Pitchfork

It's all well and good for Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart to say "I Do What I Want When I Want"-- the title of the previously posted lead track from the arty California group's forthcoming Women as Lovers. When young boys do what they want, it sometimes means beating the shit out of each other, as can be seen in the song's characteristically abstruse new video. Last time, we wrote: "'I Do What I Want When I Want' suggests Xiu Xiu's musical experimentation is not yet done, as distorted do-do-dos, whistles, feedback, skronky sax, and what sounds like harmonium spar with pick-heavy guitar downstrokes and Stewart's fluttering whispers. The setting begins with 'a dream about loss,' and no amount of fancy verbiage or off-kilter instrumentation can mask the sense made explicit in [Women as Lovers author Elfriede] Jelinek's novel: that, man or woman, nightmare or daydream, loss and love both hurt."

Kids wrestling on the playground or smacking each other with makeshift lightsabers probably hurts, too, although it looks like the guys here are just supposed to be doing stunts in a homemade movie. As for Xiu Xiu, the band's members are generally seen one at a time, whether standing in place, spitting out fruit, dancing idiosyncratically, tooting on the saxophone, or applying a vacuum cleaner to Stewart's face. The video concludes with text recounting a Korean-American immigrant's memory of being 8 years old, not yet speaking English, and trying to ask a teacher for permission to use the restroom. Inscrutable last words: "That's why glitter is my favorite color." The final image is of a hollowed-out watermelon. Ah, Xiu Xiu.

[from Women As Lovers; due 01/29/07 on Kill Rock Stars]