Xiu Xiu Forget

[Polyvinyl; 2017]

Styles: noise, punk, drag
Others: Deerhoof, The Cure, Vaginal Davis

Faith, Torn Apart: A Parallel Poem

My room is a mess [I prefer “lived in”]
My hair is black and blue [I will be gray by 26]
My new phone is pink [My mantra: “Real men do not exist”]
My dress is a fishnet dress [I am not your catch]
My face looks soft [I have never been able to grow a beard]
My eye shadow is like Cleopatra [What good is a jewel that ain’t still precious?]
My contacts are bright green [My favorite color is coniferous]
My braces are real [My front tooth has started moving back]
My pose is for you [All other positions are incidental]
My freckles are for you [You can connect them with your fingers]
My shirt has no buttons [My outfit is an extension of my psyche]
My finger is in my mouth [I have never stopped biting my nails]
My hijab is polkadot [My patron saint is Saint Anthony]
My head is resting on my wrist [When I sit up again, my face is wrist-shaped]
My gaze is never going to settle [My indecisiveness is steadying]
My beauty mark is from a pen [My pencil case is a pretzel bag]
My wig fell off into a pillow [When I get restless, I sweep my bedroom floor with my hands]
My smirk is a shadow [I have stopped chasing it out windows]
My glasses have purple frames [My last pair was snapped in half by a basketball]
My village is 6,600 miles away [Distance is an illusion that I have trouble envisioning]
My arms are chubby [I eat more now that I know for sure that I’m not dying]
My nose smells horrible smells [Somebody in my apartment building was cooking green beans]
My kiss comes from a scream [Its only way out is through closed lips]
My heart is going to crack in half [I just don’t know when]
My gold tooth is knocked out [A month after I got my wisdom teeth removed, I got a jaw infection that was never medically explained]
My baseball cap hides the truth [I was never really into sports]
My name is romantic [By any other name, my temperature is always 97.9° Fahrenheit]
My thoughts are petunias [My actions are a dark green watering can]
My bra strap is a new feeling [My shoulders are perfect for cardigans]
My jaw is uneven and unassured [My teeth turn black and fall out in my dreams]
My posture is by demand [I slouch because when I stand up tall, I feel like a gorilla]
My skirt is thrown up over my head [In Delphi, I wore a green pashmina on my head, and nobody said anything about it]
My curls are fading fast [I haven’t gotten a haircut in six months]
My ambition is still, it is still to be a star [My cake-decorating career is still achievable]
My pajamas don’t fit very well [Every morning, I wake up strangled in a heap of bedsheets]
My knees hurt [There’s a railing in New Orleans that is chipped]
My little shirt matches my little shorts [Until last summer, I never wore shorts because I don’t like how my legs look]
My skin feels like a breaking vase [Its cracks, like raku, are by design]
My appearance will stress you out [My stress is that it’s not apparent]
My bikini looks dumb [I am terrified of being under water]
My shower is the least refreshing thing about it [I prefer morning baths, because I can cheat an extra 20 minutes of sleep]
My only recourse is there is no recourse [My panic became manageable when I realized I could still breathe]
My bindi has been rubbed to the side [My third eye is nearsighted]
My frown is for always [That’s just how my face looks]
My family will never see me again [My faith assures me that I will see them again someday]
My goofy jokes hide my goofy damnation [Chicago? I hardly knew her]
My ego’s excuse: “It just happened” [My blaming of others is inherited]
My tears and my drool are all the same [The blood from my nose and the blood from my mouth are both from my heart]
My fear is for one and all [My silence is violent]
My dead-end childhood is just beginning [My paleontology career is probably not achievable]
My niqab is like a rose [My thorns are invisible]
My motto is “Champagne for my real friends” [My fake friends get nothing]
My age is on a card and cannot be disputed [How old do you think I am?]
My nails will be broken [I will never stop biting my nails]
My pelvis will be broken [My machinery is nonrefundable]
My feather boa feels like the butcher shop [I was wearing an orange scarf when I decided to become a vegetarian]
My favorite band is “I don’t know” [I stopped being a vegetarian because I love chicken too much]
My complexion is flawless for hours [I woke up like this]
My awareness is the same as fainting [I am perpetually afraid of passing out]
My party is private [My personal space is invite-only]
My day has been endless [My worst fear is that I will have nothing to show for it]
My night cannot possibly go on [My night will go on, without regard and without repose]
It doesn’t matter what you think [Kneeling under faith, I pray that you find peace]
Do anything you’d like [In growing despair, I pray that you find confidence]
Because I was born dead [Hung noose of charm, loosen your grip]
And I was born to die [I won’t stop where you start]

Eureka!

Some releases are so incredible we just can’t help but exclaim EUREKA! While many of our picks here defy categorization and explore the constructed boundaries between ‘music’ and ‘noise,’ others complement, continue, or rupture traditions that provide new forms and ways of listening. Not all of our favorites will be listed here, but we think each EUREKA! album is worthy of careful consideration. This section is a work-in-progress, so expect its definition to be in perpetual flux.

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