Xiu Xiu returns with “Rumpus Room,” the second single and video from the duo’s upcoming album of duets entitled OH NO, due out March 26th via Polyvinyl. Following up on “A Bottle of Rum,” featuring Grouper’s Liz Harris on vocal harmonies, this newest offering finds Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart “accompanied” by Angus Andrew of Liars. Twisting the notion of a duet into a cryptic spoken word pairing between the two, “Rumpus Room” is stream of consciousness pop at its weirdest!
Xiu Xiu’s Angela Seo returns to direct the video, and it continues “Bottle of Rum”‘s mysterious storyline. Starring alongside Stewart in what is promised to be a trilogy of videos, “Rumpus Room” turns a Flamin’ Hot Cheetos binge into what appears to be a criminal occurrence. Seo explains:
“Does everyone have a deep personal childhood association with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, or just me? One of the first things I shoplifted as a kid was a bag of FHC. I once bet my cousin I could finish an entire Party Size bag in one sitting; I won the bet but lost my sense of taste for a couple days. I was a latchkey kid and would ditch school and often go to the 7-eleven by our apartment, where some 20-year-old kid who didn’t give a crap would be working and watch me play their single arcade game–marvel-capcom– in the corner as long as I bought a slurpee and FHC. Sometimes in my old teenage journals, I find flamin’ red dusted fingerprint smudges among melodramatic poems and fake runaway notes. All that intersected perfectly with the “Rumpus Room” song…”
