i’m really excited whenever we get to talk about an artist like this who is very important but whose legacy is not fully sealed yet. we talk about Jamie Stewart’s nepo baby (sort of…) background and the bands before Xiu Xiu, as well as the full back story behind the cover of A Promise. we also speculate as to why the internet likes this album (which is neither of our favorites… but i do like!) so much.
i also make a case for the first three Xiu Xiu albums being as musically important as the first three Velvet Underground albums - a point i’ve made several times and i will absolutely die on this hill.
i also didn’t fully appreciate how menacing this song was until recently:
here’s an alternate version of the famous album cover from a re-issue which was a photo taken at the same time that i hadn’t seen until now.
OOO can I listen to a fucking podcast WE’LL SEE! this is one of my least fave xiu xiu albums but apistat commander is the best my dad’s gonna die song
I was at the ‘only show’ his father went to at the cactus club, I put it in quotes cuz his dad played in IBOPA for a bit, which was cute cuz his dad was so like, proud to be bossed around by jamie the band leader, and i remember the cactus club show being a big deal, like jamie stopped the show for a sec and introduced him. and his dad being totally weird and quiet but smiling, I had no idea what was going on with his dad’s mental health thoguh til after he took his life
anyway I should listen to the episode before talking about the obvious stuff
it is completely insane to me still to have like a huge number of the amount of bands I see because they were local and played at five dollar a pop teen centers become seminal Important music, like I became friends with deerhoof drummer when everyone told him I have tourettes too because I was sword fighting people with baguettes between acts at the fishbowl (I do not have tourettes, but this kinda convinced me for a few years, lol) . the fishbowl was a bakery six days of the week but on Sunday nights they’d have the best all ages shows in the south bay. it’s definitely where I saw the highest concentration of xiu xiu /xitsj next to the clothing store on 1st and the cactus club… ibopa was done by the time the fishbowl popped up
I remember getting into music after college (I did not have musically cool friends to turn me onto stuff, which is something that strikes me a little sadly whenever I listen to this podcast and hear about things like scenes or even the album project) and long before ever seriously approaching Xiu Xiu I listened to this record on the way to work and heard in Walnut House the lyric “…hurting my butt hole” while waiting for a light to turn from red to green on a bus as I was staring at a JiffyLube on the other side of the street.
Finally listening to this record now as an actual fan and it’s really good.
I’m listening to the Sufjan episode right now and your impression of his singing voice is startlingly accurate! I did a double-take, lol.
Great episode! I loved Illinois back in the day but I could never get into Michigan, so as I’m listening I’m feeling like im halfway between your and Max’s energy. Fun place to be.
Max was much less impressed with my Jamie Stewart impression on the Xiu Xiu episode. lmao.
also yeah we could cover The Polyphonic Spree at some point given how much they fit the indie kitsch theme of Kitschfork. i guess we’d have to figure out what album to cover.
