listen closer

DO YOU LOVE ME, JAMIE STEWART?

this week is jamie stewart week here at listen closer, i'll start with his oh-so-good-maybe-my-favorite-band-groundbreaking-critically-embraced-everyone should-love-this-band-oh-man-they're-so-freaking-good project, xiu xiu. they're going on tour and since the two xiu xiu shows i've been to have been two of the best shows of my life, i can't recommend anything more highly. jamie is charmismatic, his live voice is unnerving and beautiful and entrancing, and he's one of the nicest/friendliest people i've ever said "i love your music!" to. i once sat on a couch next to him in easthampton mass, listening to a band open for him at the flywheel, where six people showed up. when xiu xiu went on and played, i knew i was watching something special. they didn't seem to care that there was virtually no one there. they just played and played, and absolutely blew me away. i wished more people had been there to see it, not just for the band's sake, but because i wanted other people to experience what i just had. maybe it wouldn't have been the same if more people had been there, but i'll remember it forever.

xiu xiu "i broke up (sj)"
courtesy of kill rock stars site, comes THE xiu xiu song. the first i heard, and the first i'd recommend to anyone. it's schitzophrenic, it's funny, it's sad, it's clever, it's dancy, it's everything xiu xiu is in one song. jamie stewart has a ludicrous talent for confronting something so head on, so clearly and plainly that you begin to think he can't be serious. he tries to tread that line of something that is so sick, depraved, scary, sad, that it has to be funny. and it's okay for it to be funny. some people hate his intentionally over the top delivery and his angular guitars and his everything-as-instruments style, but i just feel bad for them. to think xiu xiu has only been around two years and i've been listening to them for less than that boggles my mind.
--from knife play [2002] // official site // lyrics

xiu xiu "ceremony [joy division cover]"
one of xiu xiu's most accessible tracks to those who might not otherwise be able to get into them is understandably, not their own. but while this ian curtis penned track was distant and restrained and ghostly when joy division recorded it. xiu xiu's version is manic and electro-infused. it more than does justice to the original, it's so excellent. the vocals are panicked and the dance floor is about to explode. if ian curtis was a ghost when he recorded this song, jamie stewart is a banshee.
--from chapel of the chimes ep [2002] // lyrics

xiu xiu "ian curtis wishlist"
the last song on xiu xiu's second lp, a promise, destroys me. jamie recorded it drunk, first take, i read in an interview, and almost didn't put it on the album like that. i wouldn't have it any other way. simple swirling synths and a few clicks. the best part is when his vocals overload the mic. it just sounds so... good. there's a level of sad honesty he reaches in this song that not many people will ever reach. this would be my favorite xiu xiu song if they didn't have so damn many perfect songs.
--from a promise [2003] // lyrics