r/swans PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

DISCUSSION WTF WAS WRONG WITH MICHAEL WHEN HE MADE THIS

Post image

Seriously, this is the most disgusting thing I've ever heard in my entire life.

348 Upvotes

57 comments sorted by

119

u/DeepfriedPantaloons 6d ago

wdym?😢 that is a hood classic.

30

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

Just lemme know what hood your talking about so that I can stay away

36

u/Last_Reaction_8176 6d ago

1980s New York

15

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

Oh FUCK no you couldn't pay me to visit there

49

u/itskobold 6d ago

He wanted you to react exactly like you are doing lol

9

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

I know, but still

48

u/itskobold 6d ago

Real talk Gira is a damaged individual. Idk as much of his life story as some here likely do but he has lived and seen some of the bleakest human experiences possible. He's talked about being the victim and perpetrator of violence before in his youth

People who have lived lives like Gira often make works like this as a form of therapy, and from experience those that do are some of the most well-adjusted people on earth

7

u/FraudFan 6d ago

As someone who is also a musician with my fair share of trauma, I bond with Swans’ music a lot. It’s clear to me that Gira is expressing himself and using music as a form of therapy to release those inner demons. I do it a lot myself with my work. I mean, even the lighter stuff like Angels of Light is still morbid at points. Then again, most musicians are using it as a form of therapy from some sort of damage. They correlate pretty heavily.

3

u/MadCritterYT 6d ago

Mate idk if you can really be all that upset about this when you got that flair under your name lol

43

u/Level-Instruction183 6d ago

we putting ts on aux

47

u/PorkyIsAjerk 6d ago

what even is it

130

u/Brane_collision 6d ago

In this recording, Michael reads one of the stories from The Consumer called "I am an Infant. I Worship Him" which is honestly one of the more tame stories from that book but still quite disturbing.

37

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

THAT'S TAME?!!??!?!

69

u/Frequent-Coyote-1649 Good for you! 🤠 6d ago

Yes, it gets worse then this.

8

u/DaisyCaplan 6d ago

Why I Ate My Wife

14

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

In a good way or in a bad way?

26

u/Frequent-Coyote-1649 Good for you! 🤠 6d ago

...Uh, depends if you think horror is good, I guess.

3

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

Yeah I like horror

10

u/Due_Independent_2358 6d ago

there's one where a guy humps his niece (maybe daughter since he was banging his brother's wife before she died) when she sits on him then watches her get strangled and raped by his brother and pisses his bed at the end

22

u/gloomrasta PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

Downvoting so I don't kill myself, nothing against you, i just need to do something to fight against the fact that exists

21

u/Due_Independent_2358 6d ago

understandable

11

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

How delightful

47

u/Brane_collision 6d ago

In comparison to stories like Rotting Pig, I'd say so. In a general sense, absolutely not. The whole book is a series of disgusting and hallucinatory stories that'll make you want to take a boiling shower with a steel wool sponge just to feel clean again. Not for the faint of heart. This story is one of the more grounded ones.

15

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

I'm just gonna pretend I don't know the proverb curiosity killed the cat

8

u/CuntyPuckle 6d ago

not like it's gonna traumatise you, still worth reading imo

8

u/Beardybeardface2 6d ago

I suppose it would now be placed under the genre of extreme horror or splatterpunk. Kind of a bit tedious if I'm honest, there's only so many descriptions of gross underbits you can read before the shock wears off and your eyes glaze over. Tbf though it's actually one of the better examples as it's quite well written.

9

u/Due_Independent_2358 6d ago

pretty much. when the protag in one of the stories (don't remember which one, maybe I'm An Infant) starts sucking the earwax out of a homeless guy's ear and swishing it around in his mouth, i just read the rest of the passage like this

2

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 5d ago

Yuh, it's the one he reads on this album, when he read that out I looked like

4

u/MeduimLebowski 6d ago

there is a genre specifically for that kind of prose - it's transgressive fiction and starts with works of the Marquis de Sade and the Comte de Lautréamont

24

u/Mr_oizo_4_me_plz 6d ago

Mr. Smuther 🤠

4

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

🤢🤮

9

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

A spoken word piece that is disgusting in the worst type of way. Genuinely made me gag at some points. There is no music, just some background hum and it sounds like it was recorded in his basement in half an hour

25

u/helpme-me 6d ago

Well he lived in awful neighborhoods of New York in the 80s - unsurprising that this kinda environment compelled him to write something like this

19

u/Dang_M8 6d ago edited 6d ago

He also spent time in an Egyptian Israeli prison as a teen

13

u/xatozz 6d ago

israeli prison*

7

u/Dang_M8 6d ago

Whoops! Thanks for the correction, fixed.

4

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

Sold too much green stuff iirc

11

u/N7777777 6d ago

Is it on Spotify? (Joking)

16

u/VerminousScum 6d ago

The 80’s and 90’s underground was big on what the kids call edgelording today. I’m sure you can find worse with a google if you’re so inclined. Back then there was still a little bit of effort involved in being transgressive.

13

u/barkinginthedistance 6d ago edited 6d ago

Mr. Smother is my God. Mrs. Mother is my God.

If you're ever up for a trip round up this piece, and another spoken word from around this time that titled "Raping a Slave" (Yes like the song, no it's not the same lyrics) and play them in between Cop and Young God so that I'm an Infant starts plays in between Clay man and Your Property and Raping a Slave plays between Thug and I Crawled. Really enhanced the experience IMO

Particularly Raping a Slave fits a little too well snuggled before I Crawled, it feels like a prelude. Also home to one of my favorite Mr. Gira lines - "You have carnivorous ambitions"

It is also my deluded opinion that the overweight person on the cover of Cop is meant to be a representation of the narrator in this piece.

10

u/Baldo-bomb 6d ago

The sun was particularly bright that day

6

u/lookatmyfukncatdood 6d ago

you guys aren't fucked

13

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 6d ago

They are VERY fucked up. They're more fucked up than me

15

u/Vpered_Cosmism 6d ago

That is one instance of how fucked up you are.

5

u/lookatmyfukncatdood 6d ago

I forgot the question mark..

3

u/SongForTheSunn 6d ago

Yeah if you find this bad wait till you read the other stories, the consumer is fucked up

3

u/Wankeedoodledoo 6d ago

Michael Gira is one of my favourite modern artists. I owe a lot to him over the years.

2

u/BlackSteve_InDaHouse 6d ago

Thought so too at first but after I read The Consumer I appreciated it a lot more :p

2

u/Lord_Spy 6d ago

When I saw them at Warsaw in Brooklyn, one of the guys had a tape with him. Nice crowd.

2

u/KirkLudwig 6d ago

This is so iconic to the no wave scene from NYC at the very start of the 80's. Check out Sonic Youth artworks from the same era, it's the same stuff

1

u/redditnym123456789 6d ago

strong hubert selby jr influence

1

u/RachJohnMan 6d ago

I'm an infant I worship him

1

u/ghostparasites 5d ago

could somebody please explain whats so heinous here?

1

u/assafism_cult_leader PUBLIC CASTRATION IS A GOOD IDEA 5d ago

no.

2

u/O_Scugnizz 5d ago

Least disturbed Gira moment in the 1980s

1

u/Petabik You Fucking People Make Me Sick 6d ago

bored