meow,
what
are
you
doing?
what
is
that
you
are
reading
there?
how
did
you
get
wine
on
your
shirt?
do
you
need
me
to
get
you
some
soda
water?
or
do
you
like
it
like
that?
yoda
and
celine
want
you
to
get
real
and
start
doing
more
crunches
and
deep
knee
bends.
if
you
see
them
tell
them
that
i
said
"cub
scouts
rule.
den
six
is
cool.
we
hate
school
let's
jump
in
a
pool."

 

xiu xiu chronological biography

2000
july - jamie stewart records the first xiu xiu song "homonculous" and continues to record for the rest of year
first show in november in portland, OR at the north by northwest festival line up yvonne chen, cory mcculloch, miya osaki and jamie stewart
this would be miya's only show
xiu xiu play 5 songs - “suha”, “dr. troll”, “jennifer lopez”, “homonculous”, and “poe poe”

2001
lauren andrews, who had been a friend of the band, joins.
the rest of this year is spent recording the remainder of what would be "knife play" with cory, yvonne, lauren and jamie
ches smith, who would later join xiu xiu and greg saunier, who would later produce 2 xiu xiu records play together on one song.
xiu xiu goes on 3 very short tours for 3 or 4 days on the west coast, plays shows throughout california and sends out knife play to labels. don dias plays 2 or 3 shows with this line up
the first xiu xiu release "jennifer lopez" is on a "cool beans" magazine cd comp.
xiu xiu is on a few more comps this year.
the first xiu xiu interview is in copper press.
greg saunier gives "knife play" to slim moon of kill rock stars/5 rue christine and he asks xiu xiu to release it with them
xiu xiu begin to record songs for the EP "chapel of the chimes"
yvonne decides not to play shows anymore to start a vegan indie rock store called "otsu" in san francisco.

2002
lauren, cory and jamie go on the first real tour in january for 10 days. the minivan is named PROTOTYPE
"knife play" is released in february on 5 rue christine and absolutely kosher(LP)
this line up does 2 more national tours and write and records songs for "a promise" the back cover photo is taken at a wal mart in salt lake city, utah.
"chapel of the chimes" ep is released in october on absolutely kosher.
cory and lauren decide to stop touring. lauren to go to school and cory for personal reasons.
sam mickens and jherek bischoff of the dead science join to do a national tour afterwards jamie beings to write songs for "fabulous muscles"
jamie's father, who was involved in the recording of "knife play", commits suicide.

2003
cory, lauren, jamie, sam and jherek meet in seattle to being recording "fabulous muscles" afterwards lauren quits recording with the band.
with cory producing, jamie records the songs for "fag patrol", an ep of acoustic versions of the band's 3 records.
"a promise" is released on 5 rue christine and collective jyrk (LP)
cory, sam, jherek and jamie work on "fabulous muscles" in seattle
"fag patrol" is released by free porcupine society.
devin hoff makes his first appearance on this record.
with devendra banhart, jamie does a national solo tour and jamie finishes fabulous muscles.
jamie does solo tour in japan
jamie does solo tour in a station wagon named CHATTY KATHY
releases the audio diary "thanks japan"

2004
caralee mcelroy joins xiu xiu
"fabulous muscles" is released on 5 rue christine, tomlab and free porcupine society (LP)
caralee and jamie play first show together opening for deerhoof in seattle after this caralee and jamie spend most of the rest of the year touring north america and europe in a minivan named MORPHEUS and station wagon named DAS OMEN
the first european date is in vienna. they also play moscow this year and being to write songs for "la foret"
ches smith, devin hoff, john dieterich, miya osaki, cory and jamie work on la foret in the bay area
jamie moves back to california and caralee stays in seattle.

2005
caralee and jamie tour north america and europe several times this year.
caralee comes to oakland to work on la foret along with cory mcculloch.
"la foret" is released on 5 rue christine and acuarela. xiu xiu self releases the vinyl on a double 10-inch.
cory rejoins the touring line up for a single tour. the tour is of canada. this is his last work with the band.
xiu xiu plays in mexico city and serbia
jamie begins to write songs for "the air force"

2006
caralee moves to the bay area
caralee and jamie tour north america and europe. and play in mexico again with greg saunier producing, caralee, devin and jamie work on "the air force"
devin hoff allows his piece "gita" to be edited into the track "wig master"
"the air force" is released on 5 rue christine
"tu mi piaci" is released on acuarela. it is a covers EP
ches smith joins the band full time and does his first tour with caralee and jamie
ches, caralee and jamie begin writing "women as lovers"
xiu xiu release the covers EP "tu mi piaci" on acuarela
grouper and xiu xiu release the collaboration "creep show"
david horvitz begins the poloroid project documenting xiu xiu tours with attendees providing the film.

2007
again with greg producing, xiu xiu finish "women as lovers"
ches, caralee and jamie tour north america and play a handful of festival dates in europe. in a van called CRAZY WITCH these are the first scandinavian dates.
xiu xiu play in taiwan
"remixed and covered" is released on 5 rue christine. it is a record of people covering xiu xiu songs and of remixes. it is the last release by 5 rue christine
devin hoff joins the band full time and will be a touring member in 2008.
david has the poloroid project published by mark batty.

2008
"women as lovers" is released on kill rock stars.

 

jamie!!! how fucked is that sign? seriously, what the fuck? seriously times infinity. it's a mind fuck. it needs to go on a posthumous collection of edward said writings. it's in a heavily russian area of brooklyn. agggggggggggg. i wonder what the process of changing a sign name is? i'm on the border of williamsburg and bedstuy, i wonder when the streets: malcolm x, harriet tubman, marcus garvey, martin luther king jr. will get renamed to freak-folk singers.

 

oh my goodness. david based on the street sign alone, you are right.
i think because of that sign anything you ever say again as long as you live and love i will think is right.

 

i am in a different type of world: burned down desert from a fire years ago, meth labs, hot springs, trailers, tract homes, nudist colonies, prefab houses, glass houses, trash, waste, wind-mills. jim said that he hired someone from a prison rehab to fix his floors, the guy had nazi swasticas all over his body, but supposedely there was a tiny tattoo that negated all of the hate.

i am talking about something that is effective, something that makes something happen. i remember my friend told me, "i couldn't go to the protest, i had class." it wasn't about reaching an end, it was about filling an hour on a daily schedule, about doing something so watered down. i'll go to class, then go to the protest, then go to a movie later. it's not like going to a protest means entering a state of sponteneity where anything can happen, where you enter a moment where all of the past and present is in question and no one knows what the future may hold - even one minute into the future. the sun comes down, put my sign in the trash, get in my car, go see a movie. i was just making a parallel between today's society and the past. maybe using tactics of yesterday created change in yesterday's world. using tactics of yesterday in today's world - that is idiotic. you can't change the world using yesterday's strategies. holding a sign and marching down a street doesn't disrupt anything - it doesn't seize time and hault anything. cities don't have physicality anymore - everything is online and global. i am asking the question: what are new strategies? it's sad to say, but i seriously believe online activism as more potential. or, unless, you bring back violence into the streets. weather underground?

(i am speaking from the point of view of the united states, from an industrialized country - however, old forms of resistence probably still work in what people refer to as "third-world" countries, which i think is a stupid term)

update: someone just sent me this, they said it was related, i haven't read all of it yet: HERE THIS NOW GO

 

I went to the Kibera slums today. I walked around with a social worker from Lea Toto and visited families and homes and walked through the streets talking to people.

There can be no euphemisms for this place, and even the word "slums" fail to do it justice. It is a hillside covered with shantyshacks, trash, mud, goats, children, trains, debris, and millions of unaging plastic bags embedded into the roads. It smells like rotting food, urine, shit, burning bone. The slums are actually "owned" by members of the Parliament, who buy the land, build thousands of what one may barely call "houses" and rent out the rooms for 1000 Kshs per month. Most of the time, entire families and their extended families live in one room. And a government employee comes around every month to collect rent, and if it goes unpaid, the family easily gets kicked out. The residents must pay for everything. You have to buy clean water, and also the charcoal to heat them. If you must use actual toilets, you have to pay to take a shit too.

The children roam the streets, mostly because the parents can't afford schools. The private schools are at least 300 Ksh per month, and even at the "free" public school, the child needs uniforms, books, supplies, and so much more that the family just cannot afford. One of the worst consequences of the street kids is child "prostitution" or put more plainly, child rape. As the parents are out looking for food, the children are cajoled with 5 Ksh coins, if not just brute force, to follow strangers. To make things worse, there is an unbelievably frightening myth, that having sex with a child will transfer your HIV/AIDS to the child, and make you "clean."

Back at the Lea Toto clinic, I am struck by the look of death on the children. I don't exaggerate or poeticize. I look at them, and it seems plain that they are going to die. Every week, many do. The virus kills them in more ways than one. Too many times is a child killed simply for being found out that she has the virus. An uncle would cut open his niece for fear that she would infect his own children.

Talking to the families, their stories inevitably lead to poverty and death. In the book "My name is Red", Pamuk writes that the meaning of life is mystery and mercy. There is no mystery here in Kibera. I guess all we can hope for is mercy.

 

david do you really think that protest is an ineffective social event?
it seems like something that the right would pay you say, are you on the cheney pay roll?

 

this winter alone
can i last fifty more days?
each growing shorter

 

i just read this:

In a recent lecture at the ICA (26 October) on the futile rhetoric of resistance, Slavoj Zizek criticised the ineffectiveness of political anarchism, the fashionable strategy championed by academics and activists who levy attacks on governments from the sidelines. Such activists, he argues, operate safe in the knowledge that, in the case of anti-war demonstrations for example, their actions will not affect policy, and furthermore that the tedious, bureaucratic business of governing their nation will continue unaffected.

i've thought of this a lot, many "acts of resistence" are mere performative gestures of traditional ways of making change. going to a "protest" is like going to the theatre or going to a show. it's just a social activity (maybe different from other things because of the meaning it holds) but it doesn't actually do anything (maybe it did in another time). or maybe b/c everything is so watered down. voicing opposition is good, but making something happen is better. i don't know, i don't really care b/c my friend told me that the honey bees are dying and once they die humans will only be able to survive for 3 more years on the planet - and that they will probably all be dead in one year - and that is 2009, and 3 years later is 2012 - THE END OF THE MAYAN CALANDAR. WE ARE FUCKED!

 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/16/asia/bangla.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Sidr

http://donate.ifrc.org/

News updates: http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=cyclone+sidr&btnG=Search+News

thanks christine

 

from a few years back, the xiu xiu canadian tour with freddy puppert. i found 33 photos on my computer, so i made it into a flickr set.

HERE

there are like 1000 more photos, but too bad, they weren't on my computer at the right place and right time. it's a matter of physics, essentially. and essentially, it's a matter of essense, existentially. but what comes first, language or meaning?

 

so if you eat a leprechaun is it vegan? is eating super natural characters vegan?
would the preparation make any difference? is there some paralell between eathing halal or kosher and being vegan and eating super natural creatures. like you could only eat a leprechaun and still be vegan if it was clothed or you killed it in a fair fight. but there would be no way to have a fair fight with a leprechaun as they can disappear under the grass and that is how the wee people like it. a paradox? can you find faux leprechaun meat anywhere? maybe in ireland?
is anyone reading this living there? if so can you please tell me where to buy some?
if you cooked and ate a leprechaun would you eat the orange beard also? would you have to eat the arm with the hand still attached with all the magic rings still on the fingers? would cooking it deflate the magic or the gems or the gold?
would faux leprechaun meat arm have faux magic rings made of soy texture or candy?
oh shit is it possible to get a rubber or silicon leprechaun vagina or butthole to have sex with at a super natural sex store?
if you have sex with a leprechaun but are in a committed relationship is it cheating? can they trick you into doing it and then as revenge you have to fight them to the death and then eat them? that has to be vegan becuase it is not your fault they made you fuck them and now you have to kill them and eat them.

 

hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!i!i!i
happy thanksgiving if you are american
yesterday my mom called me to say that they were out of turkeys
is that good that we won't have one and i wont have to look at this nasty carcass on the table or is that bad that now she is going to catch and eat a leprechaun.

 

 

NAIROBI
Standard time zone: UTC/GMT +3 hours
(UTC is Coordinated Universal Time, GMT is Greenwich Mean Time.)

Current conditions (Kenyatta Airport)
Description: Broken clouds. Cool.
Temperature: 59°F Comfort Level: 57°F
Wind: 6 mph from 30° Northeast by north
Last update: Tue 8:00 AM EAT

Moonset at 2:09 AM in direction 269° West
Moonrise at 2:34 PM in direction 88° East
Moon near zenith at 8:45 PM at altitude 85° above horizon

 

 

the benefit was beautiful. we met our goal to make a secret amount of money
there are children in kenya whose parents have died from AIDS whose lives you have touched
thank you to all the wilberts, kelsons, davids, satomis, yonis, julies, caraleeows and lobots!
thank you to maggie and portia and kill rock stars for matching what we made
thank you to marisa at four paws for making sure you knowed all about it.
thank you especially if you came and did not not dance
thank you if you came and did not dance
my name is aunt sarahs,
my name is egypts

 

i am in los angeles!

i just saw this show!

it's at the UCLA Hammer museum!

it is so good!

very refreshing!

political romanticism!

people should go see it!

jamie, you will probably like this!!!!!!!!!!


Francis Alÿs: Politics of Rehearsal

 

look what i made, haha. please post in on your friends' myspace comments and they'll think they got spammed.

 

HEY EVERYBODY WHO DOESN'T LIVE IN THE BAY AREA (LIKE ME), YOU CAN STILL DONATE TO THE ORPHANAGE.

DO IT HERE

if the internet can destroy the music industry, it can probably do a lot of good things too.

 

the CLOSED sign at the W.I.C. office by my house has a Christmas tinsel boa hanging over the C and the D so it just says LOSE.
sometimes Oakland is such a bummer it is beautiful. see you friday.

 

 

This is a Marshal Mcluhan quote: man shapes technology, then technology shapes man. an example: man invented the gutenberg press. all of a sudden society and culture is completely transformed by this new technology that now enables printed-works to become more accessible and spread out at a much higher pace. obviously, a scribe is probably pissed off b/c s/he is out of a job. but, book-publishers, who have yet to exist and now do, are pretty happy b/c this new technolgy enables the possiblity of their existence. technology gives, and also takes away. the internet should be looked at in the same context. i am not addressing the morals of downloading, i am not interested in making an opinion here. but i am saying that it is very likely that the recording industy will collapse and become a thing of the past. nothing lasts forever. if people wanted things to last forever people would have to stop inventing new technologies (and thinking of new ideas) which would inevitably change existing social systems. here's the next thing: there will always be musicians and there will always be people who listen to the music. what changes is everyone else's role inbetween the producer and consumer - the function of the label, the function of a manager, of a publicist, etc... A record label is only possible b/c of the possibility of recording. it's not an historical constant. nothing is. next note: when people parallel downloading w/ tape-dubbing i think that is an exhausted and historically futile observation. people should look back further. before the birth of the recording industry bands still existed and still made money. they made money touring. as the recording industry began to grow it was an extension of the capitalizing of live performances. people made records to support the live shows - to support the tour. WHOA. now people tour to support the record. what happened inbetween? the dominant form of making money from music shifted from playing live to selling records. this shift is interesting. people freaked out like crazy, just like they are doing now. who in their right mind would complain about the benefits of selling records? no one. but they complained then because something different was about to happen. i think we are in a similiar historical moment. it's changing and their is no way of stopping it. but, if you look at it like this, the band always transend these different epochs - the same with the fans - it's just everyone inbetween that will have to figure what to do.

i am not making a stance on downloading, i am just saying what i believe the internet is doing. don't be afraid of the internet, it is your friend. it will love you when no one else will (shit, this was at first a nonsensical sentence, but i think it is actually true).

on another note, check out the polaroid book, you can't download a polaroid fuckers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ONE OF A KIND!!! fuck you walter benjamin! (but i guess you can scan it and print it in a book and sell it in a store)

 

hi
i may have not been clear and i am sorry if nice people got the wrong idea when i was yelling at the devil's pre-teens.
nearly everyone on the shizine board is great, whether or not they like the music we do.
i was directing that last blog at people who have come to the bizarre conclusion that it is acceptable to plunder independent music just because they can and then are indignant when the people who make it politely (i.e. liger from austria) ask them to be instead honorable about it.
again apologies to anyone who does not fall into that category and thought i meant that the whole group were jerk offs.
thank you to everyone who has ever taken a moment to even have had our band cross their minds.

p.s. if you or your dad bought you a computer you are not a marxist

 

the scenario: imagine the people at the top of a major recording label. we can probably say that they are the epitome of what a capitalist is. right? these people also condemn downloading music. agreed? is it paradoxical for someone to embrace capitalism and to also advocate restrictions and regulations on the market - yes, i am saying regulating the internet is also regulating "the market," because the internet is definititely a part of the "invisible hand" of unregulated free-market capitalism - ?

the capitalists of yesterday are turning red today. where are the true capitalists today? are they anarchists?

what do you think, ian svenonius?

---

afterthought: how does supply and demand work in a digital world? in a digital world supply is infinte. does that make demand zero? or does it make it infinitely zero?

 

hmmm....

i think that i agree with jamie. is there any reason that people who can afford a computer or ipod not afford to be able to buy a c.d.? where do people get their money for those things? i get my money to buy these things from selling records and touring. i could go to where you work and get you fired somehow (i can be pretty amazingly crazy) and then you wouldnt have any money to buy the things you love and need. do people even like music? or do they just want to say that they heard it before everyone else did? i have to say that unless the world ends before jan. 29th i PROMISE that you will hear the new xiu xiu record. dont get me wrong im super flattered that people are excited about hearing it. i just wonder why you have to hear it NOW! i think that people dont really understand how devastating it is for us when things leak. not just us but for all of the people that our involved with puting out our music. do you even like xiu xiu? if you did you would know that we need money to make music. it sucks i hate money i wish that we could all go live in the woods and farm and play acoustic instruments that dont require power, but we dont and we wont and we are a part of modern society and unfortunately that means that my synth requires power and i also have to pay for it because i dont know how to make one by myself. i also work at a coffee shop by the way. i make lattes. i suck at it. but i do it because i need to make music. its all i know how to do. its the only thing that makes sense to me. i cannot do this if people dont respect us enough to pay for our music.

 

dear people on the shzine board who think they have a right to whatever they want in life without expending any effort and certainly without maintaining any respect for attempts at art,
it is not about money it is about perpetuation
if you want to hear stupid heartless music that is made by people who do not care about you then please continue to make it harder and harder for artists who do care enough about you to try and make something in the world that has the potential to be meaningful
you are acting spoiled, presumptuous, entitled and childish
why do you think that the world owes you music or anything? you owe the world your honesty when you have been presented with honesty.
fuck you and go back to hell where you were born
love
jamie

 

the numbers destroyed tonight . well done!!!!!!!!!!!!
and tomo was wearing a gold ritz cracker around her neck

last night i went to bed at 10 am and then got up at 7 pm
my body has changed and now it is like the bull in a ring
waiting to die, with red glowing eyes, charging at the spainiards
is it crazy to spend so much money on chocolate
when you are about to get stabbed by the picador and then run through with a spear?
is there some parallel between bull fighting, christ being stabbed with a spear on the cross and the inquisition?

 

elfriede jelinek
author of the novel "women as lovers"
has this to say about you,
"beans and rice are nice, once, twice or even THRICE!!!"

 

"When America gets fascism it will be called anti-fascism." – Huey Long

Military Commissions Act of 2006

 

last night the EX were wonderful

 

i went to a show last night on the JHDJ*S&^S*D&S*HDJSJ border in NY. I was walking down a residential street and heard a small child who was dressed in his halloween costume say to his dad: maybe the next house will be home. would it be fucked up to bus poor kids into rich white neighborhoods where they give out the best most expensive candy? would they just see how rich people live and think that this is how life is supposed to be. maybe instead fly them to poorer countries just to show them that they have it well off. but then what do you do with the rich people's kids? take them to richer places to show them that they aren't rich enough. you have to make the gap as big as possible - until it's so extreme that two different species evolve out of it. an economic gap is like a river. you know that story you read about in school how the same animals at one point, who had ended up on different sides of the river, they turned into different species. i think there is a baudrillard quote somewhere on how exciting it will be to watch the end of the world. too bad he died and missed it. will i see it before i die?

people in universities should go into your school library and ask them to order the xiu xiu polaroid book for the art or photo book section of the library. YES.