Xiu Xiu: The Polaroid Project: The Book (Hardcover)

~ David Horvitz (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

As tour manager and official chronicler of the immensely popular indie rock band Xiu Xiu, David Horvitz devised the idea to document the band’s tours by encouraging fans to bring Polaroid film to shows. Photographs of life on the road – from towering truck stop beacons reaching out into huge blue sky to motel room antics – were shot and returned to the fans, but not before Horvitz scanned them and meticulously compiled a visual tour diary that goes well beyond the music. He captures the bare-naked zen of touring life: parties, sex, soulful meditation, art, back roads, Americana. These images echo the band’s esoteric lyrical styles and the merging of seemingly disparate genres such as punk, classical and electronic that end up saying more about the varied American landscape than the band, though it is through the band that these images are filtered. Xiu Xiu: The Polaroid Project will also include writing from the band members that explores the ideas behind the process and effects of the Polaroid Project. The book will also include a CD comprised of never-before released songs, outtakes and sonic experiments.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 126 pages
• Publisher: Mark Batty Publisher (November 25, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979048656
• ISBN-13: 978-0979048654
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 6.7 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #381,858 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 'into something rich and strange...', December 26, 2007

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

XIU XIU may not be a name known to many but it is the moniker of a difficult to define performance group - an art-rock/experimental/indiepop band - that varies in performance ideas as much as the wind that seems top drive them around. 'XIU XIU: THE POLAROID PROJECT/the book' is a successful attempt to capture that part of the group that is accessible - the physical experience of traveling around on tour with a fascinating group of artists. A fan of the group, David Horovitz, devised this idea: 'I offered anyone attending the shows the opportunity to have Polaroids shot during the current tour mailed to them. For no extra cost if they brought a box of Polaroid film and an envelope with stamps to the shows, I took the photographs, sealed them in their envelopes, and dropped them in a mailbox.' This 'project' resulted in about 1800 Polaroids, many of them floating around the world, but a number of them are contained in this strange but simple and honest album.

The beautifully designed book, from the blind embossed cardboard cover imprinted with an actual Polaroid image to the generous, clean pages each reserved for only one Polaroid at a time, is so honest in its content that it becomes an art object rather than a journeyman's diary. The images vary from shots of sky to cats at play to funky opened luggage to landscapes to many photographs of the band members. They are not posed, but instead are surprisingly spontaneous, an aspect of the photography that makes each composition extraordinary. The collection is not meant to make sense but rather to appeal to the imagination, the raw senses, much the way the bands performances vary from stage to stage.

Included with the book is a CD 'A Soundtrack for a Polaroid of Two Trees in Indiana', mastered by Jherek Bishoff with field recordings collected by David Horvitz from North American tours in 2006 and 2007. This inclusion along with the many notes spread throughout the book give those of us who are strangers to Xiu Xiu an introduction that is pure seduction! This is a terrific 'art work' of a book and represents a fascinating performance ensemble that doubtless will become better known after readers enjoy 'the book'. Grady Harp, December 07