Rarely Heard: Swans - Cop

I can recommend the book "Our Band Could be Your Life. Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991" by Michael Azerrad. It depicts an essential part of what I loved of the music of the time and nearly all the bands described have some importance for me. The bands that are still essential to my life are Pere Ubu, The Residents - and the Swans! (I'd count Sonic Youth, too, but they don't exist anymore). I saw Swans twice live in concert in the 80s, and since their reunion nearly every year, next concert is next week on November 1st. Swans live are a menacing and catharthic experience and one you'll hardly ever forget, and probably the loudest you'll ever get to hear. Swans are the only band I ever had been frightened of, especially when seeing them the first time in the 80s. Even today they appear to me like a motley crue of outlaws, and their sound has evolved from the congenial simplicity of their early work to a more complex but even more all-consuming music. A nice story (taken from the book mentioned above) is that the Swans had invited a very early Sonic Youth to support them on their US tour. For some reason, however, Sonic Youth played after the Swans, and although their sound must have already been as sensational as we love it today, the audience had no more interest in hearing them after having been exhausted and drained by the Swans. I hear that their recent work has been much more commercially successful and that their two concerts in Berlin a few days ago were hopelessly sold out. So maybe now after nearly 35 years they're not so rarely heard anymore.