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Wednesday :: September 5, 2007

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Xiu Xiu - "Save Me Save Me (Remix)"

While Wednesday may mean dealing with never-clever hump-day jokes, it also heralds another installment of the 'Gum Drop, complete as always with a never-before-released MP3 to help you through the week. For the second dispatch, it's a darkly danceable remix of Xiu Xiu's "Save Me Save Me." The original appeared on 2006's The Air Force, but this sliced 'n' diced remake hasn't seen the light of day until, well, this very moment. Here's Jamie Stewart on "Save Me Save Me (Me Me Save Save Mix)":

Talking about this song will reveal way too much about my love life. It's partially about my obsession with sex and this unhealthy feeling that it's what will make me whole. I need it too much. It's also about a person I have since fallen totally in love with, and who says things to me like, "It's ok that we feel that way, sex just means more to us than it does to other people." At the time the song was written we were not in a relationship but having crazy sex -- there was lots of blood. It's also about deep regret and that, sometimes, deep regret is hot.

Does a remix change that meaning?

I think a remix completely changes the meaning. It almost, for me anyway, becomes a sub-thought: The narrative's not there, but the emotional part is. The physical part of the song still exists.

What guided the remixing process?

I haven't done many remixes, but one thing I enjoy about them is being able to just let it happen sonically, more so than I am able to do with a pop/art song. Anything guiding me was more an intuitive accident than anything, just trying every idea and not editing it until the next day. Weird chance beeping happens when you thoughtlessly plug slot A into slot Z and hope to not worry too much about it.

Xiu Xiu, currently a trio, has a new full-length out 01/08 on Kill Rock Stars.


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