It emphasizes a pounding beat, driven by aggressive, hammering punctuations.
A cover of The Cure’s”‘One Hundred Years” brings an industrialized and somehow-edgier tone to a classic track. It is a touching track-one that is indicative of much of the lyrical content across the album, looking for heroes or begging for accountability from its subjects. Dymphna, a 15th-century patroness of abuse victims and the mentally ill. “Saint Dymphna,” featuring Twin Shadows, unfolds as an updated ballad about St.
Van Etten and Stewart take turns trading lines about a deteriorating relationship over a spare but shimmery backdrop in “Sad Mezcalita” marked by long synth chords and pitched drums. Unfolding across a true amalgam of sonic landscapes, Stewart is joined by the likes of Sharon Van Etten, longtime production and creative collaborator Greg Saunier ( Deerhoof), Owen Pallett, Twin Shadow, and Liars, to name just a few. It could be described as an album of duets, yet somehow, that term carries a bit too much of a classical connotation to really describe what takes place. In early 2021-after a year of whatever 2020 was-Xiu Xiu released OH NO, a 15 track record featuring collaborators on each song. Some of the best and most memorable moments jump out when a new voice or instrumentalist enters the fray. Still, one of the hallmarks of Xiu Xiu is collaboration, whether that takes the shape of producing, composing or performing across its robust discography. In 2009, Stewat’s roommate and creative co-conspirator, Angela Seo, joined to form the core duo. Often billed as ‘experimental,’ Xiu Xiu really should rather be called ‘exploratory,’ given the breadth and nature of their influences: noise rock, punk, post-punk-roll the dice and pick a genre chances are, it’s on an album, and they’ve pushed it to the limit.Īlthough the group has taken many forms over the course of its existence, the exception has been Xiu Xiu’s founding member and creative bastion, Jamie Stewart. “Although there is an ‘I HATE PEOPLE’ pin on my guitar strap, I hate them less now.Xiu Xiu makes music that makes people pay attention.īeginning with 2002’s Knife Play, the band has, as a rule, delved into a new flavor with each subsequent release. Seo’s bandmate Jamie Stewart said, “The guest stars of ‘OH NO’ reflect the types of people… who helped remind me that the ratio of beautiful humans to shitty humans is more like 60/40 rather than what I have always assumed was 1/99. All that intersected perfectly with the ‘Rumpus Room’ song, and part II story of the video trilogy (1st being ‘A Bottle of Rum’).”įorthcoming album ‘OH NO’ is set to feature a plethora of guests and collaborators, including Sharon Van Etten, Chelsea Wolfe and other members of Liars. “Sometimes in my old teenage journals, I find flamin’ red dusted fingerprint smudges among melodramatic poems and fake runaway notes. On the surreal though rambunctious visual, Seo said, “Does everyone have a deep personal childhood association with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, or just me? In it, we see her parading around a living room, munching Cheetos and wearing boxing gloves and Crocs. The accompanying DIY video was directed by Xiu Xiu’s own Angela Seo. ‘Rumpus Room’ is the latest single from Xiu Xiu’s upcoming duets album, ‘OH NO’, set for release on March 26 via Polyvinyl.Īccording to Xiu Xiu in a press release, ‘Rumpus Room’ picks up where January’s lead single ‘A Bottle Of Rum’ left off. The track, which dropped last Thursday (March 4), features Angus Andrew of Liars.
Xiu Xiu have released a new single, ‘Rumpus Room’, taken from the duo’s forthcoming album, ‘OH NO’.