Swans

Swans only sound like Swans. Their sound has changed dramatically from their early era in the 80s to their later in the 90s. From being a brutal and visceral combo with intense and obscure performances to achieving more atmospheric textures and even heavenly melodies. They can be tagged noise, industrial, ambient, folk, experimental, post-punk, no wave, metal and even post rock. My beloved Swans, I will always have a shelter under their music, either if i am feeling hopeless or hopeful.

Favorite Albums:
Filth
Greed
Children of God

The Great Annihilator
The Burning World

Favorite Songs:
Big Strong Boss
Swans – Saved
Swans – I Am the Sun
Beautiful Child
Swans – Money Is Flesh

Filth (1983)
Another exciting piece of history from one of The Big Apple's meanest, creepiest and uncompromising bands ever. Swans could only have come from New York, no other city other than Berlin could have produced such a glorious cacophony of unrelenting brutality. For me Swans rests somewhere between real industrial (not 90s industrial metal) and noise-rock. Their only peers would have been Glenn Branca, The Butthole Surfers, early Sonic Youth (who were more song based) and Einsturzende Neubauten. On 'Filth' they use repetition to exhilarating effect slowing everything down to a virtual crawl. It's difficult to describe this album but know one thing: nothing produced before or after it can match it in the brutality stakes. Like a wrecking ball it demolishes your weak mind while never overstaying it's welcome. 'Filth' is as the title would suggest an ugly beast of an album that will beat you and leave you paralysed on floor simply because it can.


Warning: This is really intense!

Swans - Beautiful Child (Live 1987)




And this one is from their 'melodious' period. A documentary covering 1995-1997

Pixies

Oh! The Pixies! The band that introduced me to so many other alternative underground sets.
Fast, weird, loud and highly influential. Formed in 1985 and disbanded in 1993. Members: Black Francis, Joey Santiago, Kim Deal and dave Lovering. They were a perfect mix of punk and surf.

Favorite Albums:
Doolittle
Bossanova
Surfer Rosa

Doolittle (1989)

After 1988's brilliant but abrasive Surfer Rosa, The Pixies' sound couldn't get much more extreme. Their Elektra debut, Doolittle, reins in the noise in favor of pop songcraft and accessibility. Producer Gil Norton's sonic sheen adds some polish, but Black Francis' tighter songwriting focuses the group's attack. Doolittle's most ferocious moments, like "Dead," a visceral retelling of David and Bathsheba's affair -- are more stylized than the group's past outbursts. Meanwhile, their poppy side surfaces on the irresistible single "Here Comes Your Man" and the sweetly surreal love song "La La Love You." The Pixies' arty, noisy weirdness mix with just enough hooks to produce gleefully demented singles like "Debaser," -- inspired by Bunuel's classic surrealist short {#Un Chien Andalou} -- and "Wave of Mutilation," their surfy ode to driving a car into the sea. Though Doolittle's sound is cleaner and smoother than The Pixies' earlier albums, there are still plenty of weird, abrasive vignettes: the blankly psychotic "There Goes My Gun," "Crackity Jones," a song about a crazy roommate Francis had in Puerto Rico, and the nihilistic finale "Gouge Away." Meanwhile, "Tame," and "I Bleed" continue The Pixies' penchant for cryptic kink. But the album doesn't just refine The Pixies' sound; they also expand their range on the brooding, wannabe spaghetti western theme "Silver" and the strangely theatrical "Mr. Grieves." "Hey" and "Monkey Gone to Heaven," on the other hand, stretch Francis' lyrical horizons: "Monkey"'s elliptical environmentalism and "Hey"'s twisted longing are The Pixies' versions of message songs and romantic ballads. Their most accessible album, Doolittle's wide-ranging moods and sounds make it one of their most eclectic and ambitious. A fun, freaky alternative to most other late-'80s college rock, it's easy to see why the album made The Pixies into underground rock stars.

Favorite Tracks: (this one is hard)
Pixies – Velouria
Pixies – Gigantic
Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
Pixies – Here Comes Your Man
Pixies – Where Is My Mind?


Pixies - Dead / I Bleed (and small interview) on Snub TV 1988

Sonic Youth

One of my all-time favorite artists.
No band could ever sound like them.


My Top Albums are:

Bad Moon Rising
EVOL
Daydream Nation
Sister


Bad Moon Rising (1985)
Is an album of inspired contradictions. Chilling yet pastoral, artful yet politicized, it documents a band at odds with its own impulses and the culture that spawned them. You can hear Sonic Youth struggling to define their identity in a medium that turned its back on such pursuits long ago. The album closer, "Death Valley '69" (with vocal contributions from Lydia Lunch) is the group's most rewarding dalliance into straightforward rock to date and a promising sign of things to come. But the song is epilogue to a conflict between posture and innovation. Over the next three years--climaxing with 1988's Daydream Nation--Sonic Youth would pursue the latter of these impulses with peerless results. But Bad Moon Rising is arguably their first essential release. It marks a crucial turning point in the band's history--the moment when an experiment became an institution. --Matt Hanks



Favorite Songs:
Sonic Youth – Expressway to Your Skull
Sonic Youth – Death Valley '69 (w. Lydia Lunch)
Sonic Youth – I Love Her All the Time
Sonic Youth – Brave Men Run (in My Family)
Sonic Youth – Green Light



Sonic Youth - I Love Her All The Time 01/05/85 Live at Gila Monster Jamboree