Michael Gira

As the leader of Swans, Michael Gira made some of the most intense music ever to smolder out of New York’s fabled no-wave art-rock scene. Since disbanding the group, he’s concentrated on running Young God Records and The Angels Of Light, which trades his old band’s dark, ferocious noisescapes for something closer to straightforward folk. Expect vein-straining intensity even when it’s just Gira and an acoustic guitar.

Updated 07/16/2009