David Lynch’s work is almost as renown for its use of music as its use of imagery — especially Twin Peaks, whose soundtrack transformed the pastoral logging town into a misty nightmare. That soundtrack is so important that experimental noisemakers Xiu Xiu were commissioned by Australia’s Gallery of Modern Art to do a reworking of it. The project began as a still-ongoing series of performances, but come this year’s Record Store Day, all of Xiu Xiu’s covers will be available on the album Plays the Music of Twin Peaks.
Those unfamiliar with the work of Xiu Xiu will probably find themselves surprised, and then a little shocked, as the six minutes of “Into the Night” play out. The first four of them rely on Jamie Stewarts crooning and chugging, his voice at once vulnerable and venomous. The last two minutes of the track descend into the noise that has trademarked Xiu Xiu’s insistence on inaccessibility, and so, almost, mimic the mood of the work of Lynch, which is deceptively mainstream, frayed slightly at the edges. In that way, it almost suits the show better than Julee Cruise’s original. Just almost, though.
Xiu Xiu’s Plays the Music of Twin Peaks will be available April 16. Season 3 of the show won’t be here until 2017. Listen to the track below:
Here are the remaining tour dates:
04/08 – Paris, FR @ Centre Pompidou 04/09 – Brugge, BE @ More Music! 04/10 – Offenbach, DE – Leder Palast 04/11 – Esslingen, DE – Komma 04/12 – Hamburg, DE @ Kamgnagel 04/13 – Copenhagen, DK @ Jazzhouse 04/14 – Malmo, SE @ Inkonst 04/15 – Berlin, DE @ Silent Green 04/30 – New York, NY @ The Kitchen 06/04 – San Francisco, CA @ Alamo Drafthouse Cinema