Xiu Xiu
 

They're coming to town, I know they're good and I'm not familiar with their stuff, and my buddies are opening for them. What should I learn about them before I see them?

uhh, why dont you just listen to them? i dont like them that much, but fabulous muscles is a good one.

Check out knife play. Good album. The new album kinda sucks and the last time I saw them live kinda sucked, but the first time I saw them they were great.

Worth seeing..

I really love Fabulous Muscles and especially La Forêt, it's a great album imho

Yeah, it's weird, I haven't given La Foret many listens, but I remember it being the best.

A promise and The Air Force are great imo.

every album is different yet retain their own flavor.

i did an interview with jamie stewart like 2 years ago but posted it like a year ago, at the end of it, i posted some mp3s of pretty much all their big albums: http://oscillatorzine.blogspot.com scroll down.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions and links. I'll check them out tomorrow, and that interview you did seems like a good read Everyneurotic.

Xiu Xiu are one of the best bands of the last 10 years. My hard-on for them has substancially softened but I still love them. Knife Play is my favorite.

Knife Play - Obscenely beautiful noisy electro pop. Can make a statue cry.
A Promise - Much more sparse. Still fucking incredible.
Fabulous Muscles - More electronic. Less noisy. Not as solid of an album.
La For?t - Sparce. Awesome. Definately a must own.
The Air Force - Decent. Similar to Fabulous Muscles in sound.
Women as Lovers - Better than the Air Force but nothing incredible. No real stand-out tracks.

Chapel of the Chimes is my favorite EP. Fag Patrol is good too.

Ciautastico! and the the other XXL album is great too. So are the Ten In The Swear Jar and 7 Year Rabbit Cycle albums.

Go to the show. They won't disappoint.

I pretty much agree with what Hayden said, except I think the new one is slightly worse than air force..

You just said it sucks...?

The only album I haven't got is La Foret, but everything else by the band is just fucking astounding.
I tend to lump Knife Play and A Promise together in my head, despite obvious differences... they were my first two, and they fucked my head up. Some of the melodies on those two albums are enough to make a man end his life.

Fabulous Muscles is goddamn brilliant, I'd say, same deal... some songs on it just destroy me... I can hardly listen to Little Panda McElroy or Mike without at least getting lumps in my throat. And the more upbeat songs are just fucking killer.

The Air Force was tied as my favourite album of 2006... Lots of really fucking great tunes, not to mention a couple of my all-time favourite XX songs (Save Me Save Me, The Fox & The Rabbit, vulturepiano...)

Women As Lovers was nonstop in the majority of my media-playing devices (minus record player...) for a few days at least... literally nothing by Women As Lovers. The only problem I have with it is that there aren't any moments that specifically stand out as putting-me-on-the-fucking-brink-of-tears (would list a whole ton of such moments, but there are just too many...)
Standouts from WAL: FTW, No friend Oh!, White Nerd...

He said "air force" is decent.

I said this one is worse.

Worse than decent? Sucks. And as Hayden said, no standout tracks, etc.. sucks.

I never really got very familiar with them.

Although I used to play the song Fabulous Muscles on my radio show because it counted as one of my "bin cuts". I dig that one.

"Cremate me after you cum on my lips" muhahahahahaha

That's a real bummer. I really really love it, man.
I failed to mention the cover of Under Pressure... I really dig it.
I think there's a few tracks that stand out, but they are less, as I said, melody-based. I suppose diehards of KP/AP could be let down by that fact, but I wasn't really let down at all.
It's kind of a double-edged blade, knowing that they probably will never release anything in that same vein of devastation (in a good way) as Knife Play, but they keep releasing, at least as I see it, great fucking albums.

The Air Force is their best album. Well, I haven't heard the new one. But better than their previous shit.

How in the world? It's bland, man. The emotion and the rawness of the earlier albums are amazing. Knife Play is a fucking classic. CLASSIC.

on first listen, women as lovers i thought was excellent.

on second listen, i thought the second half falls somewhat flat. still some great great songs.

the air force i love too, i really can't pick one xiu xiu album, la foret is the spottiest, but then again, it has "pox".

I think something was definitely lost when Greg started producing thier records. I mean, I love his work in Deerhoof and Experimental Dental School and such, but his glossy production doesn't really fit Xiu Xiu's aesthetic.

Well, I think something gets lost every time they add a new member as well..

Hmph.

i can see that bothering some, the glossy production.

My theory is that Xiu Xiu just wants to be taken "seriously" now. I can't blame 'em, but ..

I once read an interview with Mindless Self Indulgence.. yeah, yeah, say what you want.. point is: Jimmy said, "Do we need a drummer? No. But that's the only way you can be taken seriously." Which I always found odd but he has a point.

I think Ches is okay, he was much better in stuff like Secret Chiefs 3 (who also has a member of Don Salsa in it now -- have you guys heard Don Salsa? Craziest band I've EVER heard; their sole album starts with a 32 minute song that combiens every genre known to man, then there are a bunch of 3 second noise songs, a Mario Brothers 2 medley, a Rod Stewart medley, and all kinds of other crazy shit -- check that fucknig band out!)....................

but something has definitely been lost.

Still a good band though, of course.