| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Carl |
Posted - 08/06/2007 : 14:26:43
Prefixmag.com - Track Review: M.I.A. “20 Dollar”.
Track Review: M.I.A. “20 Dollar”
August 1st, 2007 7:27 am by Jeff Klingman
Though my personal geek button is more
savagely pushed by the Modern Lovers
appropriation on “Bamboo Banga,” I suspect the
Pixies referencing “20 Dollar” will be the one to
raise hipster doting on Maya Arulpragasam to
dangerous levels. Before this Kala track segues
into the immortal words of Black Francis,
however, it’s rather grim. It’s certainly not of a
piece with the frantic dance floor offerings that
we’ve heard from the album so far. With a
lumbering organ throb and slow ragged beats,
our gal wants to “talk about moi.” The moi in
question turns out to be a resident of an African
shantytown, whose inhabitants “still like T.I.”
and “still look fly,” despite a completely untenable environment. The context to which the
alt rock classic in question is introduced is a mile worse than “out in the water, still
swimming.”
In Pixies’ version of “Where is My Mind?” Black Francis’ magnetic vocal couldn’t help but
become anthemic, a celebration of confusion. M.I.A.’s drawn out, dub influenced delivery
recasts the chorus as legitimately harrowing. She’s slightly off the brutal beat, and
completely leaves the once and future sing along to vocodered abstractions. It’s the
sound of someone for whom the world has completely stopped making sense, brought
into sharp focus by a songwriter whose pop culture dragnet seems increasingly
omnivorous.
Blender.com.
M.I.A.'s High-Anxiety, Pixies-Inspired Jam
WHO: M.I.A.
WHAT: "20 Dollar"
WHY: M.I.A.'s new album Kala (currently leaking at a website
near you) mashes up lyrics about the dark underbelly of
globalism with ass-shake beats straight from Jupiter's hottest
female empowerment strip clubs. It's the best politico-crunk LP
since her last album. Along with the innovative big bounce
tracks that are currently making Timbaland a tad jealous
("World Town," "Boyz," "Bird Flu") there are a few sinister, low-key bangers. The
slow-drill future-ballad "20 Dollar" lies somewhere between Massive Attack, snap
music and the Pixies (it swipes "Where Is My Mind?"[/ur for the hook). The singer
recorded Kala all over the world, from Jamaica to India to Trinidad, and the lyrics are
a flurry of scary and strange third-world images, from monkey brains to shanty
towns to "lootin' just to get by" to T.I., whose popularity crosses many borders,
apparently. With the beat hovering overhead like a warplane, M.I.A.'s semi-coherent
musings read like dreams from the underworld. Nightmares, actually.
WHERE: Listen to the track here.
Bonus: M.I.A. and ex-boyfriend Diplo goof off into a webcam.
me and maya.
calendarlive.com - No missing fans for M.I.A..
The pop underground's futurist queen alighted at the EchoPlex Monday, wearing mirrored
shades, glittery shorts and a military hat adorned with a pink flower. Shaking her body like a
disco diva, tossing off jokes and streetwise diatribes like an old-school rapper and quoting
the Pixies like a college rocker, Mya Arulpragasam -- better known as M.I.A. -- pointed the
way toward a time when categories will have melted along with the ice caps and revelation
will come only to the multilingual.
Pitchfork - New Music: M.I.A.: Various Tracks (live on "Morning Becomes Eclectic") [Stream]
Another new song, "20 Dollar", opens with a crunk-tinged riff on the
"Blue Monday" melody, before the London-born, Sri Lankan-raised rapper starts dropping the
title of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?".
Spin.com - M.I.A. Samples Pixies, Perry Plays Favorites
During
new track "20 Dollar," which
samples the Pixies' "Where Is
My Mind," the flaunting singer's voice underwent further glitches,
sputtering out. But M.I.A., who stated she lost her voice in L.A., stated she
was "doing her fucking best."
Jaunted - Jaunted At Lollapalooza: Post-Mortem Part 1.
3:30PM: Over on the Bud Light stage (one of the two
"main stages" of the festival, set at opposite ends of the
park with Buckingham Fountain in the middle), the Sri
Lankan rapper M.I.A. is losing her voice. She pulls out a
mysterious bottle and says, "Jack White FedExed this to
me, he said it would help." Whiskey? Scotch? Dick
Cheney's blood? Later we find out it was just some kind of
throat spray. It's hard to sit still, especially after she slips
lyrics from Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" into one of her
songs. (I recognized it because I was there when Pixies
played the first Chicago-based Lollapalooza, in 2005.)
Northwest Herald, IL, Live Wire - Lollapalooza 2007 Wrap-up
M.I.A.
The Sri Lankan Brit ably delivered her world beat-influenced, hip-hop-spiked club
music, in spite of her weak voice (she lost it in Los Angeles, the singer said).
M.I.A. made up for missing vocal strength with a showstopping performance.
Wearing short shorts that seemed to be made from disco balls, she
headbanged, jumped into the crowd and climbed up the Bud Light stage's
scaffolding, while performing the start-stop grooves of "Bucky Done Gun" and
slinky dancefloor hit "Galang." She also debuted new tunes from her August LP
"Kala," some of which combine M.I.A.'s skitter-shot, jungle drum approach with
hipster rock classics. "Bamboo Banga" opened with lyrics from The Modern
Lover's "Roadrunner" and "20 Dollar" ended with M.I.A. chanting the words to
The Pixies' "Where is My Mind?"
Rolling Stone - M.I.A., Against Me!, Ted Leo Kick Off Day One at Lollapalooza.
M.I.A. brought a booming system, vinyl-scratching DJ,
rumbling bass and African samples but little else to
the stage for her late afternoon set. “I lost my voice in
Los Angeles,” the London-based MC confessed. “If I
have to get drunk to get it on, that’s cool.” But her
doubled-up hollering and insertion of the Pixies’
“Where Is My Mind?” into the mix fell on mostly deaf
ears. And her decision to use video footage of the
Jungle King and other assorted clips meant that all but
those close to the stage watched tiny figures dance
underneath the lights. M.I.A. has the studio down to a
science; she needs to improve her live presence. |
| 8 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Carl |
Posted - 08/24/2007 : 14:51:48
Scotsman.com -Return of the rebel MC's scattergun style.
But she knows her rock history too, and is happy to plunder accordingly.
Bamboo Banga incorporates her deadpan punk delivery of some lines from
Jonathan Richman's Roadrunner and there are a couple of other examples of
this kind of appropriation - 20 Dollar references both New Order's Blue
Monday and Pixies' Where Is My Mind?, while Paper Planes samples The
Clash's Straight to Hell.
winnipegsun.com -M.I.A. finds herself.
Embracing a wealth of styles -- rap and hip-hop, reggae and dancehall, bhangra
and world beat, electronica and techno -- and drawing on rock influences such as
The Clash, New Order, Pixies and even The Modern Lovers, M.I.A. weaves a rich,
groovy tapestry of sound on which she stitches lyrical polemics and manifestos. In
short, she's still the life of the political party. But this time, it feels more natural and
less forced.
20 Dollar 4:34
Only M.I.A. would combine the melody of New Order's Blue Monday and the chorus
of The Pixies' Where is My Mind? with video-game blips and gunshots. And only
she could turn it into a moody electro-ballad this compelling.
Los Angeles Times - Third World beats.
There are Bollywood hooks and Tamil Nadu village drums; the spaciousness of dub
and the relentlessness of Baltimore thump beats; the lilt of Caribbean soca, and
whimsical references to indie rock icons Jonathan Richman and the Pixies.
Seattlest - Kala-fornication.
That said, the blogger purist in Seattlest can’t help but, at the very least,
list a few things to pique your interest (becauseKala is a jam… not the
jam, but a jam):
1) Grimy sample of The Pixies’ "Where Is My Mind?"
2) Aboriginal hip-hop kid’s group
3) Evidence that Timbaland still can’t rap
4) Afrikan Boy shit talking "first-world" problems
courant.com - 'Kala' by M.I.A.
She often rhymes about war, but not
from some distant intellectual perch:
Her tunes have the gritty feel of street-
level action, and they're full of
adrenaline and sweat as she narrates
desperation on "World Town" over clickety-clack percussion, quotes the Pixies "Where Is
My Mind" atop buzzing electronica on "20 Dollar" and drops in rhythmic gunshots on the
cinematic "Paper Planes," which includes bits of "Straight to Hell" by the Clash.
Ohio.com.
On 20 Dollars, M.I.A. takes the chorus from the Pixies' Where Is My Mind and
applies lyrics that touch on poverty in Africa, the difference $20 makes to people
with nothing, and how her own celebrity is useful as a tool to illuminate these
gaps: ''I put people on the map who have never seen a map,'' she raps.
Quarterlifeparty: MIA "Covers" Pixies "Where is My Mind".
TheStar.com - CD pick of the week.
There's nothing out there that sounds like Kala, which is a compliment one can pay all too rarely
to recordings today. Clash samples and Pixies quotations jostle mercurially with state-of-the-art
beats and 2,000-year-old Indian funeral drums. Australian Aborigine children drop cocky verses
over squelched-out electronic basslines. Gunshots are discharged over "Hollaback Girl"-styled
cheerleader chants.
Metro Times Detroit - In the flesh.
Although opening act M.I.A. owned the half-filled theater, the boisterous élan of "Bucky Dun
Gun" enveloped the room, as audience members gyrated along to the grimy, bass-heavy
beats. Accompanied only by a DJ and a backup singer, the highlight of her set was an
unexpected cover of the Pixies' lament "Where Is My Mind?" that — while seemingly out of
place — cemented the overall versatility of the Sri Lankan rapper.
The Sophian - MIA: Hip-Hop or Punk?
She samples from Tamil films, Bollywood films,
the Clash and the Pixies.
And her samples from the
Clash in "Paper Planes" and the Pixies in "20 Dollar" are a reminder that aesthetically, this is a
very punk, D.I.Y. production. |
| 4indie |
Posted - 08/17/2007 : 14:41:51
Bat For Lashes is being featured on mtvU’s Hot Seat & Backstage Pass
http://www.mtvu.com/music/the_hot_seat/
http://www.mtvu.com/music/backstage_pass/
|
| madtempest |
Posted - 08/15/2007 : 19:04:07
She mentions the Pixies on Arular too. |
| Carl |
Posted - 08/15/2007 : 12:40:04
Really?!
"I hate how the reptile dreams it's a mammal. Scaley monster: be what you are!!" - Erebus. |
| madtempest |
Posted - 08/15/2007 : 04:43:03
MIA is great! and ironically the Pixies booking agent is also MIA's. |
| Carl |
Posted - 08/11/2007 : 12:13:39
BAT FOR LASHES AND M.I.A. ON KRCW
If you, like me, are mad at Bob Moz for catching both M.I.A. and Bat For Lashes on the
SAME NIGHT last week, check out both of them on KCRW, as I am this morning.
Bat For Lashes on KCRW
M.I.A. on KCRW
The Bat For Lashes record is incredible, one of the best albums of the year IMHO, and
seeing her do these songs live only makes me love it more. Incredible songwriting, creative
instrumentation, masterfully executed — what more do you need? You can buy it DRM-free
at iTunes.
The M.I.A. record isn’t out yet but I’ve been rocking the five song sampler and it’s
BANGIN. Only one dud in the batch. It starts off the same way the KCRW session does,
with her biting “roadrunner roadrunner, goin 90 miles an hour, with your radio on…” Shit is
hot. Can’t wait for this record. Check out the Pixies cover on the KCRW sesh. Weird
beard.
Yahoo! Music Videos - M.I.A - Boyz.
Yahoo! Music Videos - M.I.A - Bird Flu.
Enjoy!
ian |
| vilainde |
Posted - 08/07/2007 : 00:27:16
I can't wait to listen to this record. Arular was f'in great.
Denis
"Can you hear me? I aint got shit to say." |
| pixiestu |
Posted - 08/06/2007 : 16:08:38
I can't say I like the song much. Well I can, but it would be a lie.
"The arc of triumph" |
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