M.I.A. - KALA

M.I.A. Retires

M.I.A.Cult British/Sri Lankan star M.I.A. has announced her retirement - at the age of 30. After canceling her European tour last week due to exhaustion, the hitmaker took to the stage at the Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival on Friday and told fans it was her final show.

Three times during her set at the Tennessee festival, M.I.A. said "This is my last show," adding at one point, "... and I'm glad that I'm spending it with all my hippies!"

Midway through her high-energy set, fans climbed over barriers at the front of the audience to join M.I.A. onstage, where they stayed for much of the rest of her set.

After the devotees were kicked off, M.I.A. closed her gig with hit Paper Planes and ended her performance by stating, "Thanks for coming to my last gig."

M.I.A., real name Mathangi Arulpragasam, has been a cult live act since 2004 when her first releases turned her into a controversial star.

She has put out two critically acclaimed albums, Arular and Kala - which was named Album of 2007 by both Rolling Stone and Blender. M.I.A. has been nominated for two Shortlist Music Prize honors and was on the shortlist for the 2005 Mercury Music Prize in her native Britain.

I've seen lots of bands play the last gig of a particular tour and refer to it as simply "our last show" without qualifier, seems entirely possible people are flying off the handle.

it sounds like she was joking

hell by the time sinead o'connor was 30 i think she'd already retired twice.

Ozzy Osborne has been on his final tour -- off and on -- for 15 years.

RIP big man

terrible news

http://stylebubble.typepad.com/style_bubble/images/2007/12/26/miamj1_2.jpg

looks so peaceful

services to be held tomorrow says nme.com

http://www.nydailynews.com/img/2007/06/27/gal_funeral7.jpg

Guardian and Pitchfork journalists all made it out for the funeral, at least.

http://weblog.ceicher.com/bigsuit.jpg

(xpost)

farc fuck tha world

when you're burnt out at the end of a tour and you don't want to even listen to music, it's best to chill out for a couple of weeks before announcing the end of your career? but what do i know.

http://deadcantrant.com/shared/images/photo.matthew_lesko.gif

Lame.

http://i234.photobucket.com/albums/ee196/Gotterdun59/Rob_4.jpg

^^^ rly needs to be a better 'pour one out' gif

I love how at any given club at any given time almost zero people will know the lyrics to a song with 'gunshot' SFX in it but they will know EXACTLY when the gunshots sound out. Paper Planes is a jam, really love Boyz and Jimmy

maybe she's just retiring the MIA persona, like in the Pennebaker Ziggy Stardust...

here ya go

http://misterirrelevant.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/pouringforseantaylor.jpg

I don't believe a word of it.

yeah..."taylor"? gimme a break.

gb2tamil tigers w millions of USD plx mia

i don't know that it proves or disproves anything and it could just mean she'll be the 2008 men without hats, but in re the last four years of snarking about whether she'll "make it," m.i.a. has a top 5 u.s. single as of this week.

top 5 eh? which track?

she really is our Gavin Rossdale

i mean new Gavin

"paper planes." partly attributable to being played on every "pineapple express" tv ad for the last 2 months.

she really is our Gavin Rossdale

does that make diplo gwen?

I've only bothered to listen to Kala the whole way through twice. Arula still gets the odd play, though.

you mean arugula.

kala is still my almost-4-year-old son's favorite album. his favorite songs keep changing, though. lately it's been "20 dollar" and "hussel."

best toddler ever

I can't comprehend only bothering to listen to Kala twice.

also heard paper planes on some olympic filler, maybe one of those "holy shit look at what michael phelps eats!" spots.

i don't know that it proves or disproves anything and it could just mean she'll be the 2008 men without hats, but in re the last four years of snarking about whether she'll "make it," m.i.a. has a top 5 u.s. single as of this week.

-- tipsy mothra, Thursday, 14 August 2008 15:56 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Together we made it (you see we did it niggaz!)
We made it even though we had our backs up against the wall (c'mon)
Forever we waited {ha ha!}
And they told us we were never gonna get it
But we took it on the road (to the riches) on the road (to the ghetto)
On the rooooad (and the projects to this bangin instrumental)
On the road (ride with me) on the road (we come and get it)
On the rooooad (yeah, yeah, yeah!)

Kala sounds GREAT now. I've really come around to it.

I'll give it another shot at some point.

if i want to hear anything, it's just the first three tracks and maybe the paper planes remix w/bun b

The tracks from this that I always play through no matter what:

Bamboo Banger
Hussel
$20
XR2
Paper Planes

The track I always skip:

Jimmy

i don't like 'The Turn'

I like the queasy vibe of "The Turn" but I don't always want to hear it; when I'm in the mood, though, those quavery tremolo filters on the synths shoot right through me.

The track I always skip:

Jimmy

This is the only song on the album that's any good!

"Jimmy" is a total chik song. i can tell, i'm a chik. She's smart though, she keeps the guys interested by bringing girls up on stage to dance during live performances.

a Frankie Knuckles remix that does something with the Bollywood hook would sound incredible.

Jimmy used to bother me a little, but it's really grown on me. Overall, I think this is one of the most perfect albums of the last few years.

i like paper planes and jimmy, but the rest didn't grab me so much.

she really is our Gavin Rossdale

does that make diplo gwen?

-- lex pretend, Thursday, August 14, 2008 11:03 AM (55 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

either that or Albini

Weird year for 'internet hype acts hardly anyone in the real world likes'. MIA in the US top five, Wiley and Dizzee both with massive hits in the UK, when did With Every Heartbeat come out again?

There's a four or five-year lead time on these things presumably.

ILX: so far ahead of time its parents haven't even met yet

"Jimmy" rules, but I like the original better ("Jimmy Jimmy Jimmy Aaja" by Parvati Khan, which is the exact same song without M.I.A. on it). I've yet to figure out if there are other Bollywood tracks out there that are such good catchy disco numbers. Any recommendations?

HANDS UP
GUNS OUT
REPRESENT
THE WORLD TOWN

There is so much awesome sloganeering on this album.