The Black Swans profile picture

The Black Swans

new album Change! out Nov. 6th

About Me

I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
Pitchfork (8/10): The Black Swans hereby join the Faint and the Pink Mountaintops in having made short releases (tee-hee) about libidinal matters, but Sex Brain is no vamp-by-numbers affair: The focus is on the grievous awkwardness of physical longing, and of trying to articulate it without sounding macho, merely perverted, desperate, disloyal, or dopey.
Bandleader Jerry DeCicca seems to be trying to sidestep the dueling fantasies perpetuated by most hump-hither music, electing to indulge neither the larger-than-sex, overly confident meat-machine approach, nor the sentimental, fluid-free, preemptively nostalgic lovemaker angle. The resulting quest-for-truth middle ground staked out by Sex Brain is, again, plenty awkward. Fans of how 2004's Who Will Walk in the Darkness With You could evoke a restrained, hellish dusk might be well surprised by this disc's spent, tragicomic dawn.
Opener "I Don't Want 2 Fuck" is as upbeat and reticent as these proceedings get. "It's all about me," the speaker admits, seconds before Canaan Faulkner's accordion suggests a sad Fazoli's in Ireland. DeCicca sings about spooning, "getting weird," existential doubt, and the centrality of mouth-holes before the tune is over, in a voice that is just WTF bizarre. Imagine a stoned-but-bookish, seductive Muppet. Imagine a more fragile Tindersticks (Tenderdicks?), or that faux-comic-relief Jewish guy from "Saved By the Bell" if he was a game-spitting mack (The Teaches of Screech?). Either way, this tune stands alongside Naked Raygun's "No Sex", Sold Out's "I Don't Want To Have Sex With You", and Lust Control's entire discography in the canon of nocturnal-restraint advocacy.
"Friends" is sung to a tequila bottle. If you've ever forgotten how you ended up in some depraved scenario, this joint's for thee. Hang on for the verse, "She pulled my pants down/ And said she knows/ My girlfriend." Memory and fidelity are complicated. Which leads to the ex-lover masturbation fantasy, "Your Hands", about olfactory flashbacks and whacking it to Bob Dylan albums, as Noel Sayre's violin weeps and plucks its pubes. "Dark Plums" is essentially an homage to the Black Swans' myspace-approved heroes the Dirty Three, a tension experiment seasoned by Horace Roscoe's eerie saxophone. The lyrics oddly go all metaphorical and euphemistic here, as the references to "juice," "butter," and "jam" clash with the directness elsewhere, as if even DeCicca wanted to buffer the strange fruit cultivated by bedfellows on the verge of trust ("Are we too good of friends to play?"). "My Lips" is a comparably sweet duet with Sara Jurcyk about post-orgasmic ennui. Its refrain, "Never procreate," seems like an emotional prophylactic.
My only previous associations with Columbus, Ohio, are the band Moviola and the novel The Right Man For The Job by Mike Magnuson, in which a dude kills a dog with a cinderblock and his girlfriend sets herself on fire. I did a local band search and found acts named Cleavage and Cameltoe to be recommendable, so maybe the place is throttled with a horndog vibe. While so many borderline smug avant-gardists are creating (self-conscious?) freak-folk, the Black Swans' attempt to freakify standard folk song structure, in terms of both Rick James' appetite for action and in terms of unbowed eccentricity, is welcome and laudable. That such atmospheric talents would take such topically riling chances suggests that this band actively seeks apologists instead of boosters, which is fine by me. More a bodice-tugger or fiddler than a ripper, Sex Brain really satisfies. William Bowers
www.theblackswans.com

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 2/14/2005
Band Website: theblackswans.com/
Band Members: Jerry DeCicca, Noel Sayre, Milan Karcic, Amy Alwood, Cassie Lewis, Joe Peppercorn, Chris Forbes, Canaan Faulkner, Jovan Karcic, Keith Hanlon, Josh Housh. And the gorgeous Ryan Jewell!
Influences: Masked and Anonymous, Kris Kristofferson, Mark Strand, Yeah, Me Too, Iris Dement, Leonard Cohen, pretzels, Michael J. Fox, Vince Matthews, Shel Silverstein, Reverand Louis Overstreet, tacos, Eric Andersen, black licorice, Bert Jansch, Henry Flynt, Steve Forbert, Mickey Rourke, Donnie Fritts, Jeff Bridges, Love, Jesse Winchester, vanilla soy milk, Bossman, Morgan Freeman, Daniel Lanois, rubber rats, Greg Brown, Michael Hurley, sweet potato pie, Townes Van Zandt, Steve Van Zandt, Tim Hardin, Ali Farka Toure, Richard Yates, The Bicycle Thief, pizza, Groundhog Day, Jackson Browne, Mickey Newbury, Paul Siebel, Warren Zevon, Five Easy Pieces, Jim Galvin, Monte Hellman, Mary Robison, ice cream, Roscoe Holcomb, monkeys (all kinds), Joe Tex, Spooner Oldham, and the Ford Taurus!
Sounds Like: ohno ampo on a leash
Record Label: la societe expeditionnaire (la-soc.com)
Type of Label: Major

My Blog

Bob Dylan and Scott Baio

It ain't easy to be a man, and so many of my favorite country songs would testify to the same. But no one knows this truth more than Baio, Bob, and I.Now, I've known for a long time that there was a m...
Posted by The Black Swans on Fri, 17 Aug 2007 09:01:00 PST

sheryl crow

Really, I had no idea how many people would be so excited to see me and Sheryl Crow drinking milk together (see Black Swans photo page!). It looks a little porno, but she's a good girl, take my word.T...
Posted by The Black Swans on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 09:35:00 PST

ring ring

Last week in the Verizon store I walked in times two. First to upgrade something not broken, but when they call to say it is free, I think on it for a few weeks and then jump!But a bill was unpaid, so...
Posted by The Black Swans on Tue, 17 Jul 2007 10:14:00 PST

hot air

When I tell you alls that the '94 Taurus Wagon is hot as hell, these days I mean beyond the aesthetic beauty so apparent and obvious with every whistle it garners. Ain't got no air-conditioning!! Plus...
Posted by The Black Swans on Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:43:00 PST

LJW pt. 2

My week in Perdido Key with LJW, JLN, and Jake is over and well-done. The 15th floor is where we stayed, so I'm the white Jefferson (not just b/c I have a dry cleaning past). Overlooked the Gulf of Me...
Posted by The Black Swans on Tue, 19 Jun 2007 07:28:00 PST

LJW pt. 1

Where are the Black Swans?Busy.Some of you know him as LJW, and some as the Heayweight Champion of the World and, if your name is Mickey Newbury, you might call him Big Meat.In a few days I go help La...
Posted by The Black Swans on Tue, 05 Jun 2007 08:12:00 PST

stalker walker

Help! I've been Blog-stalked. Or is it stalk-blogged? Either way, I'm living in dangerous ways and times.You would think nothing of it. Two beautiful women full of compliments and joy, pleased to read...
Posted by The Black Swans on Tue, 22 May 2007 09:56:00 PST

white flight

Thank you all for your kind notes, wondering where the Black Swans blogger has gone. Here you go:Many days have been spent in the Taurus visiting songwriters that no one else knows, some with 3 names....
Posted by The Black Swans on Sat, 12 May 2007 08:44:00 PST

Phoning It In: Black Swans Radio Show

Here is a link to the Black Swans radio show from last week.The show is called Phoning It In, so we played over a telephone line in Athens, Ohio, mid-point to both Black Swans central hubs. It broadca...
Posted by The Black Swans on Sun, 15 Apr 2007 10:51:00 PST

bye bye boobs

It happened. I could no longer take the racket and rawness. Little over a week ago, I left my job at the strip club behind, with no real witnesses to claim I was ever really there.I was turning into a...
Posted by The Black Swans on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 06:29:00 PST