Has anybody here read this?

What're your thoughts? I love Swans so I'm fascinated by it, but it's rather expensive.

Other urls found in this thread:

mediafire.com/file/eut5g1494fckp6z/__The_Consumer.pdf
youtube.com/watch?v=ocB9a_zM9EY
youtube.com/watch?v=PefsZMxNuyI
twitter.com/AnonBabble

How much is it? The only time I've heard it talked about on here was through this chart. I also like Swans but am hesitant to see if Gira's talent in songwriting and lyricism can be translated to prose in case its shit.

Haven't read it but I can't imagine it would meet your expectations. Can't find any .pdfs?? I would like to read it too.

cheapest used copy is about 40 dollars. It's out of print.

google nigger
mediafire.com/file/eut5g1494fckp6z/__The_Consumer.pdf

also this is a weird list. yeah, Ligotti is spooky, but someone like Sotos is stomach churning.

Reading it now OP. I'll be done before I head out for a drink.

I've read it all, and it's still one of my favorite books of all time.
Vulvic Los Angeles is my favorite story from there (though I Am An Infant, I Worship Him is probably the most well known as Gira did a spoken word tape of it and the first paragraph used to be used as copypasta on /mu/ back in the day.), but they're all great.

The book is in two parts, the first is short stories, the second on are more like vignettes, very short stories, and prose poems. Most people don't like the second part as much but i think it's just as good, and gave me some incredibly memorable prose like A Game, A Screw, The Whore Boy, and many others.

Ligotti and Sotos are disturbing in completely different ways. Ligotti makes reality itself look like a living a nightmare while Sotos makes the reader see pieces of what is commonly seen as the most depraved pornography around in normal media and ourselves. Comparing them is comparing apples to oranges.
Unless disturbing to you just means gross, in which case just look for splatterpunk or something, though i don't think any of that hold actual merit.

The prose is legit fantastic, it's impressive how he can make such terse prose so nerve racking and nauseating.

They're both disturbing in different ways, but still disturbing both of them.

Started reading it. I'm finding it quite soothing, the first two stories anyway. It's quite a nice read so far.
Gira uses similes too often though, I think I've come across the word like 20 times now.

Nearly every other sentence is "x was like y"

Just read the first story and count how many times he does this. I like it, but I was taken aback by how goddamn much it happens.

Swans is hilariously awful. Get some standards, children. UH! MUSCLES! UR NAME IS FUCK! UH! UH! RAPE! UH! MONEY GRRRRR >;O! RAPE! POWER! GOD! FUCK! FUCKFUCKFUCKFCUK! MONEY SLAVE GRRR!

UH! YEAH RAPE THAT SLAVE! UH! MONEY YEAH! MUSCLES! FUCKFUCKFUCK! RAPE! UH POWER! OXYGEN UH! RAPE OXYGEN FUCKFUCK GODFUCK!

That sounds pretty brutal.

>something as simple as Swans is 2deep4u
embarrassing

Swans isn't even shallow m8

Check out their early stuff, especially the live performances - slow and lumbering, but super-heavy given that they were formed in the early 80's

Super terrible, you mean. UH! MUSCLES! RAPE THE MONEY! SLAVES! GOD!

There, I just described everything up until the trashfest that was Soundtracks.

You took phrases from three songs and added a medley of words that are concepts you associate with Swans. I doubt that you've listened to much of them, and I assume that's because you don't think they're worth your time. You're either exaggerating your own shallow interpretation of them, or speaking from an ignorant perspective. Unless you've only listened to Filth, or an assortment of their sillier songs, and the bulk of your impression of Swans owes its origin to their ineluctable detractors, in which case your opinion could believably be genuine, your posts simply must have been disingenuous.
You've missed every single theme imparted into their music. Again, they're not prohibitively deep; how could you hold this opinion, unless you haven't listened to them?

I've listed to all of their albums up to the one with the babby, you fucking sperglord. Only the 'muscles' part comes from Filth anyway, the rest comes from Cop to Children of God.

Why do you underage /mu/tants flood here? Back ti /r/eddit!

What themes? It's transparent trash.

SWANS does really suck; suburban kids love it. I prefer Death In June but in the final analysis edgy, marginal music is not too good.

Most of the words you used came from your own bizarre conception of them. The rest, from the songs Stay Here, She Loves Us, Time Is Money, and Oxygen--all of which are frequently used as the basis for mockery of Swans. I don't want to believe that anyone could have so little to say about their music, so I'll assume you're just lying to lend credence to your truly groundless opinion; because as I said before, you'd need either to have paid no attention to the music while listening, or to have not listened to it at all to foster this perspective. Do you really expect me to believe that you've dedicated 15+ hours toward the investigation of a band you're so dismissive of? Are you the sort of person who has listened to so much music, that they no longer believe it is necessary to invest any effort into the understanding thereof, or who have lost the will to do so? Because I encounter these people very often. How could someone who surely spends time reading literature be unable to penetrate the meaning of a short song, unless they are unwilling to try and do so? Do you seek only poetic expression in your music? Are you unwilling to esteem music with lyrics that do not present to you a simple and viscerally enjoyable listening experience? Are you unwilling to recognize allegory, and the thematic implications brought on by considering words through such a lens?

>What themes?
In the music I am to believe that you've listened to? Or in the three or four songs you have listened to?

tl;dr

Very well. If you're unwilling to read this, you would be unwilling to read any substantial defense that I could offer to you. I'll leave.

It's pretty easy to find the PDF online, OP.

I'm hoping Gira wants to re-print it soon though as over the past few years he's made it his job to make sure his classic Swans albums have been more widely available.

It's on Libgen, lads. Also Gira's short story spoken word recording, The Somniloquist is worth a spin if you like his sick sense of humour and deadpan delivery.

Personally, I find his overuse of the word "elliptic" annoying, but that's just me.

>pseud 17-year-old: the post
There is no relevant meaning in your garbage music

Not OP but thanks babe

>people who think they're veri pratrish think this is what swans is
Jesus Christ think for yourself man don't just swallow other peoples memes and then regurgitate them at the first chance you get

blast it out your anus, dude

it's music not prose you nonce. give soundtracks for the blind a listen

Good riddance.

Actually Swans, Throbbing Gristle, and Joy Division are three of the best musical projects of the post-war era. Death in June is okay, but its kind of just derivative industrial music without the inspiration, originality, or genius of a band like Throbbing Gristle, who undoubtedly greatly influenced them (much like all the Merzbow copycats).

Btw "marginal music" doesn't suck. Actually, it's pop music that sucks. Most of the good music to come out since the 60s has been "marginal". There have been a few good popular bands like The Cure, Jethro Tull, a small handful of classic rock bands, and shit like the Sonic Youth (if you'd consider them mainstream).However, most of the really good shit has been fairly underground. E.g. hardcore punk, like Orchid, Converge, Plunger, Hoover, etc. all of which has been completely obscure, and various metal acts like Ulver, Bathory, Napalm Death, and Cattle Decapitation, which while more popular than punk, have still remained relatively obscure.
(links related)
youtube.com/watch?v=ocB9a_zM9EY

youtube.com/watch?v=PefsZMxNuyI

Cliff is that you? I gotta say I like your more loose improvised vids instead of this faux public tv "well lit" crap you're doing from time to time. Loosen up man.

literally who

>best
>good
>sucks
>Listing bands you like

Amazing literary skills there, bud, you'll definitely convince someone like that.

back to /mu/ mr retard
Swans is middlebrow trash.
I have listened to it you fucking idiot, I said it was garbage earlier.
Holy shit, you are a fucking joke.

>Holy shit, you are a fucking joke.
t. guy who gets mad about music from nearly 40 years ago

Why does the music's age matter? Nothing but garbage has been released since popular music got big and dragged the craft down 500 years.