Headphone Highlights: Xiu Xiu

Nina Simone “Don’t Smoke In Bed” (Universal)

I have sort of a morbid fascination with this song. My grandpa died smoking in bed, so the first time I heard this, it obviously struck a chord. I think because I could, in some way, relate to the potentially dire notion of smoking in bed, Nina Simone’s vocals sound that much more intense and crazy. Her vocals always seem totally intense and crazy to me, but this one seemed particularly personal.

 The Birthday Party “Mr Clarinet” (4AD)

Nick Cave’s vocals on this are so astoundingly far out, it seems particularly unhinged. In this era of his singing, for him to sing even more unhinged than usual is quite an accomplishment. I also really like how, maybe not off the cuff, but sort of id-based the lyrics seem. I don’t know if this was the actual case in having written it, but it really strikes me as something that he woke up at four in the morning and just jotted down all the most perfect insanities, and the next day dragged his cohorts into the studio to record it. Obviously, this is a fantasy, but it really seems to have that much true spontaneity and genuine energy attached to it.

Roy Orbison “Shahdaroba” (Monument)

This is a really, sort of typical reaction to Roy Orbison, but knowing the amount of tragedy he had in his life, when you hear his singing, how dramatic it is, it doesn’t even seem like drama, it just seems genuine. If there was anybody in the world whose voice I could even come close to having the quality of, it would certainly be his. A remarkably beautiful and, as noted, mysterious singer.

La Düsseldorf “Individuellos” (Warner)

The title track from what, to me, is their masterpiece. Particularly for the last record we did, our long-time tour manager Jakob got me really into La Düsseldorf and Harmonia and Neu!, all those geniuses. It was incredibly influential on the last record we did. Somehow, I completely missed all of krautrock. I don’t know how this was possible, but I had really never heard any of it [laughs] until very recently. I was really touched by how incredibly creative it is, how beautiful the sounds are and obviously the unmatchable, fantastic beats that those gentlemen created at that time.

Suicide “Frankie Teardrop” (Red Star)

This one might be my favourite songs in the entire world. Never ceases to amaze me that the song was recorded in 1977. It seems to be unfathomably ahead of its time. It seems ahead of its time even now, even though it’s more than 30 years old. I mean, even though the lyrics of the song are incredibly over the top, they’re also incredibly realistic. That situation particularly, in the United States, is something that seems to happen almost every single month – the song being about somebody who loses their mind and kills their family. Luckily, it’s not something that I relate to yet, but because it’s so horrifyingly common, it’s difficult to get that song out from under one’s skin.

Otis Redding “These Arms Of Mine” (Atlantic)

When I was in junior high, my dad gave me two records for Christmas, one being Otis Redding’s Greatest Hits, the other being Stop Making Sense by Talking Heads. He gave them to me at probably the most perfect time to be listening to music, you know when you’re young enough to not know anything about music, but old enough to appreciate what’s good. It really, very very fortunately, set me on a path of being more exploratory, I think, than most 12 year-olds were. At that time, most of my friends were listening to really bad hair metal, and I appreciate my father tremendously for opening me up to music that is from a deeper place, as a listener. It’s one of the greatest vocals of all time, and among one of the best musicians in history on it, I think it’s an almost-perfect song. Perhaps a perfect song.

Einstürzende Neubauten “Alles Wieder Offen” (Potomak)

They’re hands down the best live band I’ve ever seen in my entire live. I was at a show of theirs once, and initially they launched into one of their more pounding tracks, and for about 30 seconds the entire audience was jumping up and down and reacting to it as one would expect. And then everybody basically almost instantly stopped dancing and people were just staring at the music, literally with their mouths open. It was so intense, I’ve never ever seen anyone react to music like that before. It completely took over the entire audience.

OMD “The New Stone Age” (Virgin)

The first track from their masterpiece Architecture & Morality. If you listen to this song and then listen to almost any Xiu Xiu song, you realise that we have completely ripped this song off, almost note for note, for the past ten years. I don’t need to say anything else about that.

Morrissey “Everyday Is Like Sunday” (EMI)

This is probably a pretty obvious one, but by my true father the Moz, one of his more romantic jams. This one I have loved since I was a teenager, and come back to it every couple of years. And I’m really astounded by how both bleak and touching it is. About a month ago, I bought a 7" of this while I was in Madrid, was sort of astounded at this era of my life I was buying a Morrissey 7". But the song’s that good. There’s almost nothing you can really say about it. Obviously, everyone in the world has heard this song 10,000 times, but they’ve probably heard it 10,000 times because it’s a song that holds up for 10,000 listens.

Kraftwerk “Pocket Calculator” (Kling Klang)

It’s hard to pick a favourite Kraftwerk song, but this one might be my favourite. This is gonna sound incredibly nerdy, but essentially the [laughs] counter-melody on one of the keyboards consistently blows my mind. It’s not what one would immediately think of when you listen to the song, but if you listen closely, for music that was made in such a simple way, it’s an incredibly sophisticated arrangement. Also, the lyrics are completely hilarious and totally brilliant. [laughs] One of my favourite musical lines exists in this song.

Howlin’ Wolf “Killing Floor” (Geffen)

It never ceases to amaze me that the majority of his songs are one chord, and with just melodies built around it. Actually, I think “Killing Floor” is not one chord and I have to listen to it closely. But this is another example of something being astoundingly simple, but could not be any more compelling. And obviously, again, one of the most incredible singers of all time with one of the most incredible backing bands. For someone who had such a long career, it was really remarkable that this is a relatively late single for him, probably from 1965, I think. But it’s as good as anything he did when he was younger – really, really excellent, really inspiring that somebody relatively late in the game would be doing something so great.

Krzysztof Penderecki Anaklasis For Strings & Percussion (EMI)

Another, I guess, kind of obvious choice. Again, if you listen to this piece of music, along with the OMD piece, Xiu Xiu has just basically been ripping this and that OMD song off for the last ten years, and feebly attempting to create a music career out of it. I can’t say enough about how much, as far as being inspired, I owe this particular piece of music. Astoundingly dissonant, astoundingly intense, astoundingly powerful, astoundingly ugly in the most beautiful kind of way.

Xiu Xiu “Hi” (Polyvinyl)

This song is called “Hi” from our new record Always. It’s probably the most populist song that we’ve ever done. It’s essentially about trying to find some kind of community within how miserable life can be. I mean, everybody has a terrible time in life at one point or another, or for some people most of the time, but it’s something that, unfortunately, has to be swept under the rug. So, in addition to feeling rotten, people find themselves isolated a tremendous amount of the time when they’re going through some tragedy. So, it’s some small attempt to bring that out into the open and at least have some company within the midst of that.

Title image by Jeremy Lange.