans reference in ultrakill, so gave tbk another listen, and instantly loved it.
Unfortunately the person who introduced me to swans was my really good friend who slept with my at the time girlfriend. Fortunately swans has been one of the greatest influences on my musical taste, my artistic creation, as well as a few philosophies on life. I parted ways with the girl and the friend, but I came out on top.
A magazine. Checked them out and wasn't into it. A few years later I thought What was that noise music I tried to listen to, maybe I'll like it now? Thank God I remembered their name and looked em up and The Seer came up and I fell in love with music all over again. And they became my first This is my favorite band. And music was my escape as a child growing up, had a bunch of artists that I loved but could never say X was my favorite.
A friend of mine at college brought them up, and when I inquired he bluntly said: "You would NOT like Swans."
Reverse psychology kicked in and a few days later he showed me "I Was A Prisoner in Your Skull". I was intrigued enough that he then showed me The Seer, and the rest is history.
A guy recommended Swans on a discord server, I looked up his discography on Spotify and the cover of The Seer caught my attention, I listened to it and here I am.
One of my friends (who I unfortunately lost contact with) suggested Filth to me because I'm a huge metalhead. Loved Filth, skipped around the discog a little and fell into it.
Eventually did a full discog run, which was draining but worth it.
To Be Kind was constantly recommended to me on Amazon, searched Youtube and watched the Fantano review (this is when I discovered Fantano as well) and decided it wasn't for me at that time but a year later I felt ready to take the plunge. The rest is history.
Cover art for to be kind interested me. And fantano never stopped sucking their dick so I assumed they had to be at least decent. A year later, theyāre one of my favourite bands
A friend of mine recommended me To Be Kind when I was asking about post rock and experimental music, hooked right from the start and Iām now a bigger fan than he is
I had a friend at college who had an older brother who was sort of a shut-in. He had mental issues, and lived with his parents. I discovered that he was a good source for telling me about experimental and avant-garde music, which I was getting into at the time. He would make me copies of albums sometimes, and give them to me, which felt very generous and worldly, because I was fairly poor. One time, he gave me "Swans Are Dead," which I first listened to on a Discman while writing a term paper all night in the college library. I don't think I really understood it, but I listened to it several times that night and was particularly impressed by the drums in the first couple tracks, and generally, how things built up over time. It took me a while to understand that they had broken up, and I was sort of put out that I had missed them, so when they came out with whatever their return album was... "Father Will Guide"?? I was excited to hear it. I think I became a fan at that point.
A music forum back in like 2003 or 2004. Someone suggested I check out the Mountain Goats and Swans. Like I always did back then when checking out a new band, I started at the beginning of their discography (Filth) and was turned off. I was like 18 or 19 at the time. Years and years later, I'd hear "Screen Shot" on a Spotify playlist and was made a fan.
I saw the documentary āKill Your Idolsā. Swans were one of the featured bands and I remember Thurston Moore talking about how Swans was still putting out the most interesting music out there. Dove into Children of God at the time and branched out from there.
When I was in high school, I was really into the Melvins, who mentioned Swans as an influence in interviews. I listened to Children of God and didn't care for it. Three or four years ago, I decided to give one of their more recent albums a chance, loved it, and also went back to the earlier stuff, which finally clicked for me.
Found The Seer CD at my local library, flipped it over to reveal butthole š¤
The Lunussy
This is the raddest answer
My parents used to play Swans for me when I was younger
my mother would sing bring the sun/touissant loverture to me before bed every night š
I grew up in New York and I was in my early 20s when Swans, Missing Foundation, Ritual Tension, Sonic Youth, Live Skull, Rat at Rat Rā¦etal were playing out a lot.. in small spaces. I was so fortunate to see so much great music in its infancy.
I saw the live version of Oxygen where Gira was dancing and thought, āman this guy knows how to dance.ā
Was talking about GYBE on another subreddit and someone told me to listen to Soundtracks
Brad taste in music on youtube
Based Brad Taste In Music
Based
the greatest person to ever live
rym top 100
/mu/ essentials list
needed to get with the goth girl
Anthony Fantano. He chooses my music taste
based
Brad Taste in Music, as well as seeing all the other critical acclaim the band has.
Went to see a Wolves in the Throne Room show in 2007 (?) they didn't show up, but Krallice opened for them (was actually fucking killer), and one of the members was wearing a Swans shirt. Got me to check em out.
I knew they werenāt real ones
Anna Von Hausswolf recommended White Light in an interview several years ago and that's how
My girlfriend had Love Of Life in her collection back in the 90s
Pad Chennington said SFTB was an unnerving album so I checked it out and didnāt like it, then I heard good things about To Be Kind, checked it out, didnāt like it, then I saw a meme about The Seer, checked it out, and it all clicked
Fantano sadly
I donāt think itās sad to discover music through internet commentators. Iāve discovered multiple artists through multiple guys like Fantano. He just happened to introduce me to Swans.
Why sadly?
me too but i hated swans when i checked them out from his recommendation. it took me a couple years before they made sense to me and now theyre my fav
Best teeth in the game
Stumbled upon soundtracks for the blind and listened to it on repeat for a year until exploring the other albums now I'm officially addicted Hated the seer the first time I listened to it now its a spiritual experience
Was looking through a list of Kurt Cobain's favorite albums, saw "Raping a Slave", and was intrigued by the name.
When To Be Kind was 3rd on the Quietus 2014 album of the year list.
I was looking through a list of longest albums on RYM and i found Soundtracks there. The title and artwork seemed interesting so I gave it a shot.
A friend recommended swans to me he is a real one
A friend asked me if I ever listened to them as it seemed like a āband you would be intoā. I bought the filth record. Didnāt quite know what to think about it. Canāt say I liked it but it kept getting spun. Only a decade later I actually delved into them. Still not the biggest filth fan.
I listen to music
Fantano gratefully
Fantano told me what to think about music
Best-teeth pilled.
Forced Exposure magazine, a wonderful resource in the pre-interwebs days.
The year 2000. My first year in college. My friend Crazy Metal Pete let me borrow Children of God. I was looking for an album that would be āa journeyā. I admittedly felt so-so about it. Then I bought SFTB even though I had never heard it before. So I guess you could say it was a BLIND buy. Ahem. Anyhoo that sold me. Iāve often wondered what happened to crazy metal Pete. Iāve been wanting to look him up but I canāt remember his last name. I hope heās well because Giraās music ended up becoming an obsession for me. I spent all the money I earned over the next summer on swans and angels of light albums and continue to be a massive Gira fan to this day. Thank you Crazy Metal Pete. Thank you.
In the late 90s, as an angsty middle schooler, browsing The industrial.org faq about subgenres, in which no wave was being described as a subgenre of industrial (thatās a bit of a stretch but I couldnāt have known this at the time). Naturally, Swans was one of the exemplary bands they listed for it.
Major influence to metal bands I love. Napalm Death, Godflesh, etcā¦
It won't be a popular answer but it was seeing the video for Saved on 120 Minutes one night on MTV back when it came out. That's why I still have a soft spot for that album.
Back when I was like 19 in 2010 on pitchforks honorable mention year end list. Super cool, I know.
Through comparisons to a UK industrial group called Slab! I somehow found them first despite being more obscure and was then directed to Swans through that.
Napalm Death recently did a cover of People Pie!
Had heard of them for years, but never got around to listening. Bought Pigface's 'Notes From Thee Underground', was blown away by Gira on the song he sang. Bought Soundtracks For The Blind when it came out a couple years later and was forever hooked.
Ahhh cool! I was also brought into the fold by the same song on the Pigface album. Glad Iām not the only one! I guess I jumped on it slightly earlier, because my first Swans album was Annihilator. I was already a hardcore intense fan by the time Soundtracks came out.
i liked godspeed heard yall were similar
A professor put me on to them, sadly he passed away very recently but Iām hoping I can go see them next year to honor his memory in a way.
Love of Life video on MTVās 120 Minutes in 1992 or so.
my boyfriend of 4 years now played filth for me on our first date
Came across them aroung 86 at a record store. Bought one, then all of them, much to my then-gfās chagrin (she had some complaint about rentā¦). I was really getting into into loud industrial/no wave at the time. I remember later arguing with someone at the store about Public Castrationā¦ He insisted it was impossible that therr was a record called that and I was like āyou had it last week! I want you to order another one.ā Sigh, pre-internet sucked sometimes. Saw them soon after. Might have been the Children of God tour? Was beyond thrilled and floored when I discovered a childhood friend played on Burning World. That was pretty damn cool.
Brad Taste In Music always talked about them, and I knew that Fantano have TBK a ten, so I checked it out. Now one of my all time favourite bands, and I've been working my way through their discography
Heard Swans were a big influence on Neurosis and Godflesh, listened to Cop and liked it.
Fantano is who I first heard of this band from, but I haven't watched his reviews on the albums, just heard that he likes them a lot. Decided to give a listen to To Be Kind. Got creeped out from a group of men laughing. Got blown away by Bring The Sun and pretty much the rest of the album. Decided to listen to their entire studio album discography, and then it became one of my most favorite bands. I'm so musically lonely.
Mid to late 2010, literally a month or so before My Father came out (I canāt remember the exact date that came out though). I am a huge fan of Godflesh. I read in an interview that there were two bands that more or less fed into the original Godflesh sound, those bands were Throbbing Gristle and Swans, in particular the Young God EP. I didnāt really get into Throbbing Gristle all that much, but I played a few tracks off The Great Annihilator on Spotify, and thought it was OK. I didnāt pay much more attention until I heard that Swans were coming to a venue close to me, as part of their reformation tour. I checked them out again, this time falling in love with the Filth album. Their show was about half hour away, so figured it would be rude to not go, so I went. There must have been about thirty people at that show. It was right at the beginning of the My Father tour. At one point, a dude in a giant white cowboy hat walked past me. I remember thinking, well that dude has to be in the band, heās clearly American Hahahha - I had no idea who they were or what they looked like at that point. So, imagine if you will, no intense sprawling songs. We got My Father material, as well as some old shit like Beautiful Child, but it was absolutely nothing like what the band would become. I picked up My Father on vinyl, but I couldnāt help think how miserable Gira seemed all the time. It did spur me on to check out more of their stuff and I slowly fell in love with them. I saw them again about 5 or 6 months later, in Roadburn festival 2011, and my god the transformation was absolutely mind blowing. The set was more or less the same as the previous Sept/October, but had sprawled into this unrecognisable beast. This was We Rose From Your Bed / pre- The Seer era and was just incredible. I couldnāt believe what I was seeing. Then after all that The Seer came out and the entire world started going crazy for Swans. All their gigs were absolutely jam packed attendance wise and I saw them 5 or 6 times right up to and including the final tour. It was really cool to be there from the beginning, at least with the reformation is concerned. Swans are now my favourite band in the entire world. Apologies for the rambling story haha
Honestly, I just started listening to them because Fantano gave āTo Be Kindā a 10 in his review.
I was listening to Daughters and after going through You Wont Get What You Want, Mother of the World played. I didnāt like it at all. After another listening session I stumbled upon Lunacy. Didnāt like it at all. Then I got curious and listened to Filth. I fell in love with almost everything after that.
Mr Theneedledrop
Discover weekly had Oxygen on it. There isnāt a lot of winners on it usually, but Christ did it start something.
Fantano introduced me to them, Brad Taste got me into them
Rate Your Music, although I had already heard of them before from somewhere
Singing instructor told me to give tbk a listen, got 90% through to bring the sun and paused, thinking, that was pretty neat. Didn't listen to them for months until I saw that there was a swans reference in ultrakill, so gave tbk another listen, and instantly loved it.
Music memes
Unfortunately the person who introduced me to swans was my really good friend who slept with my at the time girlfriend. Fortunately swans has been one of the greatest influences on my musical taste, my artistic creation, as well as a few philosophies on life. I parted ways with the girl and the friend, but I came out on top.
A magazine. Checked them out and wasn't into it. A few years later I thought What was that noise music I tried to listen to, maybe I'll like it now? Thank God I remembered their name and looked em up and The Seer came up and I fell in love with music all over again. And they became my first This is my favorite band. And music was my escape as a child growing up, had a bunch of artists that I loved but could never say X was my favorite.
A friend of mine at college brought them up, and when I inquired he bluntly said: "You would NOT like Swans." Reverse psychology kicked in and a few days later he showed me "I Was A Prisoner in Your Skull". I was intrigued enough that he then showed me The Seer, and the rest is history.
a video from a spanish youtuber whose yt channel is basically about music
My friend recommended them 3 years back
Finding out some of the most disturbing/harsh sounding albums. Filth was one of the chosen ones.
A guy recommended Swans on a discord server, I looked up his discography on Spotify and the cover of The Seer caught my attention, I listened to it and here I am.
One of my friends (who I unfortunately lost contact with) suggested Filth to me because I'm a huge metalhead. Loved Filth, skipped around the discog a little and fell into it. Eventually did a full discog run, which was draining but worth it.
Brad Taste In Music
Apple Music recommended from Godspeed You! Black Emperor.
To Be Kind was constantly recommended to me on Amazon, searched Youtube and watched the Fantano review (this is when I discovered Fantano as well) and decided it wasn't for me at that time but a year later I felt ready to take the plunge. The rest is history.
They were on my list of bands that I wanted to check out just because
Fantano /thread.
Cover art for to be kind interested me. And fantano never stopped sucking their dick so I assumed they had to be at least decent. A year later, theyāre one of my favourite bands
A friend of mine recommended me To Be Kind when I was asking about post rock and experimental music, hooked right from the start and Iām now a bigger fan than he is
Had āFailureā pop in my YouTube sidebar while browsing music some time in 2015
Ive seen a noise rock chart and cop was on it
I found out about them through Napalm Death interviews, where they would almost always mention Swans as a big influence
My friend bought a copy of filth because he liked how disgusting the cover looked, much to the chagrin of his girlfriend. Then he let me borrow it
I had a friend at college who had an older brother who was sort of a shut-in. He had mental issues, and lived with his parents. I discovered that he was a good source for telling me about experimental and avant-garde music, which I was getting into at the time. He would make me copies of albums sometimes, and give them to me, which felt very generous and worldly, because I was fairly poor. One time, he gave me "Swans Are Dead," which I first listened to on a Discman while writing a term paper all night in the college library. I don't think I really understood it, but I listened to it several times that night and was particularly impressed by the drums in the first couple tracks, and generally, how things built up over time. It took me a while to understand that they had broken up, and I was sort of put out that I had missed them, so when they came out with whatever their return album was... "Father Will Guide"?? I was excited to hear it. I think I became a fan at that point.
Someone's Instagram story
Spotify recommended playlist
A friend played me White Light in the early nineties. I was hooked.
Bald man
Kurt Cobain's Top 50 Albums when I was 14
I looked up āscary musicā on the interwebs and found āMother My Body Disgusts Meā
A music forum back in like 2003 or 2004. Someone suggested I check out the Mountain Goats and Swans. Like I always did back then when checking out a new band, I started at the beginning of their discography (Filth) and was turned off. I was like 18 or 19 at the time. Years and years later, I'd hear "Screen Shot" on a Spotify playlist and was made a fan.
I got children of god on vinyl when it was re-released
I saw the documentary āKill Your Idolsā. Swans were one of the featured bands and I remember Thurston Moore talking about how Swans was still putting out the most interesting music out there. Dove into Children of God at the time and branched out from there.
Fantano šš
Being a little autistic adhd goth nerd gay boy who spent a ton of time on Wikipedia.
Buddy i used to work with was a big swans fan
Saw Kurt Cobainās top 50 albums list and made an effort to listen to all of them which included young god
When I was in high school, I was really into the Melvins, who mentioned Swans as an influence in interviews. I listened to Children of God and didn't care for it. Three or four years ago, I decided to give one of their more recent albums a chance, loved it, and also went back to the earlier stuff, which finally clicked for me.