''Knife Play'' is the debut studio album by

Xiu Xiu Xiu Xiu ( ) is an American experimental band, formed in 2002 by singer-songwriter Jamie Stewart in San Jose, California. Currently, the line-up consists of Stewart (the only constant member since formation) and Angela Seo. The band's name co ...

, released on February 19, 2002.

Content

A sticker on the cover of the album reads "When my mom died I listened to

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 202 ...

Joy Division Joy Division were an English rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist Ian Curtis, guitarist/keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris. Sumner and Hook formed the band after atte ...

Detroit techno Detroit techno is a type of techno music that generally includes the first techno productions by Detroit-based artists during the 1980s and early 1990s. Prominent Detroit techno artists include Juan Atkins, Eddie Fowlkes, Derrick May, Jeff Mil ...

the Smiths The Smiths were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1982. They comprised the singer Morrissey, the guitarist Johnny Marr, the bassist Andy Rourke and the drummer Mike Joyce. They are regarded as one of the most important acts to eme ...

, Takemitsu,

Sabbath In Abrahamic religions, the Sabbath () or Shabbat (from Hebrew ) is a day set aside for rest and worship. According to the Book of Exodus, the Sabbath is a day of rest on the seventh day, commanded by God to be kept as a holy day of rest, as ...

Gamelan Gamelan () ( jv, ꦒꦩꦼꦭꦤ꧀, su, ᮌᮙᮨᮜᮔ᮪, ban, ᬕᬫᭂᬮᬦ᭄) is the traditional ensemble music of the Javanese, Sundanese, and Balinese peoples of Indonesia, made up predominantly of percussive instruments. T ...

, ' Black Angels' and

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

". The title is a reference to knife play. Noted themes include familial dysfunction, violence and despair; "Hives Hives" is a cover of the

IBOPA James Cyrus Stewart (born March 2, 1978) is an American musician and writer best known for his role in experimental rock band Xiu Xiu. He has appeared in other bands, including XXL, Former Ghosts, and Sal Mineo. Early life and career Stew ...

song "Hives" that references

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ma ...

and HIV, and "Dr. Troll" is about a young

transgender A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through ...

girl who teaches a class of

preschool A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary sch ...

ers. "Suha" is about the titular 25-year old woman, and features lyrics describing how Suha wants to commit

suicide by cop Suicide by cop or suicide by police is a suicide method in which a suicidal individual deliberately behaves in a threatening manner, with intent to provoke a lethal response from a public safety or law enforcement officer. Overview There are ...

. "Luber" is about a child named Luber who Jamie Stewart encountered buying

Smashing Pumpkins Smash may refer to: People * Smash (wrestler) (born 1959), professional wrestler * Moondog Rex, another professional wrestler who briefly wrestled as the original Smash, before being replaced by the above. * DJ Smash, DJ and music producer Ar ...

records while working at a

record store A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. In the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records, but over the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were ...

in San Jose. "Poe Poe" is about a sugar daddy, "I Broke Up (SJ)" is about the violent

breakup A relationship breakup, breakup, or break-up is the termination of a relationship. The act is commonly termed "dumping omeone in slang when it is initiated by one partner. The term is less likely to be applied to a married couple, where a brea ...

of a relationship, "Don Diasco" is named after Don Dias, former member of

Ten in the Swear Jar James Cyrus Stewart (born March 2, 1978) is an American musician and writer best known for his role in experimental rock band Xiu Xiu. He has appeared in other bands, including XXL, Former Ghosts, and Sal Mineo. Early life and career Ste ...

. "Homonculus" is about someone who was romantically interested with Xiu Xiu member at the time Yvonne Chen.

Reception

Christopher Dare, writing for Pitchfork, though noting that "many who've bought the album for he listedinfluences aren't prepared for his tantrums", stated that the album "makes you reevaluate your opinion on what emotions music has the right to explore."

Packaging

''Knife Play'' was initially issued on CD by

5 Rue Christine 5 Rue Christine (also known as 5RC) is a semi-defunct Olympia, Washington based independent record label, formed as a spin-off from the Kill Rock Stars label in 1997. Before its dormancy, it had become a premier label for experimental rock ba ...

and LP by

Absolutely Kosher Records Absolutely Kosher Records is an independent California-based record label founded in 1998 in San Francisco by Cory Brown. The label moved to Berkeley in 2002 and then to Emeryville in October 2006 when it partnered with Misra Records. The two ...

. The CD packaging features a two page

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, illustrating an

unnamed Anonymity describes situations where the acting person's identity is unknown. Some writers have argued that namelessness, though technically correct, does not capture what is more centrally at stake in contexts of anonymity. The important idea he ...

girl awake at 4:01 AM mourning a hospitalized loved one who was involved in an accident. The comic takes place over three hours, and the final panel is the unnamed girl holding her face in her hands on her bed. The first LP release, by Absolutely Kosher, was a 12" black vinyl record in a paper inner sleeve wrapped in a 35" by 23"

newsprint Newsprint is a low-cost, non-archival paper consisting mainly of wood pulp and most commonly used to print newspapers and other publications and advertising material. Invented in 1844 by Charles Fenerty of Nova Scotia, Canada, it usually has a ...

sleeve. This issue did not come with a standard LP cover. ''Knife Play'' was issued on CD and LP by

Tomlab Tomlab is a German record label based in Köln. It has released works by bands such as The Books, Casiotone for the Painfully Alone, Deerhoof, Thee Oh Sees, Les Georges Leningrad, and acts associated with Blocks Recording Club, such as Final F ...

in Germany in 2003. ''Knife Play'' was also remastered and repressed by Absolutely Kosher in 2003, this time in the same design as the newsprint sleeve, but the sleeve itself was printed on standard heavyweight paper. The back cover features a

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a phy ...

with a fictional month, 28 days and 8 days to the week, resulting in four days at the end not assigned to one of the three previous weeks. The first day of the week is unnamed, while the next seven follow the convention:

Monday Monday is the day of the week between Sunday and Tuesday. According to the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 8601 standard, it is the first day of the week and in countries that adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is t ...

Tuesday Tuesday is the day of the week between Monday and Wednesday. According to international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week; thus, Tuesday is the second day of the week. According to some commonly used calendars, however ...

Wednesday Wednesday is the day of the week between Tuesday and Thursday. According to international standard ISO 8601, it is the third day of the week. In countries which have Friday as their holiday, Wednesday is the fifth day of the week. In countrie ...

Thursday Thursday is the day of the week between Wednesday and Friday. According to the ISO 8601 international standard, it is the fourth day of the week. In countries which adopt the "Sunday-first" convention, it is the fifth day of the week. Name ''Se ...

Friday Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. In countries that adopt the traditional "Sunday-first" convention, it is the sixth day of the week. In countries adopting the ISO-defined "Monday-first" convention, it is the fifth d ...

Saturday Saturday is the day of the week between Friday and Sunday. No later than the 2nd century, the Romans named Saturday ("Saturn's Day") for the planet Saturn, which controlled the first hour of that day, according to Vettius Valens. The da ...

and

Sunday Sunday is the day of the week between Saturday and Monday. In most Western countries, Sunday is a day of rest and a part of the weekend. It is often considered the first day of the week. For most observant adherents of Christianity, Sund ...

. In 2014, Stoned to Death reissued ''Knife Play'' on

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ott ...

in a limited edition of 100 copies. In 2017,

Graveface Records Graveface Records is an American independent record label from Savannah, Georgia, solely owned and operated by Ryan Graveface (who plays in the groups Black Moth Super Rainbow, Dreamend, the Marshmallow Ghosts and the Casket Girls). He has rele ...

reissued ''Knife Play'' on vinyl with a bonus 7". The bonus 7" featured a

live Live may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Films * ''Live!'' (2007 film), 2007 American film * ''Live'' (2014 film), a 2014 Japanese film *'' ''Live'' (Apocalyptica DVD) Music * Live (band), American alternative rock band * List of album ...

version of "I Broke Up (SJ)" and an acoustic version of "Don Diasco". This issue also features printed lyrics and a note from Jamie Stewart regarding the production, recording and publishing of ''Knife Play''.

Track listing

Personnel

Xiu Xiu

* Jamie Stewart - Vocals, Guitar, Harmonium, Programming * Lauren Andrews - Synthesizer, Piano, Bells * Cory McCulloch - Bass, Synthesizer, Mandolin, Feedback * Yvonne Chen - Synthesizer, Trumpet, Percussions, Gong

Additional personnel

Ches Smith Gordon McChesney "Ches" Smith is an American musician, whose primary instruments are drums, percussion, and vibraphone. He recorded and performed an album of his own solo percussion pieces entitled ''Congs for Brums'' (2006). In 2010 he release ...

- Drums *

Greg Saunier Greg Saunier (born 18 May 1969) is a musician, producer, and composer best known as the drummer and founding member of Deerhoof. ''Rolling Stone'' included Saunier alongside Brian Chippendale (of Lightning Bolt) and Zach Hill (of Hella, lat ...

- Drums * Tally Jones - Cello * Don Dias - Bass accordion * Sergio Bernal - Trumpet * Jason Albertini - Guitar * Jarod Flores - Alto sax * Jafid Moran - Tenor sax * Kurt Stumbaugh - Baritone sax * George Horn - Mastering

References

Xiu Xiu albums 2002 debut albums 5 Rue Christine albums {{2002-rock-album-stub