In case you haven't heard, Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart and Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg have teamed up to form Blue Water White Death, and their self-titled debut album is due out next Tuesday, October 12, via Graveface Records. Today, they're releasing the above video for "Grunt Tube" from the new album. According to Stewart, who directed the video, it features:
Looking out of the window of a car while on a one-month drive through the most beautiful and bleak parts of the U.S.A. and Canada while infected with swine flu.
Close up shots of computer screens while watching art movies, porn, and cheap serial television in extreme states of drunkenness and jet lag.
Shots of over-growth while being lost in Appalachia.
Taping quotes from books about the CIA’s involvement in Afghanistan, gay life in Japan, and early, early 4AD records.
Ultra close-ups of those little toys on a string that you get from 50-cent vending machines that you attach to your Game Boy or cell phone.
All of which sounds like scrolling through Xiu Xiu's blog, actually. The track itself is as haunting and fucked-up as most of what Stewart has released. It features a slow, plodding piano part and distorted vocals that complement the visuals in a weirdly fitting way.
