Norman Westberg is a New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 guitarist

Guitarist

A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...

 best known for his work with Swans

Swans (band)

Swans are an influential American post-punk band initially active from 1982 to 1997, led by singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Michael Gira. The band was one of the few groups to emerge from the early 1980s New York No Wave scene and stay intact into the next decade. Formed by Gira in...

. Present through almost the entirety of the band's existence, Westberg was brought on for Swans' debut album Filth (1983) and appeared on every album through 1991s White Light From the Mouth of Infinity (he also played in 1995 for The Great Annihilator

The Great Annihilator

The Great Annihilator is a studio album by Swans. It was released in 1995 and re-released in 2002. The re-released version contains "I Am the Sun" as bonus track....

). His playing can also be heard on many Swans side projects, including The Body Haters and solo albums by Jarboe

Jarboe

Jarboe is an American singer, songwriter, and keyboardist.Jarboe is a solo artist who came to prominence in the mid-1980s with the New York City based group Swans. With founder Michael Gira, the duo was the core of Swans until the group broke up in 1998...

. Westberg was for a short time a member of The Heroine Sheiks

Heroine Sheiks

The Heroine Sheiks were originally a New York-based Noise Rock band until early 2006, when the band called it quits. In 2008 the band was reformed in Minneapolis, and then only lasting another year. It began in 1999 as a collaboration of Shannon Selberg, George Porfiris, Norman Westberg and John Fell...

 with Shannon Selberg

Shannon Selberg

Shannon Selberg is a noise/punk rock musician known for his unusual antics on stage. Formerly the frontman for the Minneapolis-based group The Cows, Selberg provided lead vocals, trumpet, bugle and hardcore guitar...

 (ex-The Cows) as well as John Fell

John Fell

John Fell may refer to:* John Barraclough Fell , British railway engineer* John Fell , Bishop of Oxford* John Fell , American drummer...

 (ex-China Shop). Aside from the present incarnation of Swans, he currently plays in the NYC bands NeVAh (with Vinnie Signorelli & Algis Kizys

Algis Kizys

Algis Kizys is a New York City bass guitarist most well-known for his long-time membership in No Wave indie band Swans. First joining Swans on 1986s Greed LP, he stayed with the group through The Great Annihilator...

) and Five Dollar Priest (formerly Size Queens) (with Ron Ward of Speedball Baby & Bob Bert

Bob Bert

Robert Bertelli, better known as Bob Bert, is an American rock drummer.Bert is the son of the quarterback Angelo Bertelli. Based in Hoboken, New Jersey, Bert initially came to prominence as drummer for the experimental rock band Sonic Youth during the early to mid-1980s. Bert played on the Sonic...

 among others). He also appeared (credited as Norman Westburg) in a short film The Right Side of My Brain directed by Richard Kern

Richard Kern

Richard Kern is a New York underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to underground prominence as part of the underground cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films featuring underground personalities of the time...

 and starring Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch

Lydia Lunch is an American singer, poet, writer, and actress whose career was spawned by the New York No Wave scene...

.