Pitchfork

Some bands exist to rock coffeehouses and parlors, politely strumming away and bemoaning pedestrian shortcomings. Portland's Yellow Swans are not one of them. When Yellow Swans come on, you shut your face and listen, because it's pretty much impossible to do anything else (except maybe spazz out). You may not necessarily like it, but you shove it and listen, because it's LOUD. And if you listen closely enough, you may discover it's quite beautiful too.

Comprised of Pete Swanson and Gabriel Mindel Saloman, Yellow Swans utilize guitar, reel-to-reel, and a panoply of knobs, buttons, pedals, and assorted electronic gadgets to craft walls of white noise, to put it simply. They'll blanket audiences in that white noise this fall as the duo tours across the States for the next month. Bring earplugs. As if they'll help you any.

After your ears stop bleeding and you can walk again, bound on over to the merch table, where you shouldn't be surprised to find several dozen Yellow Swans releases vying for a spot in your record collection-- many of them homemade, limited editions, many of them collaborative, and many of them under variant monikers. Yes, they're one of those bands. Most recently, the Swans have hatched some ugly ducklings via Important Records, PacRec, Modern Radio, Release the Bats, Oedipus Records, and Olde English Spelling Bee.

Get Swanned:

09-27 Albany, NY - Valentine's *
09-28 Amherst, MA - TBA*#
09-29 Ithaca, NY - Cornell College *
09-30 Providence, RI - AS220 *#
10-01 Boston, MA - Great Scotts *
10-02 Brooklyn, NY - TBA*#
10-03 New York, NY - Tonic *^
10-04 Philadelphia, PA - Community Education Center #
10-06 Washington, DC - TBA #
10-07 Charlottesville, VA - TBA #
10-08 Norfolk, VA - Relative Theory Records #
10-09 Chapel Hill, NC - The Night Light #
10-10 Asheville, NC - Harvest Records #
10-11 Durham, NC - Duke's Coffee House #
10-12 Nashville, TN - Springwater
10-13 St. Louis, MO - The Lemp Arts
10-15 Denver, CO - Monkey Mania
10-16 Albuquerque, NM - Peace and Justice Center
10-17 Phoenix, AZ - The Trunk Space
10-19 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo (Arthur Nights Festival)
10-23 Davis, CA - TBA

* with Grouper
# with Mouthus
^ with White Rock