« Tonight | Main | Retrohump: The hunger »
September 13, 2006
Works in Progress, vol. 3
The new Xiu Xiu album, the Air Force, was released to stores yesterday. The nature of the internet in general (and music blogs specifically) being as it is, I posted something about it way back in June. At the time I was digging a few tracks and hopeful that the rest of it would make sense to me in time. Three months later, and I've given up. Not only given up on the album, which has to be considered a bit of a disappointment, but on the idea that Jamie Stewart's vision will ever really resemble anything close to what I (and many others) want from his music. His excesses probably won't be reigned in anytime soon, and the abrasive / objectionable to lovely / catchy ratio will never be as close to 1:1 as might have seemed possible only a few years ago. In fairness, since the man obviously has alot of creative freedom, he's probably doing exactly what he wants and certainly has no obligation to shape his career towards anyone else's preferences. That said, I'll probably continue to prefer getting worked up about some of his group's earlier material.
Ten in the Swear Jar - "Sad Girl"
Xiu Xiu - "Sad Pony Guerrilla Girl"
The first version of one of Jamie's very best songs was recorded with his old time-y band, Ten in the Swear Jar, and was released in 1999 on the My Very Private Map EP (and later included in last year's Accordian Solo compilation). As performed by Swear Jar, "Sad Girl" is fast, confrontational, and dense. The prevailing mood of the titular lady is more angry than sad, shrieking for a bigger slice of affection from an adulterous family man. When the song was revisited on Xiu Xiu's 2003 album A Promise our "girl", now modified by a childish pony and made a dangerous guerilla, it was almost a completely different and more deeply affecting song than its stomping counterpart. The initial chimes are replaced by a pretty acoustic strum, the rumbling horn part given to a louder, more alien guitar. The tempo is cut probably by a third, and the track is full of brooding potential energy in comparison to its kinetic forebear. With the arrangement less busy and the tempo more deliberate, Jamie's lyrics have more of the unsettling impact for which they were designed. "Say I'm loca because I'm your girl/ say I'm estupida because I'm your girl" he pleads, at the song's start. Stewart's impassioned delivery (some would say over the top, but I'd argue that for the song's specific emotion he's hovering right at the top) and bizarre personal reputation makes the song hard to take as simple gender reversal. The idea that our protagonist is more likely a man who merely identifies as female persists without overt lyrical clues, raising the stakes for this secret love considerably.
The memorable chorus comes next but only after an eruption of percussive synths with a remarkably unusual tone. The intrusion into the tense, quiet proceedings makes the listener shell shocked (like Dirk Diggler trying to keep cool in a room with fireworks exploding at random). Nerves frayed, the lines "I like my neighborhood/ I like my gun/ Driving my little car/ I am your girl and I will protect you" come across like a threat of violence. The forceful delivery in the Swear Jar version makes it sound more like a Women's NRA mantra than a desperate delusion. Here, in the reworking, the gravity of the situation sinks in. Jamie Stewart, lipstick smeared, eyes puffy, is driving to your house with a gun because he LOVES you. Fuck!
At the 2:05 mark, following the increasingly unhinged declaration, "Go home/ Go home to your kids/ I'm NOT going to be quiet/ I'm gonna tell the whole block", the guitar base departs and the song takes a diversion into mumbles, squealing, and a pronounced slapping sound. This turn is a much riskier choice than the deliberate instrumental bridge of "Sad Girl". Initially I viewed this portion as weird for weirdness sake, and I'm sure that's why it's going to lose skeptics that have made it this far. Now, after years of listening, I think it's vitally important. The singer is muffled but vocal sounds escape, as if sneaking between the fingers of a hand. The instrumentation refuses to be as acceptably pretty as it has been, with only strings scraping for escape. The slapping makes it almost unbearable. The hint of violence that has been the most important facet of the song thus far is brought to the fore but turned against our narrator, informing the prevailing unstable mental state. After about twenty seconds of this, when you feel like you're going to have to skip the rest because it's just too much, the reassuringly beautiful guitar strum returns. A sweet breath of air for a blocked mouth.
Defiant, a captive who's just slipped his bonds, Jamie gives us the chorus again. "I like my neighborhood" (it would seem that the neighborhood must be in the love object's community). "I like my gun" (and am well versed in its use). "Driving my little car" (with forward motion towards a destination). "I am YOUR girl..." (no matter what you say), "...and I will protect you".
You do not want to know what he means by "protect".
Works in Progress is an ongoing series of posts focusing on songs in their various states of development. Early installments can now be viewed by clicking on its category sidebar on the right side of the main page.
Tags: Ten in the Swear Jar, Xiu Xiu, Works in Progress
Posted by Jeff Klingman at September 13, 2006 09:40 AM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.merryswankster.com/movabletype/mt-tb.cgi/478
