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Some captivating stuff for "Born to Suffer", the fourth video from Xiu Xiu's latest, the very fine Always but let's be honest, by Jamie Stewart's standards, not all that extreme. This is a guy who spills blood and other bodily fluids on screen as often as he changes socks, and for whom each record and batch of music videos are a pallette on which to transgress ever further. The notorious title video from Xiu Xiu's last release Dear God I Hate Myself, with Angela Seo losing her lunch her and there, is still seared into many a memory, and Angela even brushed her teeth to the point of bleeding earlier this year in "Honeysuckle". 

So while not quite as guignol as some of its predecesssors, the new one sports a suitably bizarre concept, courtesy of Adriana Alba: a group of comely youths are apparently overcome by some sort of ghost in the machine presence that alternately turns their bodies into projection screens, one guy plays with fire, boys kiss, a girl gets cozy with a horse. By the end, the kids seem pretty overwrought by the whole posession thing, so Xiu Xiu angst is definitely served. "Born to Suffer" maybe, but to look good doing it. Our NV Music Video of the Day is the latest from Xiu Xiu.