Xiu Xiu Return to Miami With a New Album

"I'm surprised we made this record," says Jamie Stewart, who uses they/them pronouns, as they drive through the mountains of the Pacific Northwest. They are talking about the new album of their art-rock band Xiu Xiu, 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto With Bison Horn Grips. The record is as variedly experimental and hard to pin down as its title suggests.

But Stewart has an entirely different interpretation of what the band's 17th album sounds like. "I never listened to a lot of riff guitar music. That's essentially what this is," they share. "Our drummer, David Kendrick, asked, 'What if we made a psychedelic record?' But halfway through it, we realized we didn't want to make a rock 'n' roll record. We took our muse's advice and were surprised by what path it went on."

There are guitars, chords, and verses, but those expecting a rock album will have to widen their scope of what a rock record is allowed to be.

It was a traditional rock record, however, that began Stewart's love affair with music. "When I was really young, I had a 17-year-old foster sister who gave me Abbey Road. For a child, it was easy to hook in since all the songs were basically stories," he says.

Stewart was further inspired to make music when, at 17, their dad gifted them a drum machine. "I still have it. We use it on the new record," they add.

But before there was Xiu Xiu, Stewart tried their hand in all kinds of bands, from reggae to soul to something called Lime Green Leisure Suit, which Stewart described as "a high-school band that wrote Weird Al Yankovic parodies that were mostly mean songs about other kids."

Finally, in 2002, Stewart sat down with Cory McCullouch and decided their new project would be influenced by experimental noise, British post-punk, and techno music. "Our other bands were unfocused. We wanted this to be broad, but to clarify the broadness," they say.
With such a deep catalogue, Stewart had several suggestions for where someone unfamiliar with Xiu Xiu should start. "If you're a song-based person, I'd listen first to the new one or Fabulous Muscles. If you're into harsh experimental, then Ignore Grief. If you like movies, we did a cover album of songs from the TV show Twin Peaks."

From the new record, Stewart is excited about the single "Common Loon."

"It rarely happens that you sit down and a song is there from beginning to end," they explain. "I sat down with a guitar, and I wrote the chorus in ten minutes. I liked the groove, but it needed a whole lot more, and in 20 minutes, Angela had the guitar and organ flourishes. The song is about embracing one's own perversity. Embrace yourself even if you know you're out there."

As simple as it was to create, Stewart says the band had trouble figuring out how to play it live.

Fans and newbies alike will hear "Common Loon" when Xiu Xiu makes their first Miami appearance in nearly 20 years on Sunday, October 6 at Gramps. "Our back catalogue is stuffed, so we play both curveballs and songs people expect to hear. We play our guts out every night," Stewart assures.

When asked if the band has any rituals before a show, Stewart asks permission from their bandmates as they wind their way through Southern Oregon if they can talk about "the cake thing." Approval is apparently met, as Stewart describes it.

"Right before we play, we ask each other what kind of cake we want. It can be chocolate, strawberry, dinosaur. Then we pretend to make it, and with great flourish, we pretend to eat it. Then we hug each other and get on stage."

Xiu Xiu. 8 p.m. Sunday, October 6, at Gramps, 176 NW 24th St., Miami; gramps.com. Tickets cost $20 via ticketweb.com.