Xiu Xiu

As the sole constant member of Xiu Xiu (pronounced “shoo shoo”), Jamie Stewart has guided the project through disparate sonic shifts while retaining a conspiratorial closeness and tremulous intensity to his singing and lyrics. Named after the 1998 film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, the band formed in San Jose, California in 2002 from the demise of Stewart’s previous act, Ten In the Swear Jar, and initially centred on convulsive percussion and brass arrangements. Stewart’s voice followed suit, often leaping suddenly from a whisper to a scream. That live-wire spontaneity carried through in the decades to follow, even after Xiu Xiu introduced programmed beats and sidelong synth-pop influences on their 2004 breakthrough Fabulous Muscles. Multi-instrumentalist Angela Seo has remained Stewart’s key collaborator since 2009, while the 2021 duets album Oh No featured Sharon Van Etten, Grouper’s Liz Harris, and other indie luminaries.