How hasn't Michael Gira killed himself yet?
>>48018592
cause he resist's temptation
>>48018592
you have to be 27 for it to be cool
now he has to wait around to die of natural causes
He's not an honest man.
>>48018592
because he's content with his life, and it would be irresponsible considering he has a fiancée and a daughter.
his music just keeps getting better why would he
If you watch his interviews, he seems like a normal, maybe even friendly person. Swans is an act
>>48018649
>liking swans
>>48018654
he was a fucked up, pissed off young man though. he now just channels all his demons into Swans and lives a normal happy life
>>48018667
what are you trying to achieve with this post?
>>48018672
why? whats his life story?
>>48018692
bad relationship with his parents, was in an israeli prison for I think dealing hash when he was 14, did a ton of fucked up, graphically sexual performance art when he was in New York in his 20s. abused audience members at early live shows.
>>48018719
pretty gnarly i didnt know any of that
>>48018719
Yeah. He spent FOUR and a HALF months in FUCKING adult Israeli prison at 15 years old (turned 16 during that time) for selling drugs when he was still a child after he was sent to Europe to live with his father.
>"Every night, I would hear and see this young Arab boy being raped repeatedly by 20 or so different guys, in the mouth, particularly. It would be dark, and there was a huddled mass working him over, and he would be crying and protesting. Then he would shuffle across the concrete floor in his slippers, go to the communal sink, throw up, brush his teeth and shuffle back. The other prisoners would snicker a bit, and this process would repeat itself the next night."
---
>"So Michael, you were in an Israeli prison. What was that like, being in an Israeli prison?!"
>"Well, I remember there was this Arab kid in there. Maybe like, 16. Every night the prisoners would take turns raping him. So I went to sleep every night hearing the sound of this kid being orally and anally raped"
>"......OKAY! MOVING ON!"
http://nardwuar.com/rad/2012/04/nardwuar-vs-the-swans/
TLDR: He almost got gangraped in an Israeli prison, and apparently he was so shrewd that they didn't want to mess with him. He was only 15/16 and he was scaring Israeli inmates.
Fuck.
>>48018883
damn. where do you guys find this shit?
>>48018758
Nigga have you even listened to Public Castration?
>>48018916
...yes
what the fuck? where is there an allusion to israeli prison in there?
>>48018883
where is that portion in the nardwuar interview? I'm not listening to the whole thing
>>48018883
jesus fucking christ
i did not know that
>>48018932
The Israel story is the basis for AoL's My True Body. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVFBTqGRjOE
>>48018883
why does he keep saying "the swans" holy shit I'm raging
>>48018883
link isnt working for me
is there another source?
>>48018883
..he probably got raped too
>>48018592
Why haven't we all killed ourselves yet?
>>48019077
>tfw 4chan saved your life
>>48018672
yeah. anyone who's read any of pic related, or listened to hard rock, knows he's got problems. there's an extent to which you can make an act of being disturbed, and it's nowhere near the places gira's been.
>>48018592
Because he has no eyebrows
>>48019024
[...]
>Shortly before entering adolescence, Gira’s parents split up; his father moved to Europe, then Indiana and his mother slowly spiraled downward into alcoholism, drinking away the holdings and neglecting the young boy. Soon, at 12, he began delving into the world of drugs. His delinquency culminated into getting busted during junior high with a pocket full of Seconals; to avoid a lengthy sentence in juvenile hall, he was required to live with his father in Indiana, which Gira recollects as “an armpit”.
>Around 1969, Michael Gira moved to Paris with his father, where Gira began hanging out with hippies, panhandling (though he didn’t need to), and taking drugs. At one point he was jailed for several weeks (as a minor) for vagrancy, abandoned by his father in hopes of teaching the young boy a lesson. After a stint at a tool factory in Germany which he chose over a prestigious school in the Swiss Alps, Gira ran away, hitch-hiking through Greece and Yugoslavia until arriving in Israel at the age of 15, selling hash first on a collective farm, or kibbutz, and later (after a near-bust) a hostel, where he was finally taken into custody by Israeli police.
>Gira was incarcerated for a month and a half in Jerusalem without formal charges before a civil rights lawyer found out about his case. Released without bail, he hung out in Jerusalem, mostly panhandling or selling his blood before his trial, in which he was sentenced to another two months in an adult prison, where he depended heavily on his luck and quickly acquired shrewdness to avoid being gang-raped. Gira recollects, “Total time was only about three months, not much really, but enough to get me thinking later about TIME (one’s own control of it) being the most valuable thing one can possess...”
[...]
http://younggodrecords.com/pages/angels-of-light-michael-gira
>>48019024
just search it in the search bar
>>48019103
This. Gira is legit fucked up. If it wasn't for Swans (in general) I would have no doubt he would've turned into a serial killer.
Thank god he mellowed out the fuck out when he got older. Meeting Jarboe and calming down his musical output, going into more esoteric realm (circa SFTB) was probably the best thing to ever happen to him.
>>48018948
~48 minutes
He goes straight into a question about cookies afterwards. that was bizarre
>>48019167
im 10 minutes in and gira isnt even there yet
>>48019127
i highly fucking doubt he didnt get raped in there
>>48019222
I doubt Gira would admit to it or the author would press the issue.
>>48019251
thats what i mean
its too convenient and clean
I forget what its called but do you guys know about his early speeches? They're like, three stories about something. Really vague sorry. Just spoken word segments about stories he wrote. Theyre fucking awful. About this fat kid who ate his own shit and was repeatedly raped and beaten in masturbation and stuff. Sounds cheesy but I genuinely wish I never heard it. Can't find it because I forget what its called.
>>48019103
this fucking book is selling for 170 dollars on ebay
>>48019331
This?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ysyB_rhAWs
>Recorded in Michael's bedroom February 1984.
>Tape consists of two long monologues from Michael Gira and Lydia Lunch.
>Limited edition of 200 (hand numbered)
>>48019412
theres a pdf scan out there, just saying
>>48019284
Like I said, he's not going to admit to it.
Then again, if he actually said it to nardwuar of all people, maybe its true and he might actually not have been raped.
>>48019418
Lydia's side is also really good. Not as disturbing, but far more pornographic.
>>48019222
If so, i think he would avoid the whole rape subject.
>>48019418
Jesus
>>48019412
it's fun but haha wow it's not worth that at all; i'm pretty sure not even gira thinks so
I recall reading somewhere that there was a group of hippies that accepted him in the Israeli prison he was at, who protected him from being raped. Not just his own "shrewdness".
Can't remember what I read that though.
>Swans
>depressing
>>48019564
They are though.
>>48019435
where 2 find
>>48019552
He probably had to suck them off or something though.
>>48019583
tpb, search: gira
>>48019574
not that guy, but their new music is spiritual and stuff, or at least it seems that way to me. i dont see how it could be considered depressing.
He has a successful band with likely more appreciation than ever and has grown out of his wild youth, why would he want to kill himself.
>>48019599
I'd say it's more frightening than depressing. Even now
>this thread
>>48019681
lol 4 real
>>48019723
suicide is nothing to "lol" about
>>48019418
DL on Mega for the whole album?
>>48019818
LOL SUICIDE
>>48019818
i was referring more to all this child rape
not like lol actually means LAUGHING SO FAWNY
>>48019818
lol
>>48019599
Melancholy and Neuroticism, maybe
>>48019103
I legit cannot find a fucking copy of this book anywhere. Do you know where I can get my hands on one that's not selling for like, 100+?
>>48019127
jesus fucking christ
i suddenly don't give a shit about swans and want to read his autobiography.
>>48019127
>After a stint at a tool factory in Germany which he chose over a prestigious school in the Swiss Alps, Gira ran away, hitch-hiking through Greece and Yugoslavia until arriving in Israel at the age of 15, selling hash first on a collective farm, or kibbutz, and later (after a near-bust) a hostel, where he was finally taken into custody by Israeli police.
Holy shit, my life is so fucking dull and boring.....
>>48018592
because
he understands that
music
is art
thus
he
can separate
the art
from himself
>>48018883
He wasn't scaring them, he was white.
>>48018883
>implying that 16 yo kid wasn't himfuckingself
>>48018592
He's not sad, just bitter
>>48018883
Is Nardwuar actually that obnoxious or is that just an act? Can't fucking stand him.
>>48022011
He didn't actually say "moving on", anon paraphrased it and tried to give it better comedic timing
He did move on to a story about how swans are involved with cookies, but he always jarringly switches to a completely different story after the person is finished answering the previous question.
>>48022114
No, I wasn't talking about that. The way he talks, the way he, as you said, jarringly switches topics and that thing that is apparently his "catch phrase" or whatever at the end is cringe worthy to me. Not my thing I guess, but he has to be doing something right.
>>48022149
It's partially an act. He's confusing. Suffice to say that the thing about him that you hate, he is self-aware of that thing and that's the point.
>>48022173
whether or not it's an act doesn't make it any less annoying.
>>48022268
That's fine; you asked if it was an act
>>48019418
Well that was something
>>48022293
I'm the one who asked, not that anon. Thanks for clarifying.
>>48019412
I live in the Czech Republic, and here you can actually buy a beautiful, hardcover translated version for like 3 euros. I couldn't believe it, but yeah, now I'm in possession of The Consumer for 3 euros, albeit a translated one, but the translation is actually really good (read the original too as the pdf file)
>>48018883
jesus man, fuck ever going to jail
>>48018667
Yes I like Swans
Anyone have any videos of Gira being angry like he's described to be back when he was younger?
>>48024026
There's a podcast where he beats Fantano the fuck out and calls him a barista
>>48024065
Link?
>>48024112
http://www.liveinlimbo.com/2014/06/12/capsule/capsule-33-swans.html
this I think
>>48024026
That sounds like heaven.
>>48024125
It all was really gentle and light-hearted tho.
>>48024125
lel he says he likes fantano "despite his misguided accolades"
>>48024144
he literally DESTROYED fatnanners
>>48024065
Anything of him from when he was younger?
>>48018883
>Israel
>Europe
>>48024196
oh wait says he went to Europe then hitchhiked to Israel.
"I ended up in Israel, and spent a year there. Three-and-a-half months of that were in jail for selling hashish. They put me in an adult prison. I was the youngest person there by far, and I had long blonde hair, an obvious victim. I was 15 when I went in jail, and I might've turned 16 while I was there." Those overwhelming feelings of duress, isolation and claustrophobia will later appear in the distinctive Swans sound. "I spent a month and a half in jail before anyone even charged me, just by myself, being held on suspicion of terrorism. People would come and leave, come and leave, and I was still by myself. Finally a Westerner who was there got out and sought out a lawyer who took my case on, and got me out on bail right away. After that I was out in Jerusalem for another month, panhandling and selling my blood for food. Then I got sentenced and spent another month in jail."
Looking back on those early years, Gira now says, "I think that episode has a lot of connection to what happened later. Just the experience of being confined makes you realize the urgency of time, and how much life is about how you use your time, and how urgent it is that you use that time in something that is adamant, in something that feels powerful and real to you. That's been a credo ever since. I've had a lot of shit jobs throughout my life, but I never got tied down in something that was crushing me."
Every
night, I would hear and see this young Arab boy being raped repeatedly by 20 or
so different guys, in the mouth, particularly. It would be dark, and there was
a huddled mass working him over, and he would be crying and protesting. Then he
would shuffle across the concrete floor in his slippers, go to the communal sink,
throw up, brush his teeth and shuffle back. The other prisoners would snicker
a bit, and this process would repeat itself the next night. So that song is sung
through my idealized, romanticized version of this young saint. It’s kind
of a love song in the sense that it’s about sex and passion through his eyes.
So in that sense it’s a typical love song. I guess this experience, seeing
this kind of thing at such a young age, shaped my perception of human nature,
and love, in a way–Christ, I didn’t even have pubic hair yet.
>15/16
>Didnt have pubic hair yet
Gira confirmed for late bloomer
>>48024262
Why is Mike so based?
>>48024295
One of my friend had his balls ridiculously hairy at the age of ~13 already. Nothing to be that happy about.
>>48024370
>friends*
>>48018636
He's married now. He was wearing a wedding band when I saw them live.
>>48018636
>fiancée
>é
Kind anonymous user of this board, please.
>>48019075
>implying the Israeli prisoners would have a raped a nice white boy
>>48024125
jesus that interviewer is such a dweeb
>>48024618
>nice
>boy
>selling blood and hash on the streets
Young but not a child, anon.
>>48024664
yeah but when you have some Palestinians to rape, why would you waste time on a whitey?
gotta say i really dont understand this kind of people / music / art whatever. okay so some bad things happened to you in your life, maybe even things that dont usually happen to a person. does that mean that you have to base your whole worldview on this? it only makes you seem like a weak person that gets affected by anything bad around him
i can understand making some albums about it and expressing it, but when you have like 20 albums that are all like 'oh the world is such a bad place waahh' then it loses meaning and its just like, yeah ok guy.
>>48024697
>1968+46
>hasn't been gangraped in an Israeli prison or sold blood on the streets
How's that sheltered white middle class educated life going for you, anon?
>>48024697
>but when you have like 20 albums that are all like 'oh the world is such a bad place waahh' then it loses meaning and its just like, yeah ok guy.
>implying this hard
>>48024724
im an eastern european that was born right after communism fell and have lived the first 15-20 years of my life in extreme poverty and with bad health. chances are ive seen more bad things than you and im still positive as fuck
its called being strong willed, look it up
>>48024752
no one wants you posting here.
>>48024697
An album is more than a statement. Ever watched a (good) musician play live? I don't think they get into the music cause it's "2deep4u".
>>48024765
:'(
>>48024697
This has to be bait. When does Gira ever whine about the hardships he experienced when he was younger?
>20 albums that are all like 'oh the world is such a bad place waahh"
Oh, so you are a retard. Nevermind.
>>48024594
My computer automatically does that
>>48024752
tfw ussr failed
>>48018883
boohoo ive spent 5 years on 4chan
>>48024697
donno man, gira seems like a pretty chill guy. He probably based his style on those experiences but thats separate from his mental state.
and its really up to him to decide what style he goes with.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GeNc4tI5km8
"Do you love me at all, Michael"
"No"
>>48025001
One of the strongest things this guy produced.
>>48024594
Why? That's proper French.
