M.I.A.

M.I.A. + “Born Free” = NSFW

Friday, April 30th, 2010 | musiX | 2 Comments

M.I.A.’s new video for “Born Free” is causing all sorts of commotion, from its message to its getting pulled (temporarily) from YouTube. The video’s allusion to genocidal atrocities throughout history is about as subtle as the collective brains of Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

And the song is no “Paper Planes,” sounding more like Suicide meets Prodigy (probably because of the generous sample from the former’s song “Ghost Rider”)—not sure how it would sound on its own, but as the backdrop to this nine-minute, Rated R short (language, fat people grinding, and fair-skinned, red-headed boys being herded and shot) “Born Free” hits the mark. Expect to hear the track on M.I.A.’s as-yet-untitled new record out June 29.

Probably not the most uplifting video for a Friday afternoon, but if you take M.I.A., NSFW, TGIF, and TDoL you can make words like “win” and “goals” and “sailing,” which are very positive.

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Hand jive

Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 | musiX | No Comments

I just saw Wu-Tang Clan live for the first time. Not a minute went by where RZA or some Wu-Wear wearer in the audience didn’t flash the Wu-Tang “W” (place thumbs together and hold it high!). I recall seeing photos of people making the same hand sign at Weezer shows. It got me to thinking about all the different ham-fisted hand salutes …

Of course, there’s the classic devil horns, which originated … well, it’s been argued by scholars of metal as to who started it. Some say it was Ronnie James Dio. Gene Simmons claims it was He who first drew devil horns as illustrated on the cover of 1977’s Love Gun album … of course, according to Gene Simmons, he also started the concept of sex with groupies. And sex in general … oh, and breathing.

But there are others. Van Halen had one—sort of a variation of the devil horns where you form a diamond by placing your pointer fingers and thumbs together and formed what I guess was a “VH.” And then there’s the lovable li’l heart sign, shown left at an M.I.A. concert. If you go to a metal show, they’ll maybe raise a clenched fist or simply flip the classic I’m-pissed-at-the-world (i.e. my parents) middle finger.

I think next time I go to a rock show I’m going to drop the “OK” sign. It just says, “Hey, nice job.” Unless you’re in Brazil or Spain, where it means “asshole” or “cuckoldry.” I think Gene Simmons invented those, too.

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