Always, the last album by Xiu Xiu, is surely one of the best of their whole
career (in ten years, they released nine albums!). I must admit I fantasized a
little bit about the character of Jamie Stewart. His lyrics are quite
intriguing and we tend to imagine a very tormented charismatic character when
we listen to the records. On the contrary, Jamie is a very pleasant and
accessible person. I met him before his show in Marseille on March 31st, in a
venue called Montevideo. The venue was not really adapted to the post-punk
sound of the band (they even did a cover of New Order's song
"Ceremony") and, apart from technical problems, the band seemed tired
and not really into it. Anyway, they sound quite differently on stage than on
the records, with less electronics and samples. It was as if we were
discovering another band. There were some tensions during the show between the
band and the sound engineer (who looked like the singer of Kill The Thrill!),
but happily we met Jamie in the afternoon just after the soundcheck. He was a
really "charming man" as Morrissey would say. We talked about singing
and singers, intimacy and writing, fear and serial killers, humor and sexuality,
boredom and creativity among many other things. In our cinema section, we
talked about the release on DVd of Fassbinder's movies, in particular the very
oscure and neo-gothic western Whity
and the classic Lili Marleen.
LAST FEW DAYS, Too much is not
enough
NASMAK, Waiting Room
7JK, Dear Claire
VOLCANO THE BEAR, The great
reimbursing
XIU XIU, Crank Heart, Joey's
Song, Jennifer Lopez, White Nerd, Cumberland Gap, Black Drum Machine, Hi!,
Saturn, I Luv Abortion, In Lust you can hear the axe fall, Born to Suffer
THE HET, You not me (with
Angels Vox Pride)
PHILIPPE PETIT, De Biscanti
PETER STOPSCHINSKI, Rough
Night
KRISTOFFER NYSTROMS ORKESTER,
Vulgalina Fever
SUTCLIFFE JUGEND, Empathiser
PBK & ZANSTONES, Shot
White Sacrifice
XX COMMITTEE, National Re-Doubt
FRANCK VIGROUX, Bruisme
SEKTOR 304, A.A.D.S.
CURRENT 93, Salt
ANDRE ET MARCELLE LE BIHAN, Miss Téléphone, la journée d'une
standardiste / Présentation, Automatic-Réveil-Central Pique-nique
