When you're the leader of a band that thrives on experimenting with divergent sounds, it seems unlikely that you would need to venture away from your base to do even more experimenting. But for creative brain Jamie Stewart, frontman for California’s Xiu Xiu (pronounced “shoe shoe”), the possibilities for tinkering with new sounds are endless, an idea he will prove with his solo tour, which kicked off this month.
Stewart co-founded Xiu Xiu in 2000 with the intention of playing music that melded dance floor noise, Kabuki, house, 20th century classical and ‘80s Goth pop. The style has since boiled down into an adventurous mix of jarring percussion, sweet melodies and dark and poetic lyrics predominantly sung by Stewart in a vul nerable quake.The current tour marks only the second time Stewart has performed solo, the first in 2003.
“A lot of people over the years asked if I would do it again,” Stewart says. “I have the time to do it right now.” The shows will feature Stewart on standard guitar and vocal duties, with added instrumental bonuses that may include birdcalls, a synthesizer and drum machine program played on a Game Boy and a stylophone, a small synthesizer played with a pen. But those aren’t the only treats awaiting audiences. Show attendees will also be participating in a photo project led by photographer and tour manager David Horvitz, who will be photographing every person at the shows. All of the photos will show up on Xiu Xiu’s website, and the top 300 will go into a new photo book.
Though Stewart looks at the solo shows as “a chance to try something new,” he will feature plenty of Xiu Xiu tracks, in addition to a handful of brandnew ones and some covers— like his take on Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure” from 2008’s Xiu Xiu album Women As Lovers? “I thought about trying it with the Game Boy,” he says. “It’s way out of my range,” he admits, though he did stick the notes on the album. “I think that took me 20 takes.”
Stewart and the other Xiu Xiu members plan on releasing a new album in 2010, but for now, Stewart will make use of his solo time, delivering a show that is a quieter take on Xiu Xiu’s hyper-loud style. Stewart hopes it to be “less explosive, more implosive.” And if nothing else, he’s “crossing [his] fingers that the show doesn’t suck.”
Jamie Stewart
April 6, Monkeytown, 58 N. 3rd St. (betw. Wythe & Kent Aves.), Brooklyn,
718-384-1369; 7:30, $12.
