XIU XIU - Remixed & Covered Review

Music's impetus is much more complicated within a commercial framework than a traditional folk one, but one of its original functions-- to convey a heritage across time-- remains intact. The best evidence for this is how consistently the emergence of new tools for manipulating sound has been accompanied by a rush to standardize their use. John Cage noted that as soon as the theremin was invented, people started trying to replicate chamber music with it. A minority of guitarists explore the instrument's range of possibility; more crowd into the narrow province of rock. ...full text It’s hard not to be wary of these sorts of releases, especially ones this sprawling. Smells like product. Xiu Xiu, however, have been so steady since their early-2000 inception that perhaps they deserve a stand-back-and-take-stock kind of release. And, as it turns out, the reinterpretations on display here are anything but obligatory (though the same can’t be said for the remixes). Rather than just a stop-gap, keep-the-ball-rolling hodge-podge, these 18 tracks can serve as a potent reminder of what an indelible songwriting talent Jamie Stewart is....full text When you get an album of covers and remixes of songs by a band notorious for putting out some of the most impenetrable music in recent memory, it’s one of those instances where the potential for a complete musical trainwreck is extremely high, but there’s always the faint hope that at least a couple of the artists involved will take a unique approach and knock the sucker out of the park. Two such compilations have come out in the last couple months; For the Sick, a mammoth tribute to the demented, legendary New Orleans sludge legends Eyehategod, and Remixed & Covered, a collection of, you guessed it, remixes and covers of some of indie rock standout Xiu Xiu’s best-known material....full text