Xiu Xiu's new video 'Veneficium' explores social media and queer identity through toasters

Experimental band Xiu Xiu released the music video for 'Veneficium', the second single from their 17th album 'Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips', out September 27 on Polyvinyl Records. Directed by photographer and videomaker Luke Orlando, the video features frontman Jamie Stewart as an enigmatic figure leaving toasters at strangers' doors. A single man becomes obsessed with the smart toaster, which functions like a social network connecting strangers, leading him to explore his queer identity in a cathartic performance watched by bandmate Angela Seo. Stewart describes the video as a meditation on religious torture and an allegory for the impossibility of redemption through sliced bread, while the song deals with loss in a different but physically close dimension and the impossibility of returning home. The album marks a shift toward airier, pop-tinged sounds while retaining the band's unsettling aesthetic.