The name Xiu Xiu comes from the movie Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, a Chinese movie about a girl attempting to find her way home during the Cultural Revolution in the People’s Republic of China. As frontman Jamie Stewart once said in an interview with music website Pitchfork, “The whole theme of that movie is that there’s no resolution sometimes. It goes on–terrible shit, terrible shit, terrible shit keeps happening to this woman, and at the end she dies.”
Xiu Xiu’s music can be uncomfortable, demanding the listener’s attention and emotional availability. Xiu Xiu writes and plays songs about trauma, gender dysphoria, shame, death, sexuality, and relationship violence. Throughout the band’s music there is an overarching focus on the rotten realness of life, the idea that sometimes bad things happen for no reason, and that sometimes there is no meaning behind suffering. Yet, there is beauty in these experiences. Xiu Xiu’s art ascribes meaning to human pains that struggle to grasp a semblance of meaning or purpose otherwise.
Xiu Xiu’s latest album, 13-inch Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips, has already been described by fans as being Xiu Xiu’s happiest album to date. Xiu Xiu began making music in 2002, with the release of Knife Play, an art-pop album characterized by singer and frontman Jamie Stewart’s quivering, on the brink of tears, vocals, and a strange, eclectic choice of instruments. Yet, the formula has proved effective, as the band has produced 14 studio albums in total as of September 27, 2024.
On Friday, October 11, Xiu Xiu will perform one of the first concerts of their 2024 tour at Washington DC’s beloved Black Cat. Local DC group Fanoplane, known for not rehearsing their act and simply improvising for the entire duration of their concerts, will open for the band on Friday. Tickets are still available on Black Cat’s website.
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