intro de la xiu
Description
Quickstats
Playlist Length
0 days, 2 hours, 28 minutes
Playlist Followers
117
Source
Playlist Last Updated
Unknown
Mood
Mixed Mood
Track Popularity Rating
Deep
Style
Varied
Average Release Decade
2000s
Main Genre:
Mixed
Reddit Info
Reddit Post
This is probably the most difficult Xiu Xiu album to start with, lol. I would recommend Forget - some of the songs off that album are downright poppy. But yeah, I really enjoy their violent and abrasive stuff too. For me, it’s so powerful because it’s so *real* - it expresses a horror that can’t be conveyed through ‘normal’ music. But it never feels pointlessly edgy or exploitative because it’s so full of empathy. Jamie Stewart writes songs about the absolute worst things human beings can experience - one song, “Brian the Vampire,” is about a little kid he taught when he was a schoolteacher. The boy was being raped by his brother at night and the parents did nothing. He was nicknamed Brian the Vampire because of the dark rings under his eyes because he never slept. Jamie confronted the parents, but they refused to take action, and he couldn’t call the police on them because they were illegal immigrants who would be deported if he did. So he wrote a song about it, to try to pay some kind of tribute to him. Every Xiu Xiu song is about something real that happened - that was part of the premise of the band when they first started recording. I think the song “Hi” captures their mission statement very well: > If you’re wasting your life say hi > If you are alone tonight say hi > If you wish he should die say hi > Hi, hi > If you have a hole in you head say hi > If you have a stitch in your wrist say hi > If when you look at the sky, it is black and shredded My favorite Xiu Xiu song is [“Botanica de Los Angeles”](https://youtu.be/JvVJMllJo0M), a song which describes a victim of sexual abuse committing suicide. It’s written in such a way that it feels like a grand statement of empathy, with Stewart first singing he would have died for her and later that he would have died *with* her. It’s essentially saying: “you are not alone. I know what you’re feeling.” He responds to nearly every email fans send him. One fan sent him the knife she used to use to cut herself, and he says he keeps it on his desk as a reminder. To many people, he feels like a friend who understands their pain. I made a playlist a while back [for introducing people to Xiu Xiu](https://open.spotify.com/user/hradvblt75r6459dhujb4jk3r/playlist/3FsMSl7nN5rbcfwd8c2Y5U?si=tBDSruZ4S72Tfwu3f8-Jyw), which might be more to your taste - there are only a few GWBOF songs on it because they don’t really make for a good starting point, as much as I love that album.
Upvotes
27
Subreddit
xiuxiu
Reddit Username
of-schlagenheim
Reddit Timestamp
11/21/19 1:45
Reddit URL
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