XUP

XUP – Manchester Singer-Songwriter And Bassist LANE Released New Bone-Chilling Album ‘SPIT & LIPSTICK’ Today

Posted on by JL

9 October 2023

Artist: XUP
Who: XUP is the musical act of Lane. It was conceived in the sunny haze of
an All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in Minehead, UK. After playing bass for several bands in Manchester and London from 2000-2007, Lane began writing, recording and performing as XUP, stepping up to the mic for the first time, and taking on full artistic duties. In doing so, her own influences began to come through front and centre, and there are hints of Hole, Sonic Youth, Joy Division, The Bad Seeds, The Cure and Siouxsie and the Banshees in her seven-album-strong back catalogue. Check her Spotify account.

New album: SPIT & LIPSTICK

Lane: Spit & Lipstick is an album about the making of an album! My starting point was
to cover the studio in mood boards and story boards and the Spit & Lipstick album is the
colour of the sunset, seen through an old 70s TV set, spitting static!

The album is a love letter to The Peer Hat bar in Manchester, where I spent much of my downtime in between recording, propping up the bar and watching the songs come to life.
The daily anecdotes and notes about the writing process seeped into the songs. But the songs are also interwoven with a nostalgic retrospective about coming of age by the sea, with a gnarly post-punk, cherry-pop twist! And in capturing that, the album title itself is a nod to the band Hole, one of my big influences growing up.”

TUTV: Let the bass roll. The 4-string guitar is the heroine throughout this 8-track record next to Lane‘s expressive voice. All pieces are sonically related, with their darksome punky funky resonance. Songs about a broken relationship, introspection, depression, loneliness, twins, hope and The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol electrified with indie dynamics and pithy post-rock turbulence with Goth echoes here and there.

My mind and ears tell me that Spit & Lipstick could be the bone-chilling soundtrack for
a sinister film-noir with Lane as the femme fatale operating in an enigmatic world. No,
this is not an ecstatic record, rather one with sharp edges, one about the dark side of Lane‘s moon. A compelling and arresting record.

Singles/clips: Sunday Girl / Siamese

– SUNDAY GIRL –

– SIAMESE-

STREAM/BUY ALBUM


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XUP: Facebook – Linktree

One-Woman-Band XUP Drops Vintage 80s Post Punk Jam ‘SUNDAY GIRL’

Posted on by JL

Daily electricity to load your batteries

5 June 2023

Artist: XUP
Who: The alter ego of Manchester’s songstress Lane who plays a Mustang bass,
drums and sings. She began writing, recording and performing as XUP in 2008,
releasing seven albums while based in London and Manchester. Check out her
Bandcamp account.

New single: SUNDAY GIRL

Lane: “Sunday Girl is a post-punk pop song about the wash, rinse, repeat cycle of sitting
at a bar procrastinating to avoid having to finish an album! No bartenders were harmed
in the making of this! We just shared ice cream and listened to shoegaze!”

TUTV: This could easily be a previously unreleased Siouxsie and The Banshees track from
one of their early 80s albums, remixed by Killing Joke‘s Jaz Coleman. The ongoing uncanny vocals, the menacing bass droning, and the monotone drum beat combine for that vintage sonic post-punk shadiness of the 80s. The Sunday girl creeps in your head slowly but surely, and once she’s there I can’t promise you that you’ll be safe. Intoxicating jam.

Listen/watch.

Stream/buy.


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XUP: Facebook – Instagram