Xiu Xiu have shared details of a new album. The Californian experimentalists will share 13th studio LP Ignore Grief on March 3 via Polyvinyl.
In the wake of 2021 duets album OH NO, Xiu Xiu are once again operating as a trio, as Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo are joined by old friend and new member David Kendrick (Sparks, Devo, Gleaming Spires).
The 10-track Ignore Grief is characterized as "a record of halves" in press materials. For instance, Seo sings on half the record, while Stewart sings on the other. Sonically, it's said that "half of the songs are experimental industrial," while the other half "are experimental modern classical."
Going deeper, songs are further divided into "real" and "imaginary":
The real songs attempt to turn the worst life has offered, to five people the band is connected with, into some kind of desperate shape that does something, anything, other than grind and brutalize their hearts and memory within these stunningly horrendous experiences.
The imaginary songs are an expansion and abstract exploration of the early rock and roll "Teen Tragedy" genre as jumping off point to decontaminate the band's own overwhelming emotions in knowing and living with what has happened to these five people
The first of the songs to arrive is "Maybae Baeby," which you can hear below alongside an unsettling video helmed by Seo.
"In 'Maybae Baeby,' the singer's viewpoint is of a young person hiding in a fantastical conversation with a tarantula in order to escape a physically abusive parent," Stewart shares. "We were hiding within this fantasy of a fantasy, following the model of the late 1950s sub-genre of 'Teen Tragedy Songs,' to try and find a way to come to terms with a number of staggeringly horrendous events that occurred to people close to the band over the last 2 years."
Seo adds of her visuals, "The video is, for better or worse, about literal isolation, all the things we tell ourselves to should do or not do, forcing open a small crack and crawling deep into it, even if we know we shouldn't, just to get away to somewhere else, even if it's worse."
Xiu Xiu have also made plans to take Ignore Grief on tour in North America this spring, and you can find their currently confirmed tour dates below.
Pre-order Ignore Grief.
Ignore Grief:
1. The Real Chaos Cha Cha Cha
2. 666 Photos of Nothing
3. Esquerita, Little Richard
4. Maybae Baeby
5. Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier
6. Pahrump
7. Border Factory
8. Dracula Parrot, Moon Moth
9. Brothel Creeper
10. For M
Xiu Xiu 2023 Tour Dates:
04/02 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
04/03 Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
04/04 Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole
04/05 Albuquerque, NM - Sister Bar
04/06 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
04/07 Austin, TX - Elysium
04/09 New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa
04/10 Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea's Live
04/12 Memphis, TN - Greenroom - Crosstown Arts
04/13 Nashville, TN - The Blue Room - Third Man Records
04/14 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
04/15 Savannah, GA - Lodge Of Sorrows
04/16 Durham, NC - Motorco Music Hall
04/18 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04/19 New York, NY - LPR
04/20 Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA
04/21 Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery
04/22 Harrisburg, PA - Stage on Herr
04/23 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
04/25 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
04/26 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
04/27 Rock Island, IL - Rozz Tozz
04/28 Iowa City, IA - Trumpet Blossom
04/29 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
04/30 Denver, CO - HQ
05/01 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
05/03 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project
05/04 Portland, OR - Holocene
05/05 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
05/07 Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon
In the wake of 2021 duets album OH NO, Xiu Xiu are once again operating as a trio, as Jamie Stewart and Angela Seo are joined by old friend and new member David Kendrick (Sparks, Devo, Gleaming Spires).
The 10-track Ignore Grief is characterized as "a record of halves" in press materials. For instance, Seo sings on half the record, while Stewart sings on the other. Sonically, it's said that "half of the songs are experimental industrial," while the other half "are experimental modern classical."
Going deeper, songs are further divided into "real" and "imaginary":
The real songs attempt to turn the worst life has offered, to five people the band is connected with, into some kind of desperate shape that does something, anything, other than grind and brutalize their hearts and memory within these stunningly horrendous experiences.
The imaginary songs are an expansion and abstract exploration of the early rock and roll "Teen Tragedy" genre as jumping off point to decontaminate the band's own overwhelming emotions in knowing and living with what has happened to these five people
The first of the songs to arrive is "Maybae Baeby," which you can hear below alongside an unsettling video helmed by Seo.
"In 'Maybae Baeby,' the singer's viewpoint is of a young person hiding in a fantastical conversation with a tarantula in order to escape a physically abusive parent," Stewart shares. "We were hiding within this fantasy of a fantasy, following the model of the late 1950s sub-genre of 'Teen Tragedy Songs,' to try and find a way to come to terms with a number of staggeringly horrendous events that occurred to people close to the band over the last 2 years."
Seo adds of her visuals, "The video is, for better or worse, about literal isolation, all the things we tell ourselves to should do or not do, forcing open a small crack and crawling deep into it, even if we know we shouldn't, just to get away to somewhere else, even if it's worse."
Xiu Xiu have also made plans to take Ignore Grief on tour in North America this spring, and you can find their currently confirmed tour dates below.
Pre-order Ignore Grief.
Ignore Grief:
1. The Real Chaos Cha Cha Cha
2. 666 Photos of Nothing
3. Esquerita, Little Richard
4. Maybae Baeby
5. Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier
6. Pahrump
7. Border Factory
8. Dracula Parrot, Moon Moth
9. Brothel Creeper
10. For M
Xiu Xiu 2023 Tour Dates:
04/02 San Diego, CA - Soda Bar
04/03 Phoenix, AZ - Valley Bar
04/04 Tucson, AZ - 191 Toole
04/05 Albuquerque, NM - Sister Bar
04/06 Denton, TX - Rubber Gloves
04/07 Austin, TX - Elysium
04/09 New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa
04/10 Baton Rouge, LA - Chelsea's Live
04/12 Memphis, TN - Greenroom - Crosstown Arts
04/13 Nashville, TN - The Blue Room - Third Man Records
04/14 Atlanta, GA - The Earl
04/15 Savannah, GA - Lodge Of Sorrows
04/16 Durham, NC - Motorco Music Hall
04/18 Washington, DC - Black Cat
04/19 New York, NY - LPR
04/20 Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA
04/21 Baltimore, MD - Metro Gallery
04/22 Harrisburg, PA - Stage on Herr
04/23 Cleveland, OH - Beachland Ballroom
04/25 Chicago, IL - Empty Bottle
04/26 Milwaukee, WI - Cactus Club
04/27 Rock Island, IL - Rozz Tozz
04/28 Iowa City, IA - Trumpet Blossom
04/29 Lawrence, KS - The Bottleneck
04/30 Denver, CO - HQ
05/01 Salt Lake City, UT - Urban Lounge
05/03 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project
05/04 Portland, OR - Holocene
05/05 San Francisco, CA - The Chapel
05/07 Los Angeles, CA - Zebulon