MIA

Pseudo-multi-part-harmonies, rapping, speak singing, dancehall toasting, dream-pop cooing and more. She's probably improved even more on this new record.

"people aren't going to give her points for using collaborators well, but rip on the dipshit side of things"

I think "people" are probably just going to rip on the album, but whatever.

If you're writing a feature, your subject's rambling answers are always going to need curtailing or embellishing, but what's inexcusable for Hirschberg is that she trimmed the quotes to fit an agenda.

tubthumping great for jello shot nite at the pub

lol

Like suzy and s1ocki say, writers (myself included) play fast and loose with the order of quotes all the time. If someone says interesting things about subject x at three different points during an hour, then I'll compress them into one punchy composite quote. The point is not to change the meaning. Hirschberg's been caught out deliberately making her subject appear crass, self-important and pretentious (or at least moreso) by rearranging volatile quotes. It already annoyed me that she was so intent on giving MIA enough rope - another writer might have interrogated what she meant by "give war a chance" rather than leave it as a pat slogan - but this shows that she was actually manufacturing her own rope, which is just low. It's obvious that MIA will say some bona fide stupid shit, certainly enough to enliven a profile, without the writer having to warp and fabricate. I think MIA's response was pretty stylish - using raw audio rather than a rant to make her point - and (by also reproducing the fries conversation) witty. If I did this to an interviewee, then I wouldn't have anything to bitch about if she called me on it.

So, like, it's supposed to make MIA look better that she said those stupid things at different points and not just all at once? I'd be more inclined to support the artist's side of things in this instance if the artist in question a) wasn't already prone to making strident, boneheaded statements and b) didn't react to the profile with a Kanye-level degree of jackassery. Give her enough rope? MIA probably has rope on her rider.

Anyway, I read the article, heard MIA's side, and read the correction, and I still don't get the fuck point she was trying to make about going to the Grammys.

It's really not that understand to get her point when you read/hear the unedited quote. She's saying that part of her goal in being a successful musician was to publicise her political concerns, not just to get rich and go to the Grammys. Simple. If you already think she's an idiot then you're not going to be interested in working out what she's saying.

What is this "predisposed" shit? I had no idea who she was before I read the article. After I read it I thought she was an idiot. After reading the corrections to the story I still think she is an idiot.

"...you're not going to be interested in working out what she's saying."

Uh, there is no "nuance" to what she's saying, there's nothing worth "working out".

"She's saying that part of her goal in being a successful musician was to publicise her political concerns..."

If she's trying to gain sympathy for those concerns (and the rights of the minority population in Sri Lanka IS a worthy cause, in my opinion) she is doing a fucking lousy job.

"If she's trying to gain sympathy for those concerns (and the rights of the minority population in Sri Lanka IS a worthy cause, in my opinion) she is doing a fucking lousy job."

I don't think sympathy is what she's going for. Attention is and I think that as far as that goes she's succeeded. Obv at least one of the people that Hirschberg quoted thinks that this attention has been entirely negative, but given the way the rest of the piece appears to be a hatchet job it's sort of hard to take that already over the top quote very seriously.

Haunted Clocks OTM

^^^ yup. i like how everybody's gotten to enjoy their little moment of schadenfreude here.

I don't think she's an idiot. I like her first two records fine. I just don't see how going to the Grammys did anything but publicize MIA and the record industry (which is the only reason the Grammys exists, generally speaking). Did she have "Free Sri Lanka" scrawled on her belly or something? Being relatively famous, she would have gotten equal press by refusing to perform.

Regardless, I'd be more sympathetic to her strategy if her political beliefs were at all coherent. I understand some things make her angry, but ... so? Get in line.

don't know if anyone's posted this yet, but *siren.gif* breaking news *siren.gif* - http://pitchfork.com/news/39014-echo-chamber-colin-meloy-vs-mia/

are we allowed to say pitchfuck?

Colin Meloy, the Tucker Carlson of shitty indie bands

1,258,647 Followers

"Somehow with this chick, all the the liberal arts educated middle-class white people expected that she would be different. That she would be content and very happy to be poor and starving. That she would decline a fancy hotel suite and truffle-flavored fries. Are you people fucking crazy? You have the gall to be disappointed that she isn't poor and miserable enough for you to wax eloquent with a straight face on Sri Lankan politics with your buddies and use her as an example of how fucked up the whole situation is."

hmmm...

fwiw the first GIS result for truffle fry is MIA...but the second is Lenny Kravitz!

The Gawker comment Spinspin Sugah quoted from is good good stuff.

""Somehow with this chick, all the the liberal arts educated middle-class white people expected that she would be different. That she would be content and very happy to be poor and starving. That she would decline a fancy hotel suite and truffle-flavored fries. Are you people fucking crazy? You have the gall to be disappointed that she isn't poor and miserable enough for you to wax eloquent with a straight face on Sri Lankan politics with your buddies and use her as an example of how fucked up the whole situation is.""

MIA is just unused to posh varieties of french fries, being an outsider and everything, so she wanted to taste as many different new kinds as she could.

I have never had truffle fries and would totally try them if they were offered.

anyway

i never knew they even existed and now want to have some more than ever.

MIA should advertise them.

right, nothing about the truffle fries episode actually disproves hirschberg's point though, right? either in specifically retelling that anecdote or the more general one. specifically it's not that lefty-liberal political activists can't eat poncy foods, it's her lack of self-awareness in proclaiming herself to be an "outsider" while being someone that the new york times will buy truffle fries for. lady, you're establishment. this is ok! you wanted it! own it!

the general point about mia being a div who doesn't actually have a political message at all stands regardless.

She should shill truffle fries ... for charity!

"Are you tired of regular fries whose taste is ... missing in action? Try New MIA Truffle Fries! They've got a taste that's downright RADICAL!!!"

it's her lack of self-awareness in proclaiming herself to be an "outsider" while being someone that the new york times will buy truffle fries for

You are of course aware that this doesn't matter, like, at all, right?

Can someone please start a MAYA thread on which the words "truffle fries" are verboten? I tried yesterday but it didn't go through. Would be good to discuss the record rather than going around in circles.

Is the record out? Until then, it's holding period time, no?

Yeah it's too early for a thread I think, it'll just devolve right back into this again.

has it leaked? id discuss it if someone gave me a copy.

OK then, let's wait for the release/leak. I just wanted an early escape from Hirschberg hell.

But see, Hirschberg is the holding pattern! That's why she wrote it and MIA participated: to fill space and take up time leading up to the release of the record. Well, mission accomplished. People are talking. MIA should give Hirschberg points on the record, which will no doubt bow with a Billboard shattering 30,000 sold or so and change the way we think about the world, for about a week.

could see this bombing maybe. nothing that's been on it so far is anything like a 10th as engaging as her "hit". otoh her most high-profile release wrt mainstream media coverage.

30,000 sold would likely mean it's a hit these days, btw, as far as that goes.

I just wanted an early escape from Hirschberg hell.

Suggestion:

"Remove Bookmark from this Thread"

30,000 sold would likely mean it's a hit these days, btw, as far as that goes.

also, i'm guessing it might be an indie thing considering i doubt the paper planers are gonna stick around for IWASBOOOORNFREEEEE nanananananananananana

Hirschberg hell now comprises the totality of reality -- removing a bookmark will not change the constitution of the Absolute

this thread kind of a microcosm for what reading about indie bands on the internet is like in 2010

hey guys, dirty projjies covered a bob dylan song iirc

Thread still needs a link to 1000TimesYes to accomplish that in full, iirc.

xp

xp A microcosm? This thread is literally about reading about indie bands on the internet in 2010.

Nabisco weighs in, apparently:

"Maya Arulpragasam was never a politically sophisticated thinker. We knew that already. What else do we know about her?"

http://pitchfork.com/features/why-we-fight/7813-why-we-fight-4

guys here's a giant painting of Isaac Brock standing next to a boar that is in the office of the Portland mayor

http://endhits.portlandmercury.com/endhits/archives/2010/06/03/portland-mayor-now-has-a-portrait-of-isaac-brock-on-his-wall

http://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/15333104281
http://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/15333104281
http://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/15333104281
http://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/15333104281
http://twitter.com/colinmeloy/status/15333104281

Meloy is following Brooklyn Vegan, Largehearted Boy, Infinite Summer, Pitchfork, The Paris Review

i am not making this shit up

The question was never if she was a politically sophisticated thinker. The question was is she a more politically sophisticated thinker than Bono, who she takes down and implies is a less politically sophisticated thinker than she is. Which is truly begging the question.

the way ksh has elevated from one of the worst posters to one of the best posters is a magnificent feat like Dr. Dre going from the World Class Wreckin Cru to The Chronic in the span of a month

^ made my day

Read who it's coming from, then reconsider.

ksh has done cooler things than post colin meloy's twitter updates