the musical fruit: movement #14.

the musical fruit: movement #14.
song: "the pineapple vs the watermelon," xiu xiu
fruit: watermelon

since i've moved to nyc & fallen in love with the indie rock, i've come across a lot of hyped stuff & a lot of weird stuff. i'm well versed in pitchfork & it's through them that i discovered xiu xiu, the slightly spooky project of oakland's jamie stewart & a bunch of other peeps. it was around the release of their 2004 album fabulous muscles that i fell for them. the album is made up of equal parts poignant, whispered lyrics & acoustic guitar and unexpected, jagged, clanging sounds with some occasional rocking thrown in for good measure. the title song features the lyrics, "cremate me after i come on your lips. honey boy place my ashes in a vase beneath your workout bench." i found it awkward & creepy, but still fell hard for it, so hard that i made sure to write a piece about them for ny press' music section during my time there. as adam (my friend & co-worker at the time) often joked, "these guys are art rock, huh?"

their 2006 album, the air force, features a song called "the pineapple vs the watermelon." i'm not sure what the hell the title's all about. the song's actually about suicide & there's no mention of fruit at all in the lyrics. just some stuff about "someone felt something pure and told it all to you. that was why you killed yourself. to prove it wasn't true. say hello to cory's mom. say hello to freddy's mom. say hello to ryan's mom." it's typical dark-ass xiu xiu. the song begins with the aforementioned soft guitar & hushed lyrics & throughout, there are little bells & wood blocks & noises, but no frantically jarring stuff. i still like the jarring stuff, but the non-jarring stuff sticks with me more, for obvious reasons. this one in particular really grabs me.

i wasn't feeling ambitious or hungry enough to get both a pineapple and a watermelon. pineapples are too much work & i wasn't up for lugging a whole watermelon home on the bus. i'd just end up smashing it like some sort of accidental, less-comedic gallagher anyhow. maybe if it was one of those awesome square watermelons or heart-shaped ones that the japanese developed & i had a lot of yen to blow, i'd put forth the effort. instead, i opted for some watermelon & picked up a three pack of pre-sliced wedges from the supermarket, allowing me to eat watermelon at my leisure. shit, i'll probably even save one for breakfast tomorrow. it's a laid back life i lead, folks.

here's my take on the watermelon. i'm not cool with the seeds. never have been. for a little while when i was a little kid, it was cool to have multiple opportunities to spit things, but now they're just annoying & make me self-conscious. thank god that japanese science created a seedless one too. when it really boils down to it though, i'm cool with watermelon. it can get a little messy with its water & whatnot (see previous comments re: self-consciousness), but it's so subtly sweet & summertime fun refreshing that i'm all like, "toss some chunks of it my fruit salad, please." "if you don't mind kind nj lab technician sir, please inject this square of hubba bubba with a facsimile of watermelon flavor & when you're done, can you do something for the smell of my shampoo? that would be most delightful. thanks, science."