DOWNLOAD: M.I.A. - You're Good (Diplo Mix) (MP3)

DJs in the Museum of Natural History or Diplo @ Studio B - those are two of the choices you have to make tonight (Nov 30).

Download "Youngest Folks" - a Diplo remix of Peter Bjorn & John - HERE.

Diplo likes turtles. I like turtles. An interview with Diplo HERE.

And the nominees for 2008 Independent Album of the Year, are....

* Arcade Fire - Neon Bible (Merge)
* Band Of Horses - Cease To Begin (Sub Pop)
* Battles - Mirrored (Warp)
* Beirut - The Flying Club Cup (Ba Da Bing)
* El-P - I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux)
* Justice - † (Downtown / Vice / Ed Banger)
* Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? (Polyvinyl)
* Panda Bear - Person Pitch (Paw Tracks)
* Radiohead - In Rainbows (self-released)
* Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings - 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone)
* Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)
* The National - Boxer (Beggars Banquet)

I was about to question why M.I.A. wasn't nominated for anything, but then I remembered that it's probably because her album came out on Interscope. Major labels don't count, and that's also probably why we don't see LCD Soundsystem or Kanye West on there either. Who else is missing?

The Plug Award event will take place in NYC on March 6th at Terminal 5. Stay tuned for more details. Last year it was at Irving Plaza. The year before that at Webster Hall.

At first I thought M.I.A. was talking about Aziz....

Continue reading "M.I.A.'s Best Story Ever (video), Tour Dates"

I have to finish what I started, and I guess that would be compiling the world's biggest collection of people dressed as Amy Winehouse for Halloween. I was already up to 92 pictures. By the end of this post you'll have seen another 166. Some are great, and more than a few paired Amy with her boyfriend Blake Fielder-Civil. This photo falls into both of those categories....

Even more looked less like Amy, and then there were many Amys that decided to hang out with Pete Doherty instead of Blake - a pairing that makes a lot of sense from the English musician drug addict tabloid point of view. This picture falls into both of those categories....

Pete Doggerty & Amy Doghouse

In related news,

After Amy Wino's hideous performance at the MTV Europe Awards last night, she was booed when she accepted an award for Artists' Choice. Pete Doherty immediately came to her defense.

He was asked what advice he would give Wino, "I wouldn't give her any. She's fine. It's all bollocks. People should leave her alone. I went for a drink with her earlier today and she's totally fine. Perfectly healthy and happy.
"People are saying she's out of control, but she's not. She's a sensible girl and she knows what she's doing. She ain't doing nothing wrong." [dlisted]

and even Amy with M.I.A....

Now we'll get to more Amy's in a second, but first: To answer my own question, "no", Amy is no longer playing the MTVu Woody Awards or Saturday Night Live due to visa issues. Oh well - not a big loss considering how scary her last live appearance was. That video, and a zillion more Amy impersonators, below.....

Continue reading "more AMY WINEHOUSE costumes & cancellations"

DOWNLOAD: Cypress Hill - Can U Handle This (MP3)

(CRED)

(CRED)

continued below....

Continue reading "more photos from Vegoose 2007"

photos & review by Trent Wolbe

With the paint still smelling new in this weird and cavernous venue, MIA and her crew rocked steady for five whole hours. Technical problems cut Blaqstarr's set short so MIA had to go on a little early - starting things up with an absolutely mind-bending performance of "Bamboo Banga" - but no one complained.

Teens in stripes, zebra prints, neon wigs, oversized shirts, huge chains, and tight pants were the dominant crowd and they really made the whole place bounce.

Gunshot samples and 90's references abounded - Afrikan Boy must've called for a "Whoomp There It Is" response about 15 times. And of course, the whole thing pulsed like an awesomely bad website from 1996. The Mario / Arcangelesque visuals for "Paper Planes" were awesome and blended well with the live-action dance shots from other countries she had so much fun shooting.

Trent's review continued below....

Continue reading "M.I.A. played Terminal 5"

DOWNLOAD: The Cool Kids - Pump Up the Volume (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: The Cool Kids - Mikey Rocks (MP3)

All the cool kids are talking about The Cool Kids, and they're playing at all their parties......

Continue reading "The Cool Kids"

M.I.A. @ Virgin Festival Toronto - Sep 8, 2007 (CRED)

Tickets for M.I.A.'s October 19th show at Terminal 5 (the new 3000-capacity venue opening earlier that month) are sold out, so she added a 2nd show at the same venue one day earlier (like Justice). Tickets are on sale.

Kala is out now. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "M.I.A. adds 2nd NYC show at Terminal 5 ++ Tour Dates"

Sometimes Bed-Stuy-resident & spiderwoman M.I.A. did it again. Her new album Kala is streaming at MySpace, and I'm loving it (and the Japanese bonus tracks you'll find on the Japanese version of the album) (and the Pixies cover I first heard live at Siren). You can buy it officially next week.

The new Bowery Presents music venue Terminal 5 doesn't open until early October, but you can get tickets to M.I.A.'s October 19th show - and all the announced T5 shows - at 10am.

More M.I.A. tour dates, and the video for Perez Hilton's favorite song "Jimmy" (also a cover), below...

Continue reading "Terminal 5 tix + M.I.A. album stream & 2007 Tour Dates"

words & photos by Bao Nguyen

Girl Talk

So this was a very last minute idea, meaning I left New York for Baltimore at 12 PM on Saturday when gates had already opened at 10 AM. Not knowing at the time whether I had a pass waiting for me at the festival, I made the 4 hour drive, hindered by the beach bound crowd on the NJ Turnpike, armed with a Polaroid, 4 hours of sleep, and a sense of regret for missing the previous night's CSS show. I arrived at Pimilico Field at exactly 4 PM and after nearly being run over by Richard Branson on a golf cart, I made it just in time to catch the start of Peter Bjorn and John's set. I think their music plays better in a small club than a large festival type atmosphere especially when the entire crowd seems to be waiting for only one particular song that everyone can whistle to. Following Peter Bjorn and John was an high energy set from LCD Soundsystem that included a very unusual mosh pit where three people were doing their best Thom Yorke seizure dance....

Continue reading "The 2007 Virgin Festival in Baltimore - review & pics"

M.I.A. @ Lollapalooza, 2007 (CRED)

Check out more photos of M.I.A. @ Lollapalooza, and then some of her set @ the Siren Festival.

(like CSS,) Bao Nguyen was on hand at the 2007 Virgin Festival in Baltimore this past weekend - Polaroid camera in hand....

more photos below....

Continue reading "'Virgin in Polaroids' (some pics from the Virgin Festival)"

Perry Farrell & Ted Leo

Daft Punk

more pictures below.....

Continue reading "Photos from Lollapalooza 2007 - Day 1"

I didn't end up seeing that much at Siren this year. I would have watched the bands all day, and I definitely wanted to see Black Lips, but I got there to late. Ends up the only artist I saw from start to finish was M.I.A. I would have watched all of Voxtrot, but it was impossible to see even one song of them since they ended up playing at the exact same time as M.I.A. I saw most of Matt & Kim, and I went back and forth from New York Dolls to Cursive twice. I wasn't 100% in the mood to watch either of them. Anyway, M.I.A. made my day....

Continue reading "M.I.A. @ the 2007 Siren Festival, Brooklyn, NY - pics"

Tickets are on sale for M.I.A. at Studio B. (thx Eduardo). M.I.A.'s other Brooklyn show is the Village Voice Siren Festival this Saturday. She's also on the cover of the Village Voice this week. Tom Breihan wrote the story.

I think I've seen the current incarnation of the NY Dolls enough times now, and you might think I would say the same about Voxtrot, but I really don't want to miss them, so I guess my biggest conflict is the slight overlap of Voxtrot & M.I.A. - of course there's always Studio B.....

Continue reading "The 2007 Siren Festival schedule"

M.I.A. is headlining Studio B in Brooklyn on July 25th - four days after her show at Siren. CSS are playing Studio B with Shout Out Out Out Out and Dirty on Purpose on August 3rd. One day before CSS plays Lollapalooza (with M.I.A.) No tickets for either yet. All tour dates below...

Continue reading "M.I.A. & CSS playing Studio B + Tour Dates"

Put your hating aside for a second, and be excited. M.I.A. is playing Siren! Other people playing Siren (Coney Island, Brooklyn, NYC, free, July 21, etc) HERE (and here). All M.I.A. tour dates below...

Continue reading "M.I.A. playing Siren & other 2007 Tour Dates"

"Jrak" writes in...

M.I.A.'s first album bombed in sales given all the hype, and I think this one will do even worse, and HERE'S WHY. I was fairly psyched to watch the Boyz video on BV today, but about 1/4 through I was insanely bored with it and had to stop watching. M.I.A.'s first album was so great because it was so weird for the time, but now mainstream R&B has gotten so weird in its production itself (your Timbalands, etc) that M.I.A. doesn't have that angle anymore of sounding unique and like nothing else. She's just another rapper/singer, and SURPRISE, her voice isn't good. Without being distracted by all the fancy and crazy blips and bloops, you realize she's just not much else. More proof of mainsteam R&B being the new hipster music, and teenage girls being way ahead of anything Ed Banger is gonna throw at you. Wouldn't you rather listen to pretty much anything by Rihanna than the new MIA? Just my two cents.

new M.I.A......

Continue reading "VIDEO: M.I.A. - Boyz (from KALA) ++ Tour Dates"

Handsome Furs are not playing Mercury Lounge tonight (May 24) due to VISA problems (which sucks), but Love As Laughter and TK Webb & The Visions will still go on (10pm).

M.I.A. is also having VISA problems again which in turn will not allow her to make her scheduled appearance at the Sasquatch Festival this weekend, BUT Jerry Yeti (not to be confused with the Sasquatch Yeti Stage) will once again be on hand to give us the non-MIA blow by blow. Perhaps he will check out The Long Winters who will be there to entertain us in her place.

Those with epilepsy should stay away from M.I.A.'s homepage. Those going to Lollapalooza should still expect to see M.I.A. there at this point.