M.I.A. performs “Bucky Done Gun” on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” (exclamation theirs). Download the performance and let’s see who can spot the most audience members faking enthusiasm (without hitting pause):
“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”: M.I.A. (Quicktime, 12 MB, 5 mins.)
Requires a BitTorrent downloader — PC, Mac
The camera work was crappy. I got a headache from all of the rapid zooming on/off beat.
Anyone know what the hell she was saying? I put the caption on- but that didn't help a bit. Lord, that was terrible-- or is that what all the kids listen to these days?
Jimmy Kimmel Live!...The show's two boners shy of a frat-party, what a mismatch.
She's being managed by the William Morris Agency. You can see her bio on their site here:
http://www.wma.com/mia/summary/
I guess they're trying to break her into the mainstream as fast as possible. I'm a fan of her music (not the politics) and, yeah, this was terrible. The camara zooms and angles gave me a headache too, and did y'all notice that sometimes the camara guy didn't seem sure who to focus on? He gave the backup singer/dancer as much time as MIA. Kimmel referred to "they" not "her" - pretty bad, overall.
In case anyone still doubted whether she uses bombs as marketing, you can finally read her T-shirt in the publicity shot.
She is so damn sexy.
She's being managed by the William Morris Agency.
Represented by WMA, you mean. Agents handle the booking, negotiations and touring. Management handles the agent, the record label, PR, videos, financials and usually some personal BS chores.
My university firewall blocks bit-torrent... does anybody know where I can get a direct download?
In case anyone still doubted whether she uses bombs as marketing, you can finally read her T-shirt
Not to pick an old fight, but the number is hanging off the pin and so I think it's supposed to be more like those bumper-stickers that read "Don't like my driving? Call 1-800-EAT-SHIT"... The hand-grenade complaint has been around for awhile, Fred Durst (of Limp Dipshit), wore a similar shirt in response to criticism that he incited a riot at Woodstock '99.
Anyhow, I don't know that its fair to say MIA uses bombs as marketing, as that's like saying U2 used the Irish "revolution" to sell records (sure, the two are ideologically different, but my point remains valid).
Hadn't seen the hand grenade T-shirt before, silly me, I stand corrected.
I don't know that its fair to say MIA uses bombs as marketing...
It's actually literally true-- check out her album cover.
check out her album cover.
Well, I hadn't seen that before, it's pretty ugly and, I see what you're saying.
I guess I'm thinking this: Avril Lavigne rolls around in a dumpster and then jumps into a photo-shoot to market herself as being "down with the down-trodden." It's a show and not her heart&core... MIA, it seems, believes in Eelam and unfortunately, guns&bombs are part&parcel of that belief. So, I see it not so much as using bombs to market oneself but rather, marketing a belief that happens to contain bombs...
I guess it's hard to believe that anyone so adamant about the movement would say, "Yeah, cool, throw some bombs on the cover, whatever it takes to get sold." Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't know any true-believers that are that cavalier about Tamil Eelam.
In the end, however, you're right--she's being marketed as "the bomb with bombs" and if she doesn't know that, she's [insert witty, intelligent endnote]
I don't know any true-believers that are that cavalier about Tamil Eelam.
There's a loping tiger in her show graphics (see the Jimmy Kimmel clip). If you go to her Web site, click Music, and hover over the albums, you see an animated tiger head and a masked gunman. On the main page there's a gun, a tiger and a bomb. If that's not cavalier, I don't know what is.
If that's not cavalier, I don't know what is.
No, not cavalier... The "tiger" is a living concept, not a sacred icon, and gets used as such. The emblem is like kaffiyeh--how you wear it doesn't change its meaning.
(S. Patel's "Little India"--cavalier?)
Who knows what's up with MIA, is she for real, who knows... What I do know is that she's certainly making a racket with her racket, sticking by her guns (ha) and making money. Where that money goes is anyone's guess but then again, an educated guess would say it's somewhere around Jaffna.
The emblem is like kaffiyeh--how you wear it doesn't change its meaning.
Would you be in favor of Jesus bobbleheads and giant khanda stickers on chopped-and-dropped Civics then? :)
... an educated guess would say it's somewhere around Jaffna.
That's the questionable bit.
(Maybe this is not the desired direction, but....)
Sure, it's important to understand the intention and impact of musicians.
To intepret music as if it were ONLY art, as if it were in a vacuum, disconnected from politics, free of history and economic imperatives, would be misleading.
I think there might be a relatively high degree of agreement about that.
But, then to say that MIA uses bombs as marketing, to a great extent, implies an equivalence with the necessity of empires to advertise their military might.
But, I think these are two completely different phenomena.
The American empire advertises its military might and in the process kills people. MIA, meanwhile, has no significant political power and as such does not cause any destruction (or for the deconstructionists, does not cause anywhere near the level of destruction wrought by the American military) by advertising bombs.
And...
The music wasn't bad, but the video was terrible!
Clement
The camerawork was fantastic!! Fuck anyone who thinks otherwise.
