Xiu Xiu - What The Christ?

what's great about xiu xiu is that it's not shrouded in the same shit everyone else is wearing. they have a pretty distinctly original sound in my ears. (even though they have influences.)

revival sucks. i was keen on it for a bit and i'm not sure i can take it anymore... m.

http://www.tapefuzz.com/reviews/x/xiuxiu-knifeplay.shtml

the live show is much more engaging.

A fallacious argument! Discomfort does not explicitly denote substance, intangible or otherwise.

Sure, you could say “but I don’t -like- them, it’s not that I was frightened by them,” but you’ve got to admit that they’ve got a strange, raw power. I've heard someone describe it as making them feel ill-at-ease, like watching a car wreck for enjoyment. One of the virtues of “Knife Play” is that many people don’t know what to make of it on first listen. It’s a mesh of sound and rhythm, hinting at many genres but not quite resolvable as such.

There are plenty of records that frighten or stir unsavoury things in me in such a way that I deem them to be valuable - Black Heart Procession's 2 and BOC's Music Has The Right To Children spring immediately to mind. I agree with your assessment of 'Knife Play' as an uncommonly disarming record but I don't think it follows that this quality implicitly makes it good.

To be honest, my problem with it has everything to do with Jamie's vocals, which, try as I might, I find absolutely unlistenable. I suppose the rest of it - namely the arrangements and production - are quite good. I suspect I'd be digging on this way more if it were an instrumental alb, though...

Perhaps it'd be better for people who like to record to detail when/how/under what circumstances they listen to it rather than why they like it.

lyrics aren't that important. Anyway, this sounds interesting so i might check it out.

that is all.

What is Dave Matthews listening to?
Matthews tells us about Xiu Xiu, the experimental indie project of Californian singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart, who, Matthews says, Tim Reynolds turned him on to. “There’s something about it where you can’t put it down,” he says. “It’s like crazy person music, but it’s really slammin’ and it’s really beautiful. He’s a little bit precious maybe — and ‘a little bit’ may be understating it — but there’s something about it that I go back and I listen to it again, and I like it.”

Xiu Xiu - Name Your Reasons Why They Are So Bad And Hated

Yeah, I almost posted this on the DMB thread, actually.

Hey, DMB has a point - there's nothing worse than "crazy person music"... Give me some nice, well-adjusted 9-5 office job music. That's rock and roll.

I didn't know there was another plain-ol' Mark posting in those days.

They're covering Nina Simone!

(blugh)

This led to objections.

https://twitter.com/XiuXiuforLife/status/381120328027488256

basically this dude is the worst

stay classy dude:

hi
fuck you. you do not know FUCKING ANYTHING go rape your mailman you asshole

your mother hates your guts and wishes that you and your hog fed sister was dead. i hope that the new POPE fucks your heart out

http://i.imgur.com/ZY30h2W.png

^just in case some of it were to disappear

fuck that guy ('brad')

two dorks take on xiu xiu

fuck that guy ('brad')

Who are you? Jamie Stewart?

team xiu xiu

what a terrible team to be on

eh i will rep for a couple of dudes early albums, but his "shocking" "boundary pushing" thing is so ridiculous at this point

they are all dicks

who cares

yeah, guess it's one of those twitter beefs where you just have to walk away

Ten In The Swear Jar had a few cool songs. Xiu Xiu has...zero. He should've quit while he was ahead.

who cares

― congratulations (n/a), Monday, September 23, 2013 5:30 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i think there should just be an automatic script to post this as the first response in every single ilx thread ever, with n/a's signature line intact

good idea

i like xiu xiu

don't actually care about the dumb twitter beef, but xiu xiu's production is so slept on. all the sampling sources, sound design, & everything are so detailed and creative, too bad it apparently gets overshadowed by his aesthetic. plenty of good songs too.

also he's a nice dude. i went to see a (free) show where they didn't play because some essential piece of gear broke, and he gave me & my gf a bunch of free vinyl.

i mean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKWckRuz-gk

yeah, i like xiu xiu, too. i remember in college i wrote jamie an email and he wrote a nice email back. seemed like a cool guy.

i love the part at 8:15, creating a chord out of a kick drum via EQ only, i think about that all the time.

I like xiu xiu and I like "I hope the new POPE fucks your heart out"

"I am a sad consumer" tweets are the goddam worst

the best was when i saw xiu xiu play an art museum and i got to watch all the horrified middle-aged rich museum member ladies run for the hills halfway through the first song.

They were probably rushing across the street to try to purchase the album at a Starbucks.

when the show was over some lady was trying to give away her album because she bought it before the show and didn't know what the band sounded like

I like that Nina Simone cover. I don't know if I'd go in for a whole album, but the arrangement is interesting, and not at all what I was expecting.

i will always just think of ilm when i see that name. that's all i think of. xiu xiu and the junior boys. you REALLY have to like his voice to listen at all because its right in your earhole the whole time. too close, dude. i can't do it.

i worry about jamie hurting his neck because of the way he stands when he sings and plays- that's gotta hurt

nice guy! we played a fun show with them so I am biased to take his side against the twitterers

Xiu Xiu fans: Evaluate this (profoundly NWS) picture of Jamie Stewart.

i think this guy is the future...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0uu79FWKgc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS2wNx1lEIg

Scott to really buy the ticket you need to be in 2002 and listen to "Knife Play"

Based on your recommendation this Lansing-Dreiden re-issue has been making my summer great so

why are there so many threads about xiu xiu it sucks

"Based on your recommendation this Lansing-Dreiden re-issue has been making my summer great so"

yay! they did such a great job with the vinyl. sounds amazing.

the twitter beef is actually a local beef. all three speakers lived in the same town for the last few years. two of them (ross and brad) love the town fiercely - some people who live there really love it a whole lot. when jamie lived there, he hated it, and went out of his way to say everywhere how horrible he thought it was. most of his observations about the town seemed made from the perspective of somebody who sat in his house all day and said "man! I hate this town!" jamie's gone now but people in his former town will basically take any opportunity to say "that guy's a dick" for the next 1,000,000 years.

(disclosure, I live there too & still do, and consider jamie a friend, but his bullshit on this issue was really a lot to take.)

lol

that's great

I read the interview where Jamie supposedly talked shit on the town (wherever it was, I forget) and I thought it was pretty mild. He pretty much copped to being depressed generally and his location wasn't helping. People really shouldn't take shitting on their hometown so seriously especially to the point where years after the fact they are attacking the person in question on an unrelated issue. Well I really love Xiu Xiu and most everything they've done (some stuff more than others, obvs) and Jamie is really the sweetest, nicest person. IDK why the hate at all. Lovely voice too - and yeah, right on about the sound design/production. A cult band for all time...

yeah I live here. it was constant. it wasn't just that interview. as I say, he is a personal friend. we had dinner with one another when he was here on many occasions, both at one another's houses and out on the town. he is a sweet person who I like, and he's full of shit, these don't actually contradict each other.

so brad deleted his twitter account over this, huh?

you're talking about Durham, NC right?

this is a great band and people who disagree are wrong and unamerican

The Nina record and "Red Guts" are so, so amazing ACTUALLY

yeah, he really nails that uncomfortable space between pop and outre performance art. my friend used to hang out with jamie stewart sometimes in north carolina. iirc he said he was "a weird guy, but not that weird really."

i appreciate a promise a lot, it was an important record for me during a very difficult part of my life but i find it extremely challenging to listen to any his other work

The Air Force is one of my favorite records ever. Xiu Xiu are in a league of their own.

fabulous muscles, you're the one for me

Vaguely tempted to spend too much $$ on the Twin Peaks soundtrack cover LP they're putting out for RSD.

I liked to play "rank the records" with Xiu Xiu a lot, but their development has happened at a molecular level. There haven't been any pop songs in over ten years.. his lyrics went from "lyrics" to "monologues" to "literally don't give a fuck".. finally with "Red Guts" there is no harmonic material whatsoever, it's just this kind of hooky, beautifully-produced noise music. It's funny that two of my least-favourite-sounding albums from 2014 were produced/recorded by Congleton, but then "Red Guts" is easily one of the best-sounding albums I've ever heard.

rn the only Xiu Xiu albums I'd destroy are Fabulous Muscles, La Foret, and certain collaborations, pretty much everything else has swung up into "essential" territory.

The cover of "Falling" is terrific for so many reasons, I mean, it seems like Xiu Xiu wanna cover only the most impossible-to-cover songs ("Ceremony"? "Fast Car"? "Under Pressure"? Nina Simone's catalogue?) but yeah this one is especially such a grand slam

Fabulous Muscles and La Foret are my second and third favorite Xiu Xiu albums, with Knife Play eternally holding the top position due to the way it ripped the top of my head open the first time I heard it and only being able to really feel that way once.

They are doing the Twin Peaks thing around the corner from my apartment on Friday. I should get over the dread of interacting with other people and go, yeah?

go go go go go absolutely go, i saw jamie live solo in 2012 and it was one of the most intense and affecting performances i've ever seen. somehow he made a shitty tex-mex restaurant feel like a funeral parlor

due to the way it ripped the top of my head open the first time I heard it and only being able to really feel that way once.

a promise did this to me, i think the first xiu xiu track i heard was "blacks" and it was very overwhelming

i can see people being not enthusiastic about all things Xiu Xiu (I'm not myself) but I never understood the absolute revulsion some poeople have had. This thread isn't the only time I've run across it.

i completely understand the absolute revulsion people have

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rk1qjjU9jQc

i understand the revulsion but otoh ppl i really vibe with tend to get at least some aspect of xiu xiu. i admit i haven't really kept up but their older stuff is so special to me. i never thought jamie got enough credit for how funny he could be.

Really dug everything up to and including (especially actually) Fabulous Muscles. La Foret was OK, last one I heard. Really liking the samples of the other stuff. Have a lot to go through.

Fabulous Muscles is seen by most as a watershed moment, but it was so disappointing to me-- the loss of the gamelan, the inferior versions of songs from the tour split EP with Jim Yoshii, and the "hit" was a Ten In The Swear Jar song. idk! Lots of people love that record.

The Air Force was amazing, right off the top, the "good engineering work, Greg Saunier" snare sound had me like "yayyyy the Roland SP-303 has been put back in the closet"

there's gamelan on fab muscles! clowne towne is an amazing song.

fab muscles is where I got off the bus, it was v disappointing to me

cad u are right tho Jamie can be very funny

i can't remember too much about 2003 but i remember sad pony guerrilla girl doing something i didn't know about before

Jamie was the first songwriter who struck me as really deeply deliberately funny in a kind of "Morrissey, but American" kind of way, like "here are some jokes strung together into a lyric", and it worked!

otm -- bleakly funny

I'M JUST KIDDING!

I loved Xiu Xiu in college, I even wrote Jamie an email, and he wrote back. That was pretty cool. I Broke Up was my life back then ... fun times. I should check up on their latest albums, I haven't listened to any in a long time.

this is one of those "respect more than enjoy" groups for me. a promise is a pretty astounding album.

saw him open for a Swans show a few years back. After a particularly anguished vocal on one song, a guy sitting near us yelled out "It's all right, dude! It's gonna be OK!!"

I got on the bus between A Promise and Fabulous Muscles (when Pitchfork was giving 'em shine, natch), but my fandom was always sort of... situational? like they played the same outré rôle in my personal musical library that "Pepper" or "Detachable Penis" played on MTV/radio in the 90s... "crazy person music," as Dave Matthews so bluntly put it. Needless to say, this was a fucked-up attitude that drastically circumscribed my own engagement with the music, & ultimately left me feeling that it didn't have very much to offer beyond novelty value. (FWIW, this reductive approach seems fairly common among casual fans of the band, cf. the post upthread from 2013 complaining: the "shocking" "boundary pushing" thing is so ridiculous at this point)

It's only over the past couple of years, in working my way through the many excellent & varied releases either side of those two, that I've come to really respect Jamie as an artist, performer, & innovator -- not just some unhinged weirdo who knows how to push people's buttons. Jordan OTM re: consistently excellent sound design -- even the acoustic album just plain *sounds* really good!!

Years ago, a girl I was dating at the time played "Buzz Saw" for me really loudly in one of the radio station listening rooms (we were both DJs for our college radio station) because she said there was an awesome farty bass noise in it that was one of her favorite sounds ever -- but these days, it's the chimes from the end of that song that stick in my memory like a plaster toe.

Honestly, it was the farty bass that drew me to this band, too.

Whenever I'd play Xiu Xiu on my college radio show I'd have to field angry phone calls and AIMs

I'm not denying the button-pushing, getting-under-people's-skin aspect; I just think there's a lot more variety to their music (in terms of instrumentation, sonic texture, song structure, affect, ...) than they are typically given credit for

Yeah, that's part of the thing, he's pretty inventive with his instrumentation and production. It's not really "this guy's a fucked up weirdo! let's laugh at him!" Dude gets into some pretty intense emotional territory, though, which I personally appreciate because I've seen shit

Ol snowy, if I could touch your forehead to transfer the things that I've seen and lived through, you'd have a seizure and poo your pants. So I like that there's an artist who goes out there to express really intense feelings. That's why Jamie Stewart has a place in my heart.

"bunny gamer" is a ten in the swear jar song?

i love the valley was, apparently

Your true self has become weak and alone and annoying
And a true ridiculous dumb-ass
Clowne towne revealing nothing
Clowne towne a flock of coots
Clowne towne a single beauty
Clowne towne a big dumb kid

i love that biting and sardonic but still weirdly empathetic song, sung in a trembling voice that sounds like its on the precipice of madness

Dude gets into some pretty intense emotional territory, though, which I personally appreciate because I've seen shit
― larry appleton, Thursday, April 14, 2016 5:31 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

+ reading this essay http://thephilosophicalsalon.com/in-praise-of-suicide/

I like the way he sings "No one can touch you" it is one of my very favorite Xiu Xiu moments (*not listening to the Jennifer Lopez song anymore)

lol u listen to xiu xiu

i had a really strong/positive response to a promise when it was released. more breathable than knife play, and some truly awesome (Ian Curtis Wishlist) and beautiful (Blacks, Sad Redux-O-Grapher) moments throughout the record.. really brief, too. oddly, an album tailored to my tastes. February of 2003, gorgeous music. difficult to share w/others. the chapel of the chimes ep is similarly skeletal, though not as tenuous or home-y sounding

kinda lost interest around the air force, which has its share of great/striking moments. after seeing them live a few times (a couple very rigid performances), it just seemed like JS solidified a formulaic approach, cranking out several same-y albums over the last decade. listening back to la forêt right now, still affecting

Always might be my favorite "pop" album of his

I would agree that there was something special about A Promise - IIRC he/they were robbed while touring Knife Play and lost access to all of their instruments (in particular their collection of percussion) which is why they necessarily shifted to a more electronic sound.

I lost track of them a long time ago (around La Foret), but my favorite XX song might the xylophone pop/female-vocal "Hello From Eau Claire," which I wish they did more of. Granted it sounds more like a XX cover than an original.

"dear god i hate myself" gets stuck in my head all the time. i still like it.

idk why but THE AIR FORCE is just perfect start from finish in a way that none of their other albums are for me. absolute sweet spot.

I've still never heard The Air Force in its entirety, but will remedy that soon -- y'all are gonna make me blow my entire tax refund on Xiu Xiu albums, I swear!

Idk why but I find La Foret to be their *least* listenable (start-to-finish) album. Plenty of moments I love ("Muppet Face", "Baby Captain", "Ale", "Bog People", ...) but there's just not enough forward momentum to carry me through the dirgey bits... IIRC, starting from "Baby Captain" and letting it loop back to the beginning after "Yellow Raspberry" was somewhat of an improvement

the Twin Peaks album is amazing, if vocals are the thing that is off putting for people it's mostly instrumental.

This is my first Xiu Xiu love after totally failing to get into anything else of theirs and I can't imagine wanting less of his vocals, honestly! The material is just such a perfect fit...

ohhhhh this twin peaks record hits the spot

and they've got more on the way... looks like jamie deleted the recent tweet about a new record being mastered...

New one "FORGET" has leaked

is it good?

Just listened to the first two singles off this. Very exciting! Much poppier than recent offerings and imo the best thing they've put out in ages (though I liked the Twin Peaks thing a lot too).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b28_P8hImzE

Record sounds great, not sure if it's as immediately striking as Angel Guts but what is

dude is so prolific, interest waned hard after The Air Force... this is pretty nice, tho

New one is definitely harking back to that era imo

Oh wow... This is so great again.

new record rules so hard
i love "at last, at last," "jenny gogo," and "get up" the most. the opener ("the call"?) is great too

Yes It's such a beautiful record and 'the call' is just a great opening for a xiu xiu record. 'Petite' is probably my favourite atm. Amazing that he still knocks it out of the park so often after this many years.

continues to be an amazing & inspiring producer and sonic craftsman- I remember watching a video of him demonstrating how he put a bunch of kick drums through filters and pitch shifters to layer them a create a chord out of their tones. so sick. always tempted to buy some of his gear when he periodically puts it up on eBay.

i like the closer, too- all in all this is my favorite Xiu Xiu record since The Air Force. i have a feeling this could be BNM'd by p4k, and i hope they get the bump in attention and ticket sales they deserve...

I hope so, definitely up there with Air Force and A Promise for me. Feel like some of more recent poppier ones (always/women as lovers) sounded way too cluttered where as this one has a real breadth to it.

and good hooks- jenny gogo and at last, at last especially

i have a feeling this could be BNM'd by p4k

nah they don't rep career bands that way really ever

totally happens every now and then... i will back up this claim later

Mount Eerie's Clear Moon comes to mind but yeah not too often.

it tends to be foreshadowed by an uptick in coverage (like when they did their about-face on Deftones), haven't noticed anything like that

this rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SG6yDSbtxU

Xiu Xiu really deserves to play the Roadhouse

holy fuck that ZZ Top cover is amazing

Dig this. Xiu Xiu's always killed it with covers.

yup

yes... what?

Lots of news in their latest email. They really buried the lede by belatedly announcing that the ZZ Top/Bottom cover 7" is "out now" (been out for over a month), but some much more pertinent news, both good and bad, in there:

-new Xiu Xiu album & world tour in early 2019
-new Jamie solo album (his first) out on Record Store Day & North American tour + handful of EU and Russia dates in April
-vinyl reissue of A Promise with bonus tracks. digital version includes drunk commentary from Jamie
-Shayna Dunkelman, who played with Jamie at the two shows I saw last year, has been fired. From the email: "Sadly, we had to let Shayna Dunkelman go from Xiu Xiu. Despite the bantying about of numerous bizarre and vile speculations (oh wretched internet) the true reasons, while frustrating and extremely infuriating to us, are neither salacious nor titillating."

wtf is a "Jamie solo album" lol

is SD the one that was in the "Sharp Dressed Man" AV Club video?

I have been revisiting this band over the past week and they're even better than I thought they were the first time around (and I already thought they were the best band)

Too bad about Shayna :(

Yeah too bad, she's great. Really enjoyed her Trap Set interview.

is SD the one that was in the "Sharp Dressed Man" AV Club video?

yes

What about that album that was literally Jamie on solo guitar and vocals playing "I'll Fly Away" etc, was that called Xiu Xiu?

thanks jordan, didn't feel like doing xiu xiu related google image searches at work

ha Simon I had the same thought. obviously a technicality, as all Xiu Xiu albums have featured other players. Very excited for his solo tour, really hope he comes back here, first time I saw Xiu Xiu was in 2012 and it was just Jamie. One of the most powerful & immense sets I've ever seen. Both shows I saw last year w/ Jamie & Shayna were great, despite a really weak turnout the second time. circa1916 was there and said Jamie was completely despondent after the show, just sitting on a crate in the back with his head in his hands. but J & S had great chemistry, and apparently Shayna was fired the day after the Chicago Twin Peaks show, which was just a week or two ago. Did some digging but have no idea why she was let go.

"digital version includes drunk commentary from Jami"

:D

Good news about the new albums, but Shayna leaving is sad :(

he's been doing the drunk commentaries for a while now, has anyone actually listened to any of them?

I haven't, it's new to me. Is it on reissues or something? I've got all the original stuff so am not inclined to buy any reissue tbh

just on the digital versions on their bandcamp. that would be a pretty bizarre and... impractical thing to press on vinyl ha! although that would be a trip

Honestly your summary of the newsletter was the first I heard of it! Ash did it on 1977, barfing and drunk talk on vinyl to end the album.

It doesn't sound very appealing, drunk commentary, tbh.

yeah I agree, I can only imagine it compounding the crushing abyssal sadness & depression of most Xiu Xiu music. although I would listen to drunk commentary for The Air Force, that's the only record they've made I consider a stone cold classic top to bottom.

A Promise, Fabulous Muscles, Knife Play all stone cold classic to me. Still wouldn't go near a drunk commentary by mister Stewart on any one of those tbf

what wtf happened with shayna? that was stunningly weird and unprofessional and then I forgot all about it. Just say she isn't there anymore, don't say you fired her and then say "oh it's not that salacious". drama queens.

I've only seen xiu xiu twice, once was many years ago, and the last time was the twin peaks show, which she was at, and she seemed pretty integral to that. too bad.

yeah they were great together both times i saw them in 2017. it was just jamie & shayna. now that i remember it, jamie mentioned at one of those shows that they last time they played here 'it was with the worst ever xiu xiu lineup, sorry' (circa 2011, jamie & two dudes i don't remember). i mean i remember right after i became obsessed with the air force, caralee mcelroy left the band under similar vaguely acrimonious circumstances, her quiting/firing entirely unexplained.

jamie doesn't seem like someone who's a joy to work with frankly

ha ha ha to say the least

Jamie Stewart -
An Aggressive, Chain Smoking Alcoholic
Record Store Day 2018
Pinyon Records
First solo record and
horror show https://t.co/HZvqkCHyzh pic.twitter.com/tj4kZQ4ub0

— Xiu Xiu (@XiuXiuforLife) March 6, 2018

that's a link to a new interview btw

Good title.

I assumed that his solo modular synth record would be either noise or just forgettable, but this is really engaging: https://www.tinymixtapes.com/chocolate-grinder/premiere-jamie-stewart-xiu-xiu-inconsistent-and-peculiar-volume

I like the song with Mitski a lot. I could go for an album of that.

his recent noise album An Aggressive, Chain Smoking Alcoholic released under Jamie Stewart is v. good

has anyone been keeping up with the "Drugs" series Jamie is doing? he's up to volume 6 now. he keeps saying that Angela hates it but I can't tell if that's a bit or not

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkK6GT4pkbU

new album girl with basket of fruit out in feb

Fuck yes

love the drums :)

Awesome

oh man

https://polyvinyl-public.s3.amazonaws.com/87efe7b5fa21d969f4ca491ed04b0149_b1afeb4311ea30bd96daabf36f359ea236aa2907_medium.jpg

goddammit i already have a velvet robe

omg where did you find that

help yourself

https://www.polyvinylrecords.com/store/xiu_xiu_girl_with_basket_of_fruit?mc_cid=0a4e5aac30&mc_eid=34c8c17ba7

perfect couples gift for winter ty

bumped another thread but since there's a thousand Xiu Xiu threads here thought I would share again that this new record is REALLY out there, even for them. in terms of abrasiveness / non-songy / insane it's second only to Angel Guts as the most crazy proper Xiu Xiu album.

Yeah I hear you. It’s a shame that nobody seems to care about this guy anymore, consistently one of the most interesting artists working imo.

yeah it's such a drag, especially considering how prolific he is. he had that Chain Smoking Alcoholic solo album last year and like 6 of those Drugs albums. it is strange that people aren't interested anymore, I feel like the running themes of his work (abuse, sexual violence, depression, suicide, addiction, hopelessness) are even more relevant today than they were in the 00s.

Have you heard the new one? What do you make of it, if you have?

I just heard the Pumpkin Attack song on Spotify and really liked it. Haven’t heard the whole new album yet, looking forward to it.

His Chain Smoking Alcoholic noise album was really good and of course slept on.

ironically the song on the flexi disc that came with the LP is a pretty straightforward song in comparison

I have a reverse opinion, that he’s an amazing noise artist with a wider audience than his genre/music necessarily deserves, genre/economy-wise (tho all his concerts should always be vastly sold out)

Personally I preferred the Depeche Mode-via-avant garde descendent of the first two albums to anything that came after, until Red Guts and this new one, which reinvent the aesthetic of noise but with idk hard to describe but aggressively hi-fi production choices, which is neither better or worse, it just is, but it’s extremely relistenable— I cant judge Girl/Fruit or Red Guts on the same metric as Knife Play or A Promise

But I don’t know anybody who writes well about this band

new one sounding really good and super abrasive and fun

otm about it being extremely relistenable, it's definitely his most beguiling record. I haven't read along with the lyrics yet

I definitely think Xiu Xiu will always be wrongly-rated because there is far more going on here than people realize (including myself). I don't think his songs are about (abuse, sexual violence, depression, suicide, addiction, hopelessness) but are pretty much, across the board, about mental garble, about the dissociative response one experiences when faced with the difficult-to-bear. He's not singing about war itself, he's singing about the feeling of reading about the war, watching TV about the war. I don't find his music comforting because he's singing anything meaningful about anything so much as I deeply identify on a personal level with the mind-spewing-information-as-a-result-of-next-to-nothing feeling that his songs seem to attempt to capture

Pumpkin Attack sounds like industrial techno. Is this his dance music record?

xp maybe The Air Force is an outlier but that record deals with that stuff pretty directly - songs like Vulture Piano, PJ in the Streets, Buzz Saw, Save Me Save Me - but broadly I agree, something like Support Our Troops or I Luv Abortion, that's exactly it - unfiltered live wire trauma garble.

I definitely think Xiu Xiu will always be wrongly-rated because there is far more going on here than people realize (including myself). I don't think his songs are about (abuse, sexual violence, depression, suicide, addiction, hopelessness) but are pretty much, across the board, about mental garble, about the dissociative response one experiences when faced with the difficult-to-bear. He's not singing about war itself, he's singing about the feeling of reading about the war, watching TV about the war. I don't find his music comforting because he's singing anything meaningful about anything so much as I deeply identify on a personal level with the mind-spewing-information-as-a-result-of-next-to-nothing feeling that his songs seem to attempt to capture

very good post imo

ok this might be the best thing he's ever done

ok this might be the best thing he's ever done

― flappy bird, Friday, February 8, 2019 9:56 PM (four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I interviewed Jamie.. he's a sweetheart

I don't know anyone who writes well about this band

You want to talk about Weyes Blood, I want to talk about Girl with Basket Of Fruit

I mean it’s not easy tbh. xp

He should be one hundred times more popular than he is though.

touring with AJJ and Emperor X next year, joined by Jonathan Meiburg....this makes up for them cancelling their last tour. really stoked for that.

that time again...

new album of duets 'oh no' out march 26th

some exciting features on there!

shoulda gone with

xiu xiuets

I'm not surprised that Jamie Stewart has an impressive Rolodex by now but that is indeed a tasty lineup:

1. Sad Mezcalita (Sharon Van Etten)
2. I Cannot Resist (Deb Demure / Drab Majesty)
3. The Grifters (Haley Fohr / Circuits des Yeux )
4. Goodbye For Good (Greg Saunier / Deerhoof)
5. OH NO (Susanne Sachsse)
6. Rumpus Room (Angus Andrew / Liars)
7. Fuzz Gong Fight (Angela Seo / Xiu Xiu)
8. I Dream of Someone Else Entirely (Owen Pallett)
9. One Hundred Years (Chelsea Wolfe) [The Cure cover]
10. A Classic Screw (Fabrizio Modonese Palumbo)
11. It Bothers Me All the Time (Jonathan Meiburg / Shearwater)
12. Saint Dymphna (George Lewis Jr. / Twin Shadow)
13. Knock Out (Alice Bag)
14. A Bottle of Rum (Liz Harris / Grouper)
15. ANTS (Valerie Diaz)

One Hundred Years (Chelsea Wolfe) [The Cure cover]

oh hell yeah

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yialek4fUUg

^^ the song w/ Grouper is good!

He's the greatest

I've seen him live a dozen times and I just wanna see him again

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRPzFgUwodw

Every time my partner and I have tried to see him/them has been stymied, the show either didn't happen or was canceled (pre- and post-pandemic). :(

BRO that has happened to me too!! I've had tickets three or four times!

The one I was most annoyed about happened at a little venue here in DC--as the show was starting, the sound system's snake had gotten unplugged and the entire system had to be set up again. They couldn't effectively do sound check, the guy on the soundboard wouldn't stop playing the pre-show mix or communicate with the band at all to work it out. This shit lasts until there's fifteen minutes or so left before a hard out being enforced by the venue because a salsa dance party was scheduled immediately after the show. Jamie had the set list written on a paper plate, which he chucked into the audience saying, "If you catch this, tell us what you want to hear. Just...I recommend you don't start with your favorite song, because...then it's all downhill from there."

The little bit they played was awesome. Can't wait to see a full show some day.

Cursed! I'm sure I've posted this multiple times upthread, but the first time was an outdoor college show where Dirty Beaches played a noise set, but apparently some crucial loop pedal or sampler broke and Jamie couldn't/wouldn't play. We ran into him in the parking lot and he gave us a bunch of 7"s though!

OH NO sounding really good so far, his most accessible since Always maybe. title track reminds of some of the early records.

also he has very very sneakily become quite a skilled vocalist over the years huh?

guest appearance by the screaming toy ducks from vine on that shearwater collab

I can't remember the last time I've done this--or if I've ever done this--but wtf is with this p4k review of the new album?

It’s difficult to be a Xiu Xiu fan, mostly because it means you have to listen to so much Xiu Xiu music [...] Stewart has spent the last 20 years blazing an illegible path, musically and morally, between queer politics and shock-jock shtick, radical vulnerability and repugnant cruelty, good faith and bad taste. The music varies wildly in style—from punky folk and dreamy pop to experimental electronics and harsh noise, all teeming with global instruments—and quality, from the heart-filled zenith of “I Luv the Valley, OH!” to the heartless nadir of “I Luv Abortion.” For every song you’d defend with your last breath, there’s another you couldn’t defend with your first. Most perverse is when they blend into the likes of “Ale,” a gorgeous tune about telling an overweight woman playing GameCube to shut up.

and this is a GOOD review!

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/xiu-xiu-oh-no/

or rather, a positive one (7.0)... what Xiu Xiu song is anywhere close to "indefensible," and on what grounds?

I don't know about "indefensible" and it's been a long time since I listened to those early records, but there some very, very bleak songs and a few about the horrific violence of war that I can absolutely understand someone having a hard time sitting through.

so, the author of that piece lives in the town Jamie called home, and shat on every chance he got, for several years. said author also edits the local independent free weekly. I don't wanna do a lot of talking out of school but Jamie's hatred of the town was weird for the people t/here who love the place and were happy to have him here, who loved & continued to love his music. his hatred of the town was visceral though and these dynamics inform your hearing of his music going forward, if you happen to have a stake in the town.

Well that certainly makes the piece less mystifying!

xp "hard time to sit through," definitely, but we're not talking about Chicago

I hate ilxtown too and still live here.

Excited to hear this one. I lost track of this band, but fabulous muscles and dear god i hate myself are incredible albums.

La Foret was the last one I bought before losing track for many years, but I got reacquainted with his work a few years ago and now I think Forget is his best record. Looking forward to making time for the new one.

as far as indefensible things he's done go the first that comes to mind is the A Promise album cover

I haven’t heard anything from them since Fabulous Muscles but the features in here definitely piqued my interest. He has improved a lot as a vocalist since then, Simon otm.

I don’t think they’re indefensible but their odd mixing decisions makes almost every song I’ve heard lf them sound very angular. It’s not a pleasant listen most of the time, but I guess it’s a very conscious aesthetic choice.

Every time this thread gets bumped I think "There's a new Xiu Xiu album called What the Christ??!"

there probably will be one day

and now we truly enter hell

it takes a lot to scare me but I think this is managing it

tbf this does seem to be the third album in their "hell" series (following Angel Guts and Basket Of Fruit)

my fault for not really paying attention until now. extremely convincing evocation of the abyss

first three tracks of this sounded incredible, looking forward to digging in/feeling bad. thought _forget_ was a really strong xiu xiu pop record, but the noise records have been peaks over the last decade.

reading the below line from the album description earlier reminded me of fgti's v perceptive comments upthread:

"Xiu Xiu has spent twenty years grappling with how to process, to be empathetic towards, to disobey and to reorganize horror;"

this really is some of the worst music ever made, I recoil viscerally from his entire aesthetic

my fave Xiu Xiu memory is watching an interminable, excruciating opening set for Swans and at a particularly self-indulgent faux-agony moment someone yelled out "it's OK dude! it's gonna be all right!"

Every time this thread gets bumped I think "There's a new Xiu Xiu album called What the Christ??!"

― Mark E. Smith died this year. Or, maybe last year. (bernard snowy), Tuesday, 30 March 2021 12:54 (two years ago)

*Twin Peaks itishappeningagain.gif*

Also lol sleeve, for some reason people shitting on Xiu Xiu is very amusing to me (I say this as a fan). There is just something so appropriate, so cosmically and karmically right, about people hating this weird funny music.

Truly one of the great troll bands of our time (not just in the sense of doing inflammatory things, but "This guy has probably gotten banned from Something Awful and/or paid to have someone else banned")