Pitchfork

Photo by David Horvitz

When Xiu Xiu's Jamie Stewart does the solo-acoustic thing, he doesn't exactly render his band's noise-pop in Starbucks-friendly form. Next year, Stewart plans to release a new Xiu Xiu record called Dear God, I Hate Myself, so that should give you some idea of what you'll be getting with solo Stewart. If he doesn't make your knuckles turn white, he's not doing his job.

In April, Stewart heads out on his first solo tour since 2003. He's bringing along a guitar, a bird call whistle, and an ancient synth called a stylophone. And as part of an accompanying art project, Stewart and frequent Xiu Xiu accomplice David Horvitz intend to take solo portrait photos of every single person at every one of these shows, scary door guys included. Stewart will post all these photos on Xiu Xiu's website, and afterwards he'll publish the best 300 as a book. And don't worry about your hair: there will be Xiu Xiu combs available at every show to make sure you look your best.

In addition to the combs, Stewart will sell some truly interesting merch on this tour, including hand-decorated mix CDs, homemade chocolate, and "a poster series of his massive collection of stuffed animals," according to a press release.

And if that alone isn't enough homespun Jamie Stewart craftsmanship for you, pretty soon you'll be able to sign up for a subscription series that Stewart will offer via the Xiu Xiu website. Apparently, Stewart has a stockpile of "ambient, experimental, and minimalist works" that he's looking to unload. For $100, Stewart will send you one CD per month for a year. He'll hand-number every one of these discs, hand-wrap them in felt and yarn, and stick a different leaf under the tray of each CD. This subscription even comes with a "deluxe edition": For an extra $10, he'll throw in an additional disc and some of that homemade chocolate. But he's only selling 50 of these subscriptions, so act fast.

Here's what the CDs look like-- and the chocolate!

Here are Stewart's tour dates:

04-02 Greenville, NC - The Spazzatorium
04-03 Norfolk, VA - The Boot
04-04 Richmond, VA - The Triple
04-05 Philadelphia, PA - First Unitarian Church
04-06 Brooklyn, NY - Monkey Town
04-09 Durham, NH - The Stafford Room
04-10 Chicago, IL - Ronny's Bar
04-11 Grinnell, IA - Gardner Lounge (Grinnell College)
04-14 Seattle, WA - The Vera Project
04-15 Portland, OR - Backspace
04-17 San Francisco, CA - Cafe Du Nord
04-18 Los Angeles, CA - Echo Curio
04-19 Tucson, AZ - Solar Culture
04-21 Austin, TX - Salvage Vanguard Theater
04-23 Tallahassee, FL - Club Downunder
04-24 St. Augustine, Florida - Cafe Eleven
04-25 Atlanta, GA - Wonderroot