Jamie Stewart | |
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Stewart in 2009 being interviewed for Former Ghosts. | |
| Background information | |
| Also known as |
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| Born | March 2, 1978 [1] |
| Origin | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1996–present |
| Member of |
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| Formerly of |
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James Stewart (born March 2, 1978) is an American musician and writer best known for their role in experimental rock band Xiu Xiu. They have appeared in other bands, including XXL, Former Ghosts, and Sal Mineo.
Stewart was born in 1978 and raised in Los Angeles. [2] They were in several bands before Xiu Xiu, beginning in their youth. While in school, they played in a parody band and a Bauhaus cover band. After high school, they played bass in a group with guitarist Kenny Lyon and members from bands such as Devo, Geza X, The Screamers, and Sparks. Stewart has said that this experience was particularly formative for their career, but they did not realize this at the time. They later quit the band and moved home to attend college. [3] During this period, they came out to their parents, although this was not received warmly. [4]
At home, Stewart briefly played in several other bands before being kicked out, and a high school friend suggested that they start their own band, which became Indestructible Beat of Palo Alto (IBOPA). [3] [lower-alpha 1] Their father also played in the band, [5] and Stewart also played with Korea Girl during this period. [6] Metro Silicon Valley described IBOPA as a collision of "dance, lounge, disco, and ska" with the horror of Red Asphalt, [7] and noted the band for bringing attention to South Bay music. [8] IBOPA was briefly signed to an Elektra Records subsidiary in 1999, and broke up in July 1999 when the label dropped most of its artists. [9] [lower-alpha 2] The band announced that five of its members—Stewart, Cory McCulloch, Kurt Stumbaugh, Tim Kirby, and Don Dias [11] —would continue into a new acoustic and experimental band called Ten in the Swear Jar. [9]
Ten in the Swear Jar (XITSJ) continued IBOPA's "unusual approach" with eccentric and erratic music. [11] [lower-alpha 3] Metro's David Espinoza described the band as "futuristic in instrumentation and erratic in mentality" with the traditional instrumentation backgrounded by baritone saxophones, banjos, accordions, and synthesizers. [12] They added that the band's sound was minimalistic and that the unusual instruments were not used to excess. [12] XITSJ members included Jason Albertini of Duster and Miya Osaki of The Chinkees and The Bruce Lee Band, as well as Don Dias, the namesake of Xiu Xiu's song "Don Diasco". XITSJ disbanded in September 2002 and Stewart formed Xiu Xiu.
Stewart started their third band, Xiu Xiu, with Cory McCullouch (from XITSJ), Yvonne Chen, and Lauren Andrews. [13] The band forgoes traditional rock instruments for programmed drums, indigenous instruments, and others including harmonium, mandolin, brass bells, gongs, keyboards, and a cross between a guitarrón mexicano and a cello for bass. [13] Metro Silicon Valley's David Espinoza likened Stewart to an explorer charting new territories of sound in 2001 as they started Xiu Xiu. [13] He compared Stewart's voice to a combination of Robert Smith's in its fragility and The Downward Spiral -era Trent Reznor's in its anger, and noted Stewart's deliberate choice of tone in light of the individual instruments' disparate wackiness. [13] The name Xiu Xiu, pronounced "shoe shoe", [14] [13] is taken from the titular character of the 1998 film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl . In Stewart's description, the film's theme is that of no resolution—that awful things happen to the protagonist throughout the film and she ultimately dies, tragically, at the end. The band found its first tracks to match the "rotten realness" spirit of the film, "that sometimes life turns out with a worst possible case scenario". [15] Stewart said Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car", which Xiu Xiu covered on A Promise , had a similar theme. [15]
Stewart visited Vietnam around 2001, where they took the picture that appears on the cover of A Promise. To afford the trip, they opened their equipment to local punk and ska bands as a recording studio. Stewart described the period between Knife Play and A Promise as full of "really bad things" in their personal life. [15] In 2003, Stewart said that they have been very influenced by gamelan and Korean and Japanese folk music, and that they have been listening primarily to contemporary classical and "gay dance music". [15]
Brandon Stosuy of Pitchfork said that Stewart, "one of underground music's consistently brilliant anomalies", "came into [their] own" on A Promise, and that their vocal style was compared with Robert Smith, Annie Lennox, and Michael McDonald. [16] He noted a "continual poetic and romantic beauty" behind "the violence" in Stewart's lyrics. [16]
The tone of 2004's Fabulous Muscles reflected an "incredibly, incredibly violent, incredibly jarring, and difficult to take" string of events in Stewart's life. [16]
When interviewing for The Air Force in 2006, Stewart said that the year was "one of the first not dominated by personal tragedies", though the tone of the album reflects their experience internalizing the events of the previous years, which they felt was "almost more difficult". [16]
Stewart released an album with Eugene Robinson of Oxbow as Xiu Xiu & Eugene Robinson Present: Sal Mineo on Important Records in April 2013. [17] They have also appeared in the album Christmas Island by Andrew Jackson Jihad. In addition, they have released an album with Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater under the name Blue Water White Death. [18]
Outside of music, Stewart said that they had written a "failed attempt" at a humorous novel based on "very, very peculiar sexual encounters" they had through their life. [16] They wrote for two years ending in 2005, and circulated the book to friends. Among their favorite authors, they listed Yukio Mishima, Dennis Cooper, Charles Bukowski, and Kenzaburō Ōe. [16]
They released their first book, a memoir titled Anything That Moves with UK-based publisher And Other Stories in April 2023. [19]
Stewart is openly bisexual, [20] [21] and has identified as queer. [22] [23] [24] They are the child of Michael Gassen Stewart, the half-sibling of sociologist Benjamin H. Bratton, [25] and the "long-lost" cousin of former Xiu Xiu member and multi-instrumentalist Caralee McElroy. [26] Their uncle is John Coburn Stewart.
Stewart's father and uncle were both musicians and songwriters: Michael was the co-founder and guitarist of 1960s folk-rock group We Five and a music producer. John was a former member of folk/pop music group The Kingston Trio, largely credited with helping launch the folk music revival of the late 1950s to the late 1960s, and later found success as a singer-songwriter; he is perhaps best known as the songwriter of The Monkees' 1967 No. 1 hit "Daydream Believer." "Mike", the closing track from Xiu Xiu's 2004 album Fabulous Muscles, concerns Jamie's reaction to their father's suicide in 2002.
Stewart has, on multiple occasions, referred to bandmate Angela Seo as their "best friend". [27]
Media related to Jamie Stewart at Wikimedia Commons
| Authority control databases: Artists |
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Xiu Xiu is an American experimental rock band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of multi-instrumentalists Stewart, Angela Seo, and percussionist David Kendrick. The band's name comes from the film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which has influenced the sound of their music, according to Stewart.
Fabulous Muscles is the third album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 17, 2004 on 5 Rue Christine. The album marked a change in the band's sound, described as a depressive mix between experimental rock and synth-pop. It is considered to be more accessible than Xiu Xiu's previous two studio albums, A Promise and Knife Play. Fabulous Muscles has received mostly positive reviews from critics.
A Promise is the second studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 18, 2003 by 5 Rue Christine.
Metro is a free weekly newspaper published by the San Jose, California, based Metro Newspapers. Also known as Metro Silicon Valley, as well as Metroactive online, the paper serves the greater Silicon Valley area. In addition to print form, Metro can be downloaded in PDF format for free from the publisher's website. Metro also keeps tabs on local politics and the "chattering" class of San Jose through its weekly column, The Fly.
La Forêt is the fourth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on July 12, 2005 on 5 Rue Christine. The album features John Dieterich of Deerhoof and Devin Hoff as contributors.
Knife Play is the debut studio album by American experimental rock band Xiu Xiu, released on February 19, 2002.
Accordion Solo! is a 2005 album by Ten in the Swear Jar. It is the band's third release under that name, a complete discography derived from all their previous releases. It is released by Asian Man Records who described it as "A collection of live recordings, "field recordings" and studio tracks with complex lyrics, beautiful melodies, and diverse instrumentation." The live tracks are acknowledged to be of imperfect quality.
The Air Force is the fifth album by Xiu Xiu. It was released on September 12, 2006, and is produced by Greg Saunier of Deerhoof, who also performs on the album with band members Caralee McElroy and Jamie Stewart.
Michael Gassen Stewart was an American musician, songwriter, and producer. Originally founding the San Francisco-based folk rock band We Five, he later went on to produce Billy Joel's breakthrough album Piano Man as well as artists such as Tom Jones and Kenny Rankin earning him two Grammy nominations.
Jonathan Albert Meiburg is an American musician and writer, best known as the lead singer and songwriter for Shearwater.
¡Ciaütistico! is the debut album from XXL, the collaborative effort of Italian experimental rock band Larsen and American band Xiu Xiu. It was recorded at Larsen's studio in Turin, Italy. Though largely instrumental, the album features vocals from Caralee McElroy on "Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw Paw" and "Minne Mouseistic" and Jamie Stewart on "(Pokey I'm Your) Gnocchi" and "Prince Charming", a cover of the 1981 single by Adam and the Ants.
Dear God, I Hate Myself is the seventh studio album by American indie rock band Xiu Xiu released on February 23, 2010. This is their first album since the departure of Caralee McElroy. The album features new member Angela Seo on piano, synthesizer and drum programming, with production by band leader Jamie Stewart and Deerhoof's Greg Saunier. This album marked a departure from the more analogue styles of Women as Lovers and The Air Force, and shifted stylistic choices to a more chiptune style, utilizing the Nintendo DS' KORG DS-10 software to program drum and synthesizer tracks.
Former Ghosts is a project of Freddy Ruppert, former member of This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, with loose collaborations from multiple people including Xiu Xiu frontman Jamie Stewart, Zola Jesus originator Nika Roza Danilova, Yasmine Kittles of Tearist, Annie Lewandowski of Powerdove, and Carla Bozulich. Past live incarnations have included Jherek Bischoff and Sam Mickens. Ruppert is the lead songwriter on this project. The title of the debut, Fleurs, is a reference to the white-flowered iris.
Always is the eighth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on February 28, 2012.
Nina is a Nina Simone tribute album by Xiu Xiu. It was released on Graveface Records on December 3, 2013, to generally favorable reviews.
Angel Guts: Red Classroom is the ninth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on February 4, 2014. It was released in the US via Polyvinyl Records and in the UK via Bella Union. The album was recorded in the Los Angeles home studio of lead vocalist Jamie Stewart, and in the Dallas, Texas studio of producer John Congleton.
Plays the Music of Twin Peaks is a tribute album and the eleventh studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu. Composed of cover versions of the music from the Twin Peaks soundtrack, it was released exclusively as a Record Store Day release on April 16, 2016, by Polyvinyl in the United States and Bella Union in Europe. It was produced by former Xiu Xiu member Jherek Bischoff and mixed by Deerhoof member Greg Saunier.
Forget is the tenth studio album by experimental band Xiu Xiu, released on February 24, 2017. Produced by John Congleton, Greg Saunier, and Angela Seo, it features contributions from Charlemagne Palestine, Kristof Hahn, Vaginal Davis, and Enyce Smith.
Oh No is a duets album and the fourteenth studio album by American experimental band Xiu Xiu. It was released on March 26, 2021, via Polyvinyl. It is described as a "duets album". Its lead single, "A Bottle of Rum" featuring Liz Harris was released on January 27, 2021.
Hyunhye Seo, professionally known as Angela Seo, is an American multi-instrumentalist and vocalist best known for her role in American experimental band Xiu Xiu. Seo joined Xiu Xiu in 2009, and has contributed to every studio project by the band since The Air Force. The first album contributed to by Seo as a member of Xiu Xiu was 2010's Dear God, I Hate Myself. Seo has also played in the bands Deal$ and XXL, amongst playing on songs by Holy Hum and Blind Cave Salamander.
