Devendra Banhart - Support Our Troops OH! (originally by Xiu Xiu)

Xiu Xiu - The Body Breaks! (originally by Devendra Banhart)

both from the Devendra Banhart / Xiu Xiu 7-inch split (5 Rue Christine, 2005)

I don't know about you guys, but this 7" (like many 7-inchers) is a dream come true! Two of my favorite musician-entities covering each other. Devendra Banhart, the freak-folk prophet; Xiu Xiu the straight-up freak duo. Devendra takes a Xiu Xiu track from their next-to-newest album, Fabulous Muscles and sets the original words spoken by Jamie Stewart to music, morphing the confrontational, West Coast/Valley-Girl-tinged interlude into a vaguely blues-y Vietnam-era war protest song hiding under some deceptively tuneful music.

Did you know you were going to shoot
off the top of a four year old girl's head
And look across her car-seat down into her skull
And see into her throat, and did you know
that her dad would say to you,
"Please sir, can I take her body home?"
Oh wait, you totally did know . . . that that would happen
Cuz you're a jock who was too stupid and too greedy
And too unmotivated to do anything else but still be
The biggest and still do what other people tell you to do.
You did it to still be a winner.
You shot your grenade launcher into people's windows and
Into the doors of people's houses,
but you really wanted to shoot it at someone
just to watch them blow up.

Why should I care if
you die?

Xiu Xiu step in to convert Banhart's track from its easy, tipsy tone into a more impulsive (almost danceable) anthem with characteristic clangs and noise clusters.

The body breaks,
And the body is fine.
I'm open to yours,
And I'm open to mine.

The body aches,
And that ache takes it time,
But you'll get over yours,
And I'll get over mine.

And the sun will shine,
And the moon will rise up.

The body calls.
Yeah, the body, it calls out.
It whispers at first,
But it ends with a shout.

The body burns.
Yeah, the body burns strong
Until mine is with yours.
Then mine will burn on.

My flesh sings out.
It sings, "Come put me out."

The body sways
Like the wind on a swing,
A bridge through a hoop
Or a lake through a ring.

The body stays,
And then the body moves on,
And I'd really rather not dwell on
When yours will be gone.

But within the dark
There is a shine,
One tiny spark.
That's yours and mine.