Here at Pitchfork, we’ve all but excommunicated the adjective “Lynchian” for its overuse. But Xiu Xiu might be one of the few bands who really earn the descriptor. Back in 2016, they released the cover album Plays the Music of Twin Peaks with the blessings of Lynch and composer Angelo Badalamenti. After Lynch’s death early last year, the band considered re-upping the project after multiple requests. Instead, new territory beckoned. Enter Eraserhead Xiu Xiu, set in the universe of Lynch’s pioneering 1977 film. The LP comes complete with a live concert film, which they crafted using field recordings, modular synths, organ, homemade instruments, and “electrical interference.” The result is a dreamlike marriage of musique concrète and otherworldly orchestral work, culminating in a final cover of “In Heaven,” a song from the original Eraserhead written by Peter Ivers and Lynch himself.
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Tidal
Listen on Amazon Music
Listen/Buy at Bandcamp
Buy at Rough Trade
Sad13: 1331 [Exploding in Sound]
It’s hot out there—no wonder Sadie Dupuis decided to strip things down for the new Sad13 mixtape 1331, which she made during a “mini-nervous breakdown.” (It’s a frenetic mindset you can hear in the record’s pacing and sequencing; the 13-song tape is just 13 minutes long.) 1331 was almost complete when, in June of 2024, Dupuis shattered her elbow in a biking accident, an injury that required a year of rehab and left some doctors warning she might never play again. But instead of despairing, the Speedy Ortiz frontwoman got creative, as is evident in the underlying fury and determination of these tracks. “My body didn’t have the juice,” she said in a press release. “But tracking in little bursts over more time gave me broader influences.”