M.I.A.

All Montreal All the Time

Very early this morning I bought Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary (Pinder's got the lyrics to the album) and just now bought a ticket to the Arcade Fire / Wolf Parade / Bell Orchestre concert in Vancouver, so basically all Montreal all the time. Looks like I'm at least 9 months behind Pinder this time (I must be slipping in my old age and so on) who recently attended the Wolf Parade show in an unventilated Crackton art gallery: “Each band member was already on stage setting up their own equipment. No roadies quite yet. The place was hot and crowded. I was soaked. After singing It's a Curse, Dan mentioned he was about to faint during the song. It was that hot.”

(I have a ticket to the M.I.A. concert the same day, so I'll probably be giving it away at some point, either as a prize on Urban Vancouver, or like the last time I gave away a ticket to a M.I.A. concert, which was to the cutest girl in the line for purchasing.)

A Genre- And Cultre-Spanning Iconoclast

al3x: “As the club filled up I saw exactly the audience I figured M.I.A. would draw: exceedingly multiracial and international, just fashionable enough, and easily 60% female if not more. For a genre- and culture-spanning iconoclast, M.I.A. is hitting her target demographic dead on.”

al3x seems a little disappointed in the show, not so much because it wasn't good, but because it wasn't excellent, based on the clear obsession he has with her (an obsession he and I share). M.I.A. is supposed to be playing Vancouver in November with Gwen Stefani, which I think I'll pass on. $50 bucks to see a great club act in a stadium? I'll stick with the October 7th show at the Commodore, for which I just bought a ticket, and added a listing for in Upcoming.org.

Related: my review of when M.I.A. came to Vancouver in May of this year; Pinder's review; my aggregator of references to M.I.A. in weblogs.

Sepia Mutiny on M.I.A.'s "Bucky Done Gun"
"In another bid for hip-hop authenticity, the label surrounds Maya with a swarm of backup dancers who are black."
Long Wikipedia article on M.I.A.
According to the article, she and Diplo broke up.
Win M.I.A.'s Arular on vinyl and an autographed poster
The answer is Elastica if you want to win it for me (U.S. residents need only apply).
M.I.A. custom Reebok Classics
Only 10 in the world.
Review of the M.I.A./LCD Soundsystem show in Chicago
With links to other reviews and photos.
M.I.A. did an in-studio at KEXP
The station does a good job of archiving shows, and not just live shows.
M.I.A. on KCRW Morning Becomes Eclectic
Audio and video!

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