Photo by Shawn Brackbill
Well this made our morning/month: Swans have revealed the details behind their new double album, The Seer. Due out August 28th through Michael Gira’s Young God imprint, the sprawling effort features a stacked guest list, including Karen O, Bruce Lamont, Ben Frost, Jarboe (!), and members of Akron/Family and Low. Here’s what Gira had to say about it in a press release:
The Seer took 30 years to make. It’s the culmination of every previous Swans album as well as any other music I’ve ever made, been involved in or imagined. But it’s unfinished, like the songs themselves. It’s one frame in a reel. The frames blur, blend and will eventually fade.
The songs began on an acoustic guitar, then were fleshed out with (invaluable) help from my friends, then were further tortured and seduced in rehearsals, live and in the studio, and now they await further cannibalism and force-feeding as we prepare to perform some of them live, at which point they’ll mutate further, endlessly, or perhaps be discarded for a while.
Despite what you might have heard or presumed, my quest is to spread light and joy through the world. My friends in Swans are all stellar men. Without them I’m a kitten, an infant. Our goal is the same: ecstasy!
Understandable. Now here’s the complete tracklisting, album cover, some upcoming tour dates and a trailer for a bonus live DVD that comes with a special edition pressing…
Swans, The Seer (Young God, August 28th):
1. Lunacy
2. Mother of the World
3. The Wolf
4. The Seer
5. The Seer Returns
6. 93 Ave. B Blues
7. The Daughter Brings the Water
8. Song for a Warrior
9. Avatar
10. A Piece of the Sky
11. The Apostate
Swans tour dates (w/ Xiu Xiu):
SWANS U.S. Tour Dates:
9/6 Vancouver, BC – Venue
9/7 Seattle, WA – Neumo’s Crystal Ball Reading Room
9/8 Portland, OR – Hawthorne Theater
9/9-9/10/2012 San Francisco, CA – The Regency Grand Ballroom
9/11 Los Angeles, CA – The Music Box
9/12 Phoenix, AZ – Crescent Ballroom
9/14 Austin, TX – La Zona Rosa
9/15 Houston, TX – Fitzgerald’s Upstairs
9/16 Dallas, TX – Trees
9/18 Oklahoma City, OK – ACM Performance Lab
9/19 Kansas City, MO – Beaumont Club
9/20 Lincoln, NE – Bourbon Theatre
9/21 Minneapolis, MN – Fineline Music Cafe
9/22 Milwaukee, WI – Shank Hall
9/24 Denver, CO – Gothic Theater
