Xiu Xiu have announced their new David Lynch-inspired album ‘Eraserhead Xiu Xiu’ with an eerie cover of ‘In Dreams’ – listen below.
It is only four months since the San Jose experimental band released their last studio record, ‘Xiu Mutha Fuckin’ Xiu: Vol. 1’, a collection of covers originally released through their Bandcamp subscription page in 2020.
Now, they have announced a full-length release dedicated to exploring the “sonic and visual universe” of Lynch’s cult debut feature film Eraserhead from 1977. The seven-track album was recorded in Berlin and will be released on July 10 via Polyvinyl and you can pre-order it here.
‘In Heaven (Lady In The Radiator Song)’ features prominently in Eraserhead, with music by Peter Ivers and lyrics by Lynch himself. In Xiu Xiu’s hands, it is a sparsely haunted piece, with whispery theatrical vocals reminiscent of Scott Walker and the echo of a solitary, ringing bell, before the track descends into a smashed jumble of field recordings.
Check it out here:
Xiu Xiu released an album inspired by Lynch’s Twin Peaks in 2016, with the director’s blessing, and following his death early last year, the band decided to return to his oeuvre for inspiration.
‘Eraserhead Xiu Xiu’ makes use of electrical interference, homemade instruments, found sounds, modular synths and flashlights to conjure some of the eerie majesty of the original film.
The group will also be playing the record as a live show for a run of dates in California this year, with two dates at Los Angeles’ 2220 Arts + Archives on October 2 and 3 and San Francisco’s Gray Area on October 8. Find tickets here.
In July last year, meanwhile, Xiu Xiu announced that they were in the process of removing their music from Spotify over its then-CEO Daniel Ek’s ”investment in AI war drones”.