for Pride month we finally tackle a beloved (musically) unhinged artist for an unhinged time. continuing on in our 2003 Best New Music era, we talk about perennial Pitchfork critical darling and twitter album poll winner Xiu Xiu and their dark, quiet, and disturbing 2003 cult album "A Promise" - an album that feels just as relevant as ever. the band is still active today via primary member Jamie Stewart, and has had a vast amount of influence on the landscape via their one-of-a-kind hyper intense queer industrial/experimental/pop sound and Jamie's incredibly emotive vocals. their influence only seems to grow over the years, even in spite of their sometimes spotty and self-sabotaging output as is talked about. Liz also makes a sincere case for Xiu Xiu being as important as the Velvet Underground.

Jamie Stewart interview mentioned in the episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0TBfokA-w

this is the article about video game music interpolation in indie pop by Drew Mackie mentioned on the episode: https://www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com/blog/star-maze-mario-land-2-owen-pallett

EMAIL us: kitschforkpodcast@gmail.com

folks, it's time to get twee. for the first of our two twitter poll winners, we start season 2 of Kitschfork off with perennially beloved indie artist Sufjan Stevens and his 2003 breakout album "Michigan" which Pitchfork helped break with its brand new (circa 2003) "Best New Music" category. because of this, Liz talks about the history of Pitchfork's Best New Music and also the disputed history of this album's review. Max and Liz also have a very spirited disagreement about Sufjan. Much discussion about Sufjan's strengths (and failures) as an artist and this era's musical tropes in general ensues.