Our favorite Sri Lankan world runner played at Terminal 5 in NYC last night, as part of the CMJ showcase. Terminal 5 is cavernous space with two tiers of balconies, a giant bar island, and draconian crowd-control policies. They made you get into lines to go outside for a smoke.
Doors opened at 7pm. So with nothing but a faintly entertaining opening act (“we’re the new Black Beastie Boys!” was probably their best line) that didn’t do much to help kill the time until M.I.A. came on, people got drunk. Finally around 10pm her presence was felt rather than seen – a roaring, sucking noise as people stampeded toward the stage.
I think she opened with “Bamboo Banga,” but I don’t really remember too well. The next 80 minutes flew by in a blur of jaw-dropping energy, radiating charisma, mind-blowing mashups and the surreal spectacle of pretty white girls moaning “ajaa!!” M.I.A. prowled the vast stage with mesmerizing confidence. Garbed in a futuristic orange and silver flapper top, sliver (lame?) leggings, super sparkly jacket, leather-daddy/police hat, and silver high-tops. She was like an angry human disco ball. With only a DJ and regular backup dancer/singer Cherry behind her, she projected a raw power. When did our little girl grow up so much?
She invited people on stage to join her for “Bird Flu.” The ensuing scramble and dance-a-thon looked like the mad visionary’s multi-culti recasting of Fame … “There she goes” alright. You could barely make her out in the throng of gyrating dancers but there was no doubt about who was in control.
African “You think its tough now, Come to africa” Boy appeared for his verses on “Hussel” and she also brought out a dancer from Baltimore, from the same crew that Cherry belonged to, I think.
Perhaps because her new album is more global in scope, musically and lyrically, than Arular, or perhaps because of her recent visa issues, she’s definitely sliding away from espousing a pro-LTTE viewpoint. The stage was decidedly free of the LTTE flag, paper tigers, and other such military memorabilia.
Surprisingly, the audience (at least those around me) knew more lyrics to songs off Kala than those on Arular. I would have thought the first album was more accessible, but clearly not. Still, when she disappeared after the set, the crowd drew her back for an encored by chanting the refrain from “Galang”: “Yah yah heyeyyy, oye oye oh oh oh ya ya hey.” Seriously, not “M!I!A!” or just hooting and clapping. The whole audience sung the chant, as one, and didn’t stop.
How did this woman get a adenoidal fanboys and privileged hipsters chanting third-world refrains? How did she get them to mouth lyrics like, “One second, my phones ringing/It’s my friend Habibi”? Do they ever stop think about the militancy in lyrics like “I’m better off in North Korea/Yeah, droppin’ from a barrel of a carrier” or the pain in “In a faraway land we got shit made/Ray-Ban shades, warheads laid/Babies born in air raids”? Are they just drawn to the fun of lines like “All I wanna do is (BANG BANG BANG BANG!) And (KKKAAAA CHING!) And take your money”?
I have no idea. But in her words, “I was born out of dirt like I’m porn in a skirt/ I was a little girl who made good with all that I blurt” and I can’t respect her enough for that.
Photos by William Kirk at Pitchfork.com.
New York Times review of her Thursday night show here. Previous SepiaMutiny M.I.A. coverage here.
FWIW, why is a ny desi with a good education going to interested in this stuff–I mean that seriously–yeah, the way to improve human welfare globally is to condone north korea, rather than to apply models that are radically opposed to it–not!!–I like my Sri Lankan doctor pals, but I dislike MIA–sorry–I’m still part of the desi community.
Well the question is, who’s stopping her? I really don’t get this faux-revolutionary thang.
ever crack a smile rob? ever dance? chances, are, if it’s been to top-40 music you’ve condoned rank misogyny, violence and a host of other illiberal ideas. I understand that music crits will forever hang on simple rimes and extrapolate a lifetime’s worth of social commentary from a few lines, but the main point is that she rocked the house and had the crowd singing along to lines they wouldn’t dream of living or dealing with.
Sakshi,
Thanks for thinking about this issue!! I don’t care what you think, as long as you do think!
rob,
jimmy (rob) aaja…….aaja
You know a lot more about what’s going on right now in Sri Lanka than I–do I care about MIA–no–care to start a non LTTE pro-human-rights group with some private autonomy
dude, I’d like my very large, globally dispersed, mixed Tam/Sinhala family to remain safe and happy. Being a do-gooder is not an option for me. Seems like you’re out of touch with dance music in general.
Kush,
Thanks, as always. What to make of rediff.com people-why are they so mean.
True!
haha, Kush, that was really funny. I am not familiar with MIA’s music: that was fultoo bollywood :D. I guess I’ll forgive her the bad lyrics after all ;).
wow! this woman gets around. she was at the guvernment/koolhaus here this nite. tx were sold out so tufluk.
regarding the politics of the music – dont think too deep guys. she isnt very bright lyrically, but she burns a hole in the air around her. it isnt the velveteen or the stressed denim crowd around her but the ribbon and torn spandex that drives her engines. funnily – the appeal to this demographic likely also makes her a media magnet. if they havent caught on yet – i spy with my mind’s eye the people from boost mobile, vw and virgin mobile converging on her.
Galang was already in an animated Honda ad, for the Si I think, a while ago.
thx for pointing that out.
i kind of did a volte when i saw this webcast and thought… heck i dug it out here form yer own opinions.
something for everyone for the guys – hannah simone’s giant boobie cleavage for the gals – m.i.a. talking about there not being enuff role models for brown skinned girls. for comic relief – simone solemnly concurring with above sentiment.
go on. click on it. you know you want to.
you have to scroll down and click on the m.i.a. interview. p.s. sorry abotu the dig on simone. she;s desi too btw, and a talented person in her own right.
Man is this talentless girl STILL around? I honestly can’t see what’s so great about her music. It’s lame, pointless and annoying.
Much respect to her for whatever she stands for and her social commentary but I just am unable to appreciate the musical aspects of her music. To me, the Jimmy track sounds just bad, Galang is also quite ordinary and world Town sounds just noisy. But then people seem to love her and so maybe it’s just not my kind of music.
the lady can sure put on a show.
To me, the Jimmy track sounds just bad
Not really, Musicians make lot of stuff, some you will like some you won’t. Beatles made Can’t Buy Me Love, Help, I am the Walrus (it really is I killed Paul, I buried Paul backwards), Sgt. Pepper’s Band, Come Together……….Take your pick.
I always enjoy that MIA’s Jimmy video since I am a fan of Mithun’s Disco Dancer. It is a milestone in Indian mordern cultural history.
I am glad Rob and Sakshi enjoyed it too.
Also, the photo of Paul McCartney, standing with his back to camera, helped fuel “clues” during the infamous Paul is dead hoax.
I meant: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Now back to MIA…..
How many times is MIA going to get featured at Sepia Mutiny? Can we please give some front page coverage to other Desi artists for a change?
Well I liked it for nostalgia’s sake: something that Bappi-da would do in the 80s. As something new and exciting, not really. Though I haven’t heard enough of her music to form an opinion. But I am intrigued. 🙂
DesiX and Sam: please pick one handle per thread, to keep the conversation less confusing. Only someone with admin privileges can tell that you have the same IP and that’s not fair to everyone else. 🙂 I’d vote for “DesiX”…it’s more memorable and it sounds fierce.
Did she sing $20? That’s awesome live!!
The great thing about the new album is that each of the songs are different. It helps with the ever changing producers. When I saw her in the summer it did feel we were going around the world in a hour.
But hey, everyone has different tastes, I don’t understand the fuss over the rolling stones? 😉
I will be 55 this december. I love this girl, her music and her lyrics. I grew up listening to pink floyd, santana, rare earth and the rest. This girl has blew me off with her brand of music. I am so addicted that I have to listen to Kala at least once a day.My daughter who is 23 just hates her and her music but listens to Beyonce and the lot.
Yes! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one to notice that. To be fair, many of the ‘youth-oriented’ marketing campaigns license tracks from ‘indie’ (ish) artists for their commercials (at least before the one, shitty Coldplay-lite set of notes took over…ayoooo)–i direct your attention to the old sprite ad which featured a track from the Blackalicious rapper’s solo album (without his main producer) and a later AFAM-directed Saturn commercial featuring more from the same album.
Ardy,
glad you’re directing your attention where it should be going but it’s hard to appreciate her music if different bass frequencies don’t seem to change something deep within your viscera. At the root of her appeal, for me at least, is the fact that she doesn’t give bass frequencies short shrift nor does she stick to one, monotonous 808-style bump but changes it up.
Why the haterade ladies & gents? 🙁 At least cicatrix got to see her! Heads up, Houstonians: M.I.A. coming back with power power on Nov. 2 at the Verizon Wireless Theatre!!! Go see her for me, I have another kind of show that day.
Maybe not, but there was certainly a lot of tiger imagery. Even my wristband was tiger striped – albeit pink and purple.
Anyway, I’m always fashionably late (kidding!!!) so we got there around 10 right before she went on. It was so much fun. I wished I had gotten tickets for both nights. A write up of the Thursday show is on Brooklyn Vegan, and there are comments about both nights.
P.S. C-trix: Yes, she did open with Bambo Banga.
Looks like she will be at the Wiltern in LA on Nov 9th. Anybody know how to get tickets for this concert?
The Toronto show opened with a video of a Japanese man basically explaining the situation in Sri Lanka without ever explicitly mentioning Sri Lanka: majority versus minority rights, how ineffective proportional representation is in protecting minority rights, etc. This went on for a few minutes, and then M.I.A. takes the stage singing Bamboo Banga. Her set was pretty much non-stop music for an hour. It was damn good. She ended things with Galang Galang. The video screens for the end were showing a cartoon tiger running, and airplanes and helicopters dropping bombs: hmm? I don’t think she’s decided to drop all her politics. That said, you can like her music and not like the LTTE. Seriously.
ramanan – so that’s what the video was about. A video of an East Asian man on what looked like a newscast played before her show in NY also, but I was too far from the stage at the time to make out what it was about. Thanks for clearing that up. The video montages behind her as she performed were free of tiger/LTTE imagery at this show though. I’ve seen the videos you mention, and she stayed clear of using them here.
And yes, absolutely, you can like her music and not like the LTTE. She is wildly talented and in case it wasn’t clear, I’m a rabid fan of her music. She is quite political when it comes to third-world/brown-world issues. It’s a fundamental part of her music, lyrics, and persona. I’m not a fan of the LTTE so it’s been easier to love her wholeheartedly now that she’s broadened her political scope.
In the webcast khoofia linked to (thanks for that!!) she talks about how the Sri Lankan situation is complicated and that her statements were misrepresented by the press. Yes, the press did jump on the “daughter of a revolutionary” angle, she did quite a bit of misleading herself. Her original website was a paean to the LTTE.
But she is so smart, so fresh, so fascinating in her creativity (using Pixies lyrics from “Where is My Mind?” in a song about shanty towns, blood diamonds and AK47s? How twistedly brilliant) and political outlook. In the webcast she says that when the US denied her visa she just thought, “Fine, I’ll just go to the other 5 billion people in the world, then” and that journalists focused on her father and the men she’s worked with because it’s too unusual to see a brown woman making musical choices. Not just performing, calling the shots.
Tamasha The venue provides the wrist bands, yeah? Even if it was her idea, stripes aren’t a crime 😉 Did you see tiger imagery on the videos?
You’re right about the wristbands. And you’re right that it’s not a crime.
But, I saw my fair share of tiger (with a lowercase t) imagery in the videos, and that’s not for nothing.
I’m a big fan of MIA and most of all, her creativity. I actually randomly talked to her at a restaurant in Soho last year (she was with Diplo…don’t think they broke up yet), and she was very kind, humble and she asked me so many questions about me, where I lived, what I did, etc. I was really taken aback by that, which is why I’m not surprised she’s let the audience come up on stage with her!
I was at the show on Thursday. My only issue with the show is how late she got to the friggin stage. There was no pre-show, only a DJ and doors opened at 7. Maya got on the stage at 10:30. Both my boyfriend and I saw her in the summer of 2005 at two seperate shows (we weren’t together at the time), and she stared an hour after doors. That raised a flag for me, and it made a great show just a good show. Honestly, tardiness like that will be perceived by most with other commitments as rudeness. Especially since she didn’t work like that the first time she toured in NYC. That struck me as odd…
she could be ella fitzgerald, but her music videos with their soft-core glorification of terrorism (arafat’s plo, ltte style imagery in bucky done gun, for example) will mean that i will stay away from her. and she has only realized that she needs to be more subtle about her poison so that she can get accepted by the hipster (or whatever) crowd, she has not disavowed it. my opposition is not with her revolutionary politics per se, but her plugging despicable terrorist organizations. i don’t find that a fascinating political outlook, it is at best cynical, and at worst, macabre.
so, because her daddy was tiger, she can’t use the image in any of her videos? How about Lions? If she was the daughter of a Sinahala general who committed war crimes, would you be equally as put off? Like it or not, DL, that is her background and referencing it by image is in no way an endorsement of the LTTE’s tactics, tacit or otherwise. Exactly what is this ‘poison’ to which you refer? If it is actually ‘poison’ then why aren’t hipsters ’round the world slinging capsules of cyanide around their neck, abstaining from sex and fighting guerilla wars in the nearest jungle? How many symbols of revolution from the third-world exist that aren’t associated with any violence or any other illiberal concepts whatsoever? If you don’t like her music, be honest and say so–don’t just leave us with some half-formed argument about how you magically divined that she’s brainwashing hipsters with vague lyrics and beats.
I doubt she is sincere with that: she just wants some street cred. Dark and edgy and all that.
she does more than refer to it by image. she plays up her revolutionary cred with a combination of images and lyrics.
a resounding unqualified yes. why does condemnation of the ltte mean endorsement of the sri lankan government’s atrocities?
i don’t mind her music, but if i didn’t like it, i don’t think there’s any shame in that, and would say so. as i said, at best she is exploiting these images to burnish her edgy, revolutionary image, and despite your paraphase of my comment to ridiculousness, i certainly feel that the way she packages the ltte gives them a totally unjustified aura and coolness.
yeah, that’s certainly possible as i mentioned in my comment (cynical), but doesn’t make it ok in my book.
you specifically objected to her usage of PLO and LTTE images. Are you a cool-seeker? A taste-maker for today’s youth? Do you know that if you ask the average high-school–college age kid if they know who MIA is, they’ll give you a blank look and a “WTF, mate?”
Must we always worry about the lowest common denominator? If her vague collage of images and exhortations to make your revolution danceable inspire a kid to make a LTTE shrine, then that kid is an irredeemable fool with few prospects. I am not now, nor will I ever be considerate of the fortunes of that demographic. Fortunately it’s incredibly small.
Maybe you need to recalibrate your sense of cool. Or lay off the mushrooms.
Cynical is the way to think about it. Reminds me of my favourite lines from Annie Hall:
Annie Hall: Sometimes I ask myself how I’d stand up under torture. Alvy Singer: You? You kiddin’? If the Gestapo would take away your Bloomingdale’s charge card, you’d tell ’em everything.
so your rebuttal of my argument is that she is not popular enough? i am responding to the rave coverage of her on this blog multiple times as well as her well-attended shows, so i don’t need to be an arbiter of cool to decide that a not insubstantial number of people find her noteworthy. and there has been a toning down of her videos and rhetoric from her original days, something that i think is carefully calibrated to make her palatable.
so she can do her plausibly deniable music videos and work those images to pimp her cds and shows, but i can’t find her use of those images troublesome? i eagerly look forward to her next edgy, revolutionary album with osama beats and world trade center videos. yes, you can call this modern variant gowind’s law.
oh, i don’t think so. i don’t even have an ipod to listen to the musics you love so much, so i know i am as uncool as the days are short this time of year. and i don’t do the shrooms, so i guess i must just credit my naturally impaired retro judgement for my comments.
wow, so you were traveling with her when she was deciding how to approach her second album, because I was always under the impression that she told the record label to fuck off and take her scheduled studio time with Timbaland (no doubt, another Osama-loving, Hizbullah-pimping producer reppin’ I Lurve Turrurists Records) and 3-6 Mafia (SuicideBomber-lovers, natch!) with ’em? Her album wasn’t carefully calibrated to do anything– just reflected how she felt at the time–which, surprise SURPRISE was different from how she felt when she recorded her first solo album. But you would know all of that because you don’t own an ipod, right?
once again, bullshit. She may certainly be ‘noteworthy’ now among the hipster set, but they don’t come to SM to find their next fave tune. (they go to pitchfork.com) They also don’t have the slightest clue about the last 50 years of Sri Lankan history or the history of Palestinian militancy. How the fuck could she possibly ‘pimp’ images of Tigers and kaffiyehs if her target audience HAS NO FUCKING CLUE TO WHAT THEY REFER?????
you are right, you were the one on her tour bus, and you seem to be in touch with her feelings far more than i am capable of. and she had her change of heart at age 28 or whatever she was purely organically and without being influenced in any way by anything that might have happened with her first record.
i might not be the arbiter of cool, but you certainly seem to be the arbiter of clue. if you truly and sincerely believe that she is not exploiting and pimping these images to carve out a specific image for herself, well then, more power to your single minded appreciation of beats.
not that i should have to say this, but my dislike of mia’s approach does not mean a lack of sympathy for what tamils are going through in sri lanka, or a lack of interest in that conflict. i think people are capable of fierce revolutionary music without peddling porn. and i am not sure that we are going to be able to argue ourselves to an agreement here, so i will bow out at this point.
No actually I was not on her bus. But I was attempting to at least keep abreast of the subject I was arguing about when I chanced upon the news tab at SM. Ever heard of that thing? It, like, helps out when you need to kill some time. Or perhaps, specious, retrograde arguments like yours. But wait, since according to you she’s a diabolical, cunning terrorist-abettor who carefully scripted her second album to evolve in a sonic manner, she must have made it all up for the gullible western audience.
grow a set and come back.
your ability for level-headed discussion and excellent unbiased paraphrasing skills give even a ball less castrato like me a giant hard-on.
wow, you watched that whole interview in, like, 30 seconds! Bravo! And your limitless ability to produce snark on demand is beyond reproach. If only you were able to substantiate any of your ‘points.’
I’ll make a few assumptions (correct me if you bought an ipod in the last few minutes and/or suddenly attained a encyclopedic knowledge of pop music produced over the past 10 years):
you don’t know who Timbaland is, are completely ignorant of his discography or place within the music industry
you have the same amount of knowledge with regards to 3-6 Mafia.
you have the same amount of knowledge with regards to how the music industry works.
In summary, you have no way of proving that she ‘scripted’ anything, only useless conjecture and typical dravidian lurker snark.
muralimannered, i have watched that interview in the past, didn’t need you to point it out to me. it is possible that other people are aware of these things, and choose to draw different opinions from them. i have told you why i think what i think, and your rebuttals have been that (a) i am just using this as an excuse for not liking her music, (b) she is not that popular, so why the heck not? (c) her audience doesn’t understand her images any way, and (d) she said so right at a time when she was growing more popular, so we should just believe her. forgive me for not feeling the same way as the sole arbiter of all things sri lanka related.
well, not limitless enough apparently. despite your consistent tone of discussion from your first response in @34, i wasn’t able to produce an adequate amount till after a never-ending sequence of back and forth exchanges.
where is Pot, Kettle when you need it?
Perhaps you did not run through the logic locker at school. Generally an argument relying on conjecture (as your does) needs some substantiation to back up said conjecture. That would necessitate establishing that she is consciously constructing a marketing campaign predicated on images clearly necessitating more than superficial knowledge of certain subjects (to understand), that this audience is significant, that this significant audience actually does possess the knowledge mentioned earlier and that she received some sort of feedback (critical, but as you would probably aver, sales) that caused her to ‘change’ her ‘pro-LTTE’ tone (which you have yet to establish).
muralimannered, you have me convinced. i am indeed a clueless, uncool idiot who indeed unfairly summarized your arguments.
sakshi @38, great quote from annie hall. i love that movie.
lest i be accused of incompleteness, i should also acknowledge being drug-addled.
muralimannered and dravidian lurker, please stop baiting and name-calling. I think you both generally have truly interesting things to say, but this back-and-forth is going nowhere.
Murali, you like her music (as do I), DL, you don’t and that’s fine. We’re not here to play music snob.
While I hope I’m not taking a side in this childish spat (aw, kids. just kiss and make up now, mmkay?) I’m afraid her depiction of Sri Lanka is absorbed by the trust-fund-y, loft-dwelling hipsters. When she first blew up in 2004, the pitchfork/BrooklynVegan contingent would inevitably ask “you’re from Sri Lanka? Wowwww..what side are you on? Isn’t it like the Hutus and Tutsis over there? Wait, so you’re AGAINST the freedom fighters??”
These were real statements, made to my face, repeatedly. It would make me so angry I’d want to hit someone with a brick, but I still loved her music. It made for cognitive dissonance, yes, but I found it worth it, to me. I have friends who refuse to listen to her because the politics overshadowed the music completely.
She is moving away from this – her website used to have a map of SL with more than half the country shaded off for Eelam. Photos of LTTE in full striped military wear holding guns and kids, etc., now it’s a whole new website that’s more a reflection of Kala with lots of her own art and photos from her video shoots and such.
I admire her new direction, as I do much about her, so I didn’t want to drag Sri Lankan politics into this review. But I did overhear conversational snippets at the show, usually one hiptard showing off to a friend or date with “Yeah, her dad’s a revolutionary in Sri lanka,” “She used to fight in this war in Sri Lanka,” “I heard her family’s really in with these freedom fighters, the Tay-mills.”
I used to wonder how image-manipulative she was when she first began talking to the press, but personally don’t find her using the war to glamorize herself. Maybe she started to, thoughtlessly. Maybe she just came out talking about what she thought she knew, without thinking too much about it, but now knows a bit more. I don’t know. But it’s pretty clear from the webcast that she’s concerned about the music and daily struggles of people we don’t hear about very often in the States, and that she wants to shove American faces into the reality of the world outside our borders. She does so by melding a bizarre melange of influences and the end product is certifiably her own, undeniably fresh.
Again, if you don’t like her music, that’s fine. But a discussion about her, at this point, has got to move past her once-held views on Sri Lanka.