Angel Guts: Red Classroom (album)
Angel Guts: Red Classroom is the ninth studio album by Xiu Xiu, released on February 4, 2014. It was released in the US via Polyvinyl Records and in the UK via Bella Union. The album was recorded in the Los Angeles home studio of frontman Jamie Stewart, and in the Dallas, Texas studio of producer John Congleton. Lyrical themes. "Angel Guts" is Xiu Xiu's follow-up studio album to its 2012 "Always". The title of the album is based on the 1979 Japanese erotic film "". Its themes include "racialized sex, double suicides, double penetration , criminality, [and] fear of physical harm". "Tiny Mix Tapes" described the album preview as "the most Xiu Xiu album ever released", darker than its preceding albums, and "the sound of Xiu Xiu's death". Record label Bella Union compared the album's tone to that of Suicide, Einstürzende Neubauten, and Scott Walker. Recording. The album was recorded at Nurse, the home studio of Jamie Stewart, and the Elmwood studio of producer John Congleton in Dallas, Texas. The instruments on the album are limited to analog drum machines, analog synthesizers, and a drum set. Stewart's songwriting was influenced by his  move from North Carolina to a crime-ridden area of Los Angeles, as well as the aforementioned erotic film. Stewart's home was near "a park divided among four gangs, a lake routinely dragged for bodies, [and] a building wherein two infant skeletons were recently uncovered". The album's first single, "Stupid in the Dark", was released via Pitchfork on SoundCloud on November 20, 2013. The album was released on February 4, 2014 in the US via Polyvinyl Records and in the UK via Bella Union on CD, clear vinyl, limited-edition red vinyl, and as a digital download. Music  videos were made for "Stupid in the Dark," "Botanica de los Angeles," "Lawrence Liquors," "Bitter Melon," "El Naco," and "Black Dick." The latter two were premiered on non-music websites rather than YouTube ("El Naco" on a horror site and "Black Dick" on a porn site).