xiu xiu

[blueeyes]

Okay, I don't get it.

After reading several good things about them all over this board, I picked up "Fabulous Muscles." I admit, it is very interesting music and the guy is no doubt talented in some form, but "one of the greatest artists"

(???)

*puzzled*

[johansen smith]

obviously you didn't read what I had to say on the matter (http://oftherecord.org/review/fabulousmuscles.html).

[Paul]

Ten in the Swear Jar was sooooo much better than Xiu Xiu. I wish I had a time machine so I could go back and play a Xiu Xiu album for whatshisname and persuade him not to break up Ten in the Swear Jar.

[Futureman]

Hey Troy,

I liked your review of The Robot Ate Me's latest. That album was so insulting—intellectually and musically—I had a hard time articulating my complaints. Some things are so bad you can’t manage anything but a visceral reaction.

[vesper]

I’d like to officially retire the notion that what Xiu Xiu is doing musically is to be considered art. There are plenty of great musicians out there making beautiful music that I’d gladly label as art. I refuse, however, to label self-consciously obtuse and impenetrable vocal and musical exercises masquerading as proper songs "art."

This is my problem w/ yr review. You limit Art to what sounds pleasant and beautiful when, especially in visual art, some of the finest works and artists (Pollack, Rauschenberg, Bosch, Golub) worked with disturbing, violent and horrific imagery. They didn't get there by being safe: they got there, to some degree, by employing "self-consciously obtuse and impenetrable and [artistic] exercises." By some, Matthew Barney is considered the finest artist working now -- watch a [i]Cremaster video and see if it makes you feel good. My guess, and it's just a guess and an observation, is that most leave feeling violated and altogether unpleasant.

[johansen smith]

my point was that Jamie Stewart has little to no conventional musical talent, and the "music" that Xiu Xiu produces is so bad that he masquerades behind the lack of competency by self-labeling it art.

[vesper]

I'm of the opposite opinion that he has such a grasp of conventional music that he can warp it into something disturbing ("Apistat Commander," "Crank Heart," "Clowne Towne") and frightening ("Suha," "Homonculus," "Sad Pony Guerilla Girl").

But, whatever, I'm not in the business of conversion. There isn't much point in arguing this since our taste is more or less completely opposite.

I do agree with the comments on "Support Our Troops OH! (Black Angels OH!)." That song is embarrassing.