Jarboe

Jarboe's recorded and performed projects produce only her unique energy. She draws from a variety of charged sources, from her early exposure to snake-handling revivals in the Mississippi delta, parents who were in the FBI, her participation in a lounge act, experimental performance in gallery & live radio settings,her 14-year critically acclaimed recordings and collaboration with Swans doing worldwide concerts (clubs, theatres, festivals, live radio, TV). Her delivery can be at turns innocent, knowing, seductive, & vitriolic - contained in melodic as well as experimental compositions.
A primary objective for Jarboe is to close in on the gap in the audience/performer relationship via complete submission and vicarious experience through her performance. Through visceral vocals, her repertoire includes a variety of voices from the shy schoolgirl to seductress to demon. Jarboe's private agenda over the course of her life has been to fine tune endurance - physical, emotional, and spiritual. Through efforts in such disciplines as weight-lifting, kick boxing, mountainclimbing, running, role-playing, studies in meditation and Buddhism, and her intense work with Swans, she has journeyed her body towards exhaustion specifically with the intent of rebuilding / reinventing identity and exploring the structure of persona.
Jarboe's musical explorations have led to select comparisons to other female musicians with regard for their success in penetrating the otherwise male-dominated "rock" subculture. Her work in and outside of the legendary Swans has received international critical attention. Jarboe is featured in Andrea Juno's groundbreaking book: Angry Women In Rock, and Adele Olivia Gladwell's women's studies/cultural theory: Catamania. She has been included in numerous other editorials and books such as The Wire, New York Times, The New Yorker, Time Out, Tip, Spex, People, LA Weekly, SF Weekly, Terrorizer, Rolling Stone, Art Papers, Outburn, Signal To Noise ... and so on.