Xiu Xiu - Ignore Grief | Polyvinyl Record Co.

This is a record of halves.

Angela Seo sings on half of the record. Jamie Stewart sings on half of the record.

Half of the songs are experimental industrial. Half of the songs are experimental modern classical.

Half of it is real. Half of it is 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.

What none of this record does and despite the oft repeated assertion, what Xiu Xiu has never done, is attempt to superficially shock the listener. Instead, Xiu Xiu has spent twenty years grappling with how to process, to be empathetic towards, to disobey and to reorganize horror; there is no other word for it other than horror.

The motivation for writing Ignore Grief to be about a child who was sold into prostitution by his mother, a junior high student who was kidnapped and murdered, incessantly choosing alcohol and cocaine over one’s family, becoming lost in the bleakest, darkest aspects of cultish spirituality and committing suicide as means to escape and protest a life of violent sex work is because the members of Xiu Xiu themselves are deeply shocked.

Old friend and new member David Kendrick (Sparks, Devo, Gleaming Spires) joins Angela Seo and Jamie Stewart through whatever this may be and whatever it may mean and why ever it may have occurred. The point of aesthetic examination is to see if there is any way to come out the other side or if there is even any reason. In either case there may not be but to simply turn away would be yet a further act of destruction.

“I had now lost all confidence in myself, doubted all men immeasurably, and abandoned all hopes for the things of this world, all joy, all sympathy, eternally. This was the truly decisive incident of my life. I had been split through the forehead between the eyebrows, a wound that was to throb with pain whenever I came into contact with a human being.”

-Osamu Dazai

Produced by Angela Seo

Recorded & Arranged by Jamie Stewart at NURSE, Los Angeles, CA

Mixed by Lawrence English at Negative Space, Brisbane, QLD

Mastered by Alan Douches at West WestSide Mastering, Cornwall on Hudson, NY

Lyrics by David Kendrick and Jamie Stewart

Design by Janelle Abad

David Kendrick - percussion, drums

Angela Seo - vox, piano, gongs, no-input mixer, percussion

Jamie Stewart - vox, synths, harmonium, percussion, electronic percussion, double reed flute, found objects

with very special guests:

Ezra Buchla - viola

Ben Chisolm - synth, piano, electronic percussion

Charlie Looker - choral vox

Patrick Shiroishi - saxophones

Ian Wellman - field recordings

additional instrumentation:

violins - Andrea Kopecká, Radka Navrátilová

violas - Katrina Musilová, Marie Vlčková

cellos - Martina Čermáková, Jiřina Hájková

double bass - Pavel Kučera

flutes - Jitka Kašparová, Marika Nováková

woodwinds - Dominika Charvátová, Sára Štěpánová, Pavlína Vlková

brass - Chris Dostál, Katrina Lišková, David Zelenka

Tracklist

The Real Chaos Cha Cha Cha
666 Photos of Nothing
Esquerita, Little Richard
Maybae Baeby
Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier, Tarsier
Pahrump
Border Factory
Dracula Parrot, Moon Moth
Brothel Creeper
For M.

Reviews

"…by the end of this album, I wanted to make art."

- Narc Magazine
"[Ignore Grief] is an all-consuming beast. It dominates your attention, and senses… the most powerful and uncompromising album they’ve ever released."

- CLASH
"Jamie Stewart is an absolute fucking genius, and no one can tell me differently."

- Ghettoblaster Magazine
"Jamie Stewart’s shapeshifting post-industrial outfit turns its eye toward dark ambient with this conceptual journey into the bowels of anarchic horror."

- FLOOD
"Jamie Stewart is an absolute fucking genius, and no one can tell me differently."

- Ghettoblaster Magazine
"…by the end of this album, I wanted to make art."

- Narc Magazine
"['Maybae Baeby'] is a fascinating study in the macabre — designed to unsettle rather than be 'understood,' this disquieting song never lets go of your throat. As you listen to the trembling, cacophonous bass that permeates the track and the jumbled voices trying to communicate with you, don’t be surprised if you start to feel that spine-tingling dread that comes with any good horror movie."

- Billboard
"Jamie Stewart’s shapeshifting post-industrial outfit turns its eye toward dark ambient with this conceptual journey into the bowels of anarchic horror."

- FLOOD
"[Ignore Grief] is an all-consuming beast. It dominates your attention, and senses… the most powerful and uncompromising album they’ve ever released."

- CLASH
"[Ignore Grief] is an all-consuming beast. It dominates your attention, and senses… the most powerful and uncompromising album they’ve ever released."

- CLASH
"Jamie Stewart’s shapeshifting post-industrial outfit turns its eye toward dark ambient with this conceptual journey into the bowels of anarchic horror."

- FLOOD
"['Maybae Baeby'] is a fascinating study in the macabre — designed to unsettle rather than be 'understood,' this disquieting song never lets go of your throat. As you listen to the trembling, cacophonous bass that permeates the track and the jumbled voices trying to communicate with you, don’t be surprised if you start to feel that spine-tingling dread that comes with any good horror movie."

- Billboard
"…by the end of this album, I wanted to make art."

- Narc Magazine
"['Maybae Baeby'] is a fascinating study in the macabre — designed to unsettle rather than be 'understood,' this disquieting song never lets go of your throat. As you listen to the trembling, cacophonous bass that permeates the track and the jumbled voices trying to communicate with you, don’t be surprised if you start to feel that spine-tingling dread that comes with any good horror movie."

- Billboard
"Jamie Stewart is an absolute fucking genius, and no one can tell me differently."

- Ghettoblaster Magazine