Xiu Xiu
Jamie Stewart, vocalist and core member of Xiu Xiu, makes Robert Smith look like a starry-eyed optimist. While the two artists share rough-hewn vocal styles and morose subject matter, it's Xiu Xiu's electro-urban bleakness that makes them more of a bare-fisted punch in the gut. On four albums — including the recent La Foret — Xiu Xiu has offered stark music full of clattering percussion and squelching feedback, topped off by Stewart's rubbed-raw vocals and lyrics. Xiu Xiu is a car crash — sad and bloody, but irresistibly intriguing. -Rachel Turner
