Xiu Xiu
Knife Play (Tomlab)
Guitars wail like The Pop Group. Bass booms ominously like – hell, I don’t want to say Peter Hook but – Peter Hook. Silences hang, like rope. A voice is overwrought, melodramatic, stung into sound for being rejected for ‘Phantom Of The Opera’ a fifth time. Is this a good combination? It scares the crap out of me. Like Virgin Prunes, only strange. Favoured track: ‘Dr Troll’- Everett True, in the first edition of Loose Lips Sink Ships
Virgin Prunes, huh? There’s a comparison we don’t hear very often these days, favourable or otherwise (and it’s generally, inevitably, otherwise). I had to investigate.
Everett True is a man of good taste and trustworthy descriptive powers, so it’s no surprise that I can report that there is indeed more than a fleeting similarity. On the evidence of the few online Xiu Xiu tracks that I’ve managed to locate, they also remind me one way or another of Faultline, Brian Molko, cLOUDDEAD, Conor Oberst, Tindersticks, Scott Walker.
Histrionic is good. Xiu Xiu have been duly wishlisted, to be returned to after next payday has repaired the damage inflicted on my bank account by Manhattan.
- Xiu Xiu (official site)
- Kill Rock Stars: Xiu Xiu factsheet (includes three MP3s)
- A Promise, Knife Play, Fabulous Muscles at Amazon (sound samples)
- Xiu Xiu – Epitonic.com (includes MP3/WMA)
- Virgin Prunes – True Life Story
Oh, Everett True. What fond memories of other similar phrase such as “Silences hang, like rope.”
Er.
“Ropes hang, like silence.”
Like rope, silences hang. Like silence, ropes hang. Silences, like rope, hang.
Etc.