At once dark, complex, impossibly honest, and yet, somehow simple, "Fabulous Muscles" is almost accessible in its minimalist-pop appeal. This record was written on the heels of huge upheavals and violent personal changes, so there's less of a dance influence and much more of a pop and academic/experimental feel. Sounds are used to rhythmically push some songs forward in a top-40 way, but with fewer straight beats. Noise restrictions also led to more use of single, quiet acoustic instruments. This record is    [ read more ]

CD $13.99

Other people also bought:

Franz Ferdinand  Franz Ferdinand, TV on the Radio  Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes , The Walkmen  Bows and Arrows

#48 Seller of 2005! To hear Xiu Xiu is to be shaken, disturbed, and shown something original. Jamie Stewart sings haunted and tortured, though always with a sense of humor somewhere below the poisoned blood. La Foret is his most harrowing and beautiful to date, waltzing between acoustic parts so intimate you can hear his shoe scooting on the studio floor as he inches closer to the mic, and pounding dark-wave thunderstorms where electronics go Mogwai loud and Jamie screams over the hissing, spitting d   [ read more ]

CD $15.99

Other people also bought:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Sufjan Stevens  Illinois, The Boy Least Likely To  The Best Party Ever

Whereas current indie-rock darlings Interpol have taken all the favorite parts from your favorite new wave bands and fashioned them into refreshing new pop songs, San Francisco's Xiu Xiu have salvaged all of the ignored dark fragments of your favorite new wave songs and turned them into some refreshingly disconcerting new anti-pop songs. If last year's excellent "Knife Play" album was the soundtrack to a nervous breakdown, "A Promise" is the soundtrack to the final desperate act of a hemorrhaging psyche.

CD $13.99

Other people also bought:

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah  Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, TV on the Radio  Young Liars, Sufjan Stevens  Illinois

Nine lo-fi tracks by Xiu Xiu mastermind, Jamie Stewart. Six alternate versions of songs from the band's previous releases ("Knife Play," "Chapel of the Chimes" EP, and "A Promise"), along with two new songs and a cover of the Smiths' "Asleep." Limited to 1,000 copies with beautiful handmade packaging.

CD $16.99

Other people also bought:

Papa M  Single Three, Kill Me Tomorrow  Skin's Getting Weird, (((VVRSSNN))) (Adam of Yume Bitsu)  (((VVRSSNN)))

Fabulous Muscles was the group's third album, after A promise and Knife Play, and was licensed for Acuarela in Spain, France and Portugal after falling in love with Xiu Xiu's talent to vigorously challenge rock music clichés through their wide range of unexpected breaks, juxtaposed sounds and a handful of factual lyrics about the lack of love and desire and about what happens when we feel too much love and too much desire. Now, in their new Fleshettes, they once again expose old    [ read more ]

CDep $9.99

Other people also bought:

Xiu Xiu | Devendra Banhart  Body Breaks b|w Support Our Troops! Oh!, The Fiery Furnaces  EP, Jason Molina  Pyramid Electric Co.

This five-song EP is the second self-contained effort from these remarkable folks from San Jose, following the release of their album "Knife Play" (which Pitchfork named as one of the top albums for the first half of 2002). This EP contains five new songs including the sparse and intense "I Am Center of Your World," the viciously potent "Jennifer Lopez," and a raw cover of the Joy Division/New Order classic "Ceremony."

CDep $10.99

Other people also bought:

Liars  We No Longer Knew Who We Were, Oneida  Anthem of the Moon, Mercury Program  Data Learn the Language

A feverish and disturbing set of songs, but it's also some of the group's most accessible. His songs play out like bedroom symphonies, bedroom confessions over chimes and gonging bells and industrial beats and buttery guitar leads that slide through the songs like a straight razor opening up skin. Elaborate, ornate, and bubbling over with noise, but with a sense of less-is-more; minimalism over excess. A 35-minute dreamscape of scraping urgency that haunts and disturbs.[ read more ]

CD $15.99

Other people also bought:

TV on the Radio  Return To Cookie Mountain, The Rapture  Pieces Of The People We Love , Yo La Tengo  I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass

Xiu Xiu has long been known as prolific, bordering on crazed, but with this new album, each song is so different from the next and so fully realized, the group's creative ferocity is simply astonishing and rapidly taking on new dimensions. No other Xiu Xiu album has ever been more approachable or communicative on a basic human level. "Sounding as brilliant and maddening as ever, tortured and combative, and with a kind of confrontational intimacy that is inimitable" - Salon.

CD $14.99

Other people also bought:

Vampire Weekend  Vampire Weekend , The Mountain Goats  Heretic Pride , Radiohead  In Rainbows

ITALIAN IMPORT. Hailing from Oakland and Seattle, Xiu Xiu are a sonic experiment in sad, harrowing, politically dark, often confrontational pop songs. Life and Live is an exclusive release only on the Italian label Xeng -- the band historically has been strongly associated with 5 Rue Christine in the U.S. This is their fifth release, and was recorded before La Forêt and after the incredible Fabulous Muscles album. In Life and Live you will find a brilliant collection of acoustic    [ read more ]

CD $15.99

Other people also bought:

Sun Kil Moon  Tiny Cities , Get Him Eat Him  Geography Cones, CALLA  Collisions

Xiu Xiu's Knife Play is a very eclectic mix of neurotic indie falterings similar to the Paper Chase school of rock, but with lighter techno beats and softly morose ballads of indifference. The opening tracks are hard to follow along with, and after a time the album seems to break into techno tunes and finally closes with some calm, modern classical arrangements. The vocals range from incredibly bitter screams to strong, '80s British-sounding tones. Xiu Xiu has dissected their album in many regards and it ma   [ read more ]

CD $14.99

Other people also bought:

The Strokes  First Impressions of Earth, Serena Maneesh  Serena Maneesh, The Red Krayola  God Bless The Red Krayola And All Who Sail With It

Professionally made cd-r complete with cd-r face art. Recorded live on 7-26-04. Above average sound quality. Features the following tracks: Crank Heart, Fabulous Muscles, Bog People, Bunny Gamer, Over Over, Ale, Jennifer Lopez, Apistat Commander, I Love The Valley, and Sad Pony Guerilla Girl

CD $9.99

Other people also bought:

Man Man  Six Demon Bag, Califone  Deceleration Two, Aloha  Here Comes Everyone

This three-piece crafts sickeningly intimate art that is equally sensual and icy. With damaged, wraithlike dance beats and grim electro minimalism, it cuts you like nails across bare thighs, but just the same, it'll brush your hair from your face, look deep into your eyes, and say, "I feel the same as you sometimes. We're not too different, are we?" Xiu Xiu and friends do this and more on this new double CD set of covers and remixes. The first disc features covers by Sunset Rubdown, Devendra Banhart, Kid 60   [ read more ]

CD $13.99

Other people also bought:

Arcade Fire  Cold Wind b|w Brazil, Grizzly Bear  Horn of Plenty, Sunset Rubdown  Sunset Rubdown EP