Xiu Xiu to Become Seattle Super-Creep Supergroup!
I missed this news item last week, but a friend brought it to my attention over the weekend: Parenthetical Girls frontman Zac Pennington and Dead Science maestro Sam Mickens are joining Jamie Stewart's gut-spilling shame-core act Xiu Xiu. This is monumental! These guys are like the Crosby, Stills, and Nash of Seattle-affiliated creepiness! (I haven't thought this analogy out far enough for a Young analogy, so don't ask.) Mickens, Pennington, and Stewart have all done varying lengths of time in Seattle, and have previously collaborated on each others' projects, and, frankly, they're all creeps. At least on record. Maybe sometimes in person, too. (Have you ever talked to Sam Mickens? He's all slicked hair and black suits, and sometimes he seems like he might shiv you out of nowhere. He may be carrying a sword-cane right now.) They sing about depravity and debasements, and revel in grotesquerie and overly public emotional pain. There's androgyny and sexual abuse and self-abuse. Shock and ewwwwwww. And the three of them doing it together (along with Xiu Xiu's present musical backbone, Angela Seo and drummer Ches Smith)? Good times!
Of course, the reason they can get away with all the transgressive ickiness is because, beyond being fascinating to watch in its own right on the level of pure spectacle, they're talented enough musicians to make it all perfectly artful, from Dead Science's noirish jazz rock to Parenthetical Girls' disrupted Tin Pan Alley popisms (Bed Pan Alley?) to Xiu Xiu's dissonant, moaning vom-coms (see above). I guess what I'm saying is, I'm expecting big, messy, uncomfortable things from these guys--that'swhatshesaid!--and so should you.
Write Comment
Email to Friend
Print Article
