Xiu Xiu Essentials

Jamie Stewart founded Xiu Xiu in San Francisco 2000, fashioning a dark, disturbing sound that matched confessional lyrics to a dissonant mélange of noise, post-punk and synthpop. From Xiu Xiu's debut album, Knife Play, a cult following was instantly drawn to Stewart's open displays of pain, in both theme and voice. 2004's Fabulous Muscles marked a buzz-band breakthrough, but Xiu Xiu were always too weird to truly crossover; Stewart remaining provocative and prolific through angst-riddled LPs like 2010's Dear God, I Hate Myself and 2014's Angel Guts: Red Classroom.