XL Recordings

A collaboration between MIA and Santogold has appeared online.

Well, this is sorta unexpected. A full 10 months after Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon hit stores, Devendara Banhart releases the first proper video from the album, and it looks like it actually cost a few bucks and also stars his girlfriend, Natalie Portman. Like last year's clip for M.I.A.'s "Jimmy", the saturated aesthetic of Bollywood serves as the inspiration. 

[From Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon; out now on XL]

Tracks from the Santogold/Diplo Top Ranking mixtape continue to stream out. We had "Guns of Brooklyn" last week, and here she hooks up with kindred spirit M.I.A. and rapper Gorilla Zoe on a Radioclit-mixed track called "Get It Up".

[from Top Ranking; out now on Mad Decent]

Santogold and Diplo, together on a mixtape? It's enough to make your Day Glo all on its own. She, still rising the release of her self-titled LP, and he, making the beats that make the bodies rock, have teamed up for Top Ranking, a 35-track mixtape out now from Diplo's label Mad Decent.

It's a monster of a thing, sporting a ton of exclusive material from Santi White alongside tracks and remixes alike from Three 6 Mafia, Switch, Desmond Dekker, the Clash, and so so many others. (It's kind of like the Piracy Funds Terrorism mix Diplo made with M.I.A. back in 2004.) Perhaps you heard the slightly cheeky (but nevertheless banging) "Guns of Brooklyn" over in Forkcast the other day? The CD is available now from Turntable Lab, with an arrival scheduled at the Mad Decent webstore (and "everywhere else") soon.

Both Santogold and Diplo have a mess of tour dates coming up, including one they'll share over the weekend in New York.

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Diplo has collaborated with Santogold on a new mixtape called Top Ranking, and it includes this update of the Clash's classic "The Guns of Brixton". Santogold has often been compared to M.I.A., of course, and this collaboration will surely reinforce the notion, reminding of both the Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape and M.I.A.'s sample of the Clash's "Straight to Hell" on last year's "Paper Planes" (though Diplo had nothing to do with the latter). The production here is ace, super spacey and dubbed-out, Santogold's vocal is a natural fit for this setting, and it's obviously a great tune. Still, there's something a touch disconcerting about transposing the song, written by Paul Simonon to reflect the tensions, frustrations, and undercurrent of violence of a specific time and place, to modern-day Brooklyn. Not that the borough doesn't have more than its share of crime, police brutality, and despair, but, given Santogold's place in music right now, when you think of her name and "Brooklyn" you don't think about cops kicking in doors (unless they're wearing Converse All-Stars, maybe). (via Gorilla vs. Bear)

MP3:> Santogold [prod. by Diplo]: "Guns of Brooklyn"
[from Top Ranking; out now on Mad Decent]

Make your way to M.I.A.'s webpage, and you'll be greeted by a brightly colored, somewhat crudely constructed video titled "Real Pirates of Caribbean". The clip, prefaced by the words "Film and Clothes by M.I.A.," lackadaisically follows a young, very blonde gentleman (named Okley Leslie), clad in Day-Glo garb in tune with M.I.A.'s own signature style, without a whole lot in the way of context. Well, except this: the entire video is surrounded by giant pointy letters reading, "WEBSTORE COMING SOON."

The video's not exactly must see TV, but it is nevertheless the first thing we've heard from M.I.A. since her announcement at Bonnaroo that her set there was in fact her "last gig ever". And, though it's a little hard to tell what to make of this exactly-- other than "this is a thing that brings pain to my eyes," I suppose--  one naturally assumes this is the first glimpse of the clothing line M.I.A. is rumored to be working up presently.

There's some mention on a page dedicated specifically to Leslie about a "limited run", which, too, leads one to believe the clothing in the video may well only be around for a short while.

M.I.A.'s label, Interscope, has yet to respond to our inquiries. In the meantime, we need to look away from the computer screen for a few minutes.

NEW UPDATES ON WWW.MIAUK.COM!!!!!! ccccchhhheeeeeccccckkkkkk iiiiiiitttttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Photo by Matt Jordan

Take one nice long look at her, because this just might be the last time you see M.I.A. on stage. As noted in a New York Times report today and a Times ArtsBeat blog post from over the weekend, the Sri Lankan firebrand repeatedly told Bonnaroo-goers on Friday that they were bearing witness to her "last gig ever."

The claim comes hot on the fancy heels of M.I.A.'s recent cancellation of all her upcoming European festival dates, and just days after her claim to NYMag.com that "I feel like physically I just have to stop for a second. It's too insane."

So which is it, Maya? Dramatic license or real talk? Jay-Z/Michael Jordan/Patrick Wolf, or, uh, some guy/gal who said they'd retire and actually went through with it? We sure are gunning for the former in both cases, and history is on our side. Interscope, meanwhile, has not yet replied to a request to confirm or deny M.I.A.'s claim, and the singer, of course, has no shows currently scheduled. Have fun gardening, lady.

Onstage at Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee...

Fresh from the news that she cancelled her forthcoming UK tour, MIA called her performance at Bonnaroo her last show ever at the weekend (June 13).