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forgive us the mistakes we've made.

ten in the swear jar "san jose fight song"
the halfway point between the scattered postrock insanity of xiu xiu and the accordian craziness of his first band, IBOPA. "woke up in a bad mood, dude." if it weren't for a few odd instrument choices and his odd voice this could almost be late 90s modern rock canon. most similar to "i luv the valley" off xiu xiu's latest, fabulous muscles. this song has the quintessential line that sums up almost all of jamie stewart's music "cause things don't turn out alright."
--from ??? // lyrics

ten in the swear jar "famine (1949 version)"
with a tone entirely misleading of it's extremely dark lyrical content, this has one of the most addicting choruses jamie has penned. i'm assuming there was an IBOPA version of this as well, which i'd love to hear, and i also really hope he rerecords this for the next xiu xiu album. accordian and pings reminiscent of hospital machinery churn along till it all starts coming apart at the seams. "it just died, i did not kill it. it just died, i did not kill it." reality can be a scary scary place.
--from my very private map [1999] // lyrics

ten in the swear jar "helsabot"
mr. stewart has the great habit of recording his own songs, over the course of his different bands, which is good because it means he can work towards a perfect version, but in this case, my favorite version of "helsabot" was (i believe) this first one recorded for TITSJ. some of his most restrained vocals, set to sad and beautiful lyrics. some drones and blips, almost what i'd call xiu xiu-lite. current band/touring member caralee mcelroy (who is supercute and looks like she could be maggie gyllanhaal's sister, and i believe is the subject of xiu xiu's "little panda mcelroy") sings this one live now and that version is definitely worth checking out too.
--from my very private map [1999] // lyrics