M.I.A. releases "XXXO" video.

I suppose you could describe M.I.A.'s new "XXXO" video as a "portrait"-- except it's less Michelangelo and more old-school screensaver.

UPDATE: Watch more low-tech M.I.A. videos here via her Twitter.

"XXXO" vid is below:

You can't find them on the internet and their names verge on the unpronounceable. But by using symbols in their monikers, many artists are creating a whole new underground scene

Scan the array of recent blog buzz bands and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were in the middle of a migraine. †‡†,  Gr†ll Gr†ll, â„-⊇◊⊆ℜ and GLâ"²SS †33†H all use dots, dashes and triangles in their names and on their flashy websites. Some of the genres they use might be familiar â€' they make screwed and twisted music using 90s house, crunk and goth â€' but the names look just plain weird. Whatever happened to bands called "The" something? On the Drowned in Sound forum, in the thread on "Witch House", users have joked that these bands' names are "liable to break Google" but also that they're part of "the most internet genre ever".

"Having a band name like that makes me totally unsearchable," says Rhode Island artist L, explaining that his name is pronounced "arc", "but I like how using symbols means favouring an aesthetic choice over a more practical one. I morph my voice in the music, and wear costumes that make it impossible to see who I am when I play live â€' and I enjoy the anonymity it affords me."

â„-⊇◊⊆ℜ (a name so unfathomable we struggled to get it to show up on our system) of drag band the Mater Suspiria Cult...

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 XXXO, directed by M.I.A is out now, click HERE to watch!

Illustration by Moira Dedrick via Chris Dedrick's site

Chris Dedrick, chief songwriter for late 60s/early 70s psychedelic folk-pop band the Free Design, died last Friday, August 6, after a battle with cancer, according to his site. (Via The Daily Swarm.) He was 63 years old.

Attention on actress Mia Farrow at war crimes trial

Fans' 'overwhelming demand' forces MIA to end her set early

Rapper MIA cut her set at the Big Chill festival in Herefordshire short after up to 200 people climbed on stage during her headline set.

-- Long-running Brooklyn spazz-rockers Les Savy Fav have revealed on their Twitter that Root for Ruin, their new album, will come out sooner than expected. In North America, you can buy the album on iTunes today, and the physical record will arrive "shortly thereafter".

-- Bottomless Pit, the indie band led by Silkworm veterans Tim Midgett and Andy Cohen, will release Blood Under the Bridge, their sophomore LP, August 10 via Comedy Minus One. Hear "38 Souls" here.

-- The physical edition of Kaleide, the new album from the punky, poppy British trio Sky Larkin, is coming August 9 from Wichita Recordings. The whole album is streaming right now on the band's website, where you can also buy the album in a whole range of formats.

-- The New Los Angeles Folk Festival comes to the city's Historic Monument 157 on August 7. The bill includes acoustic-guitar experimenters like Linda Perhacs, Mia Doi Todd, Ariana Delawari, L.A. Ladies Choir (featuring Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark), and Les Shelleys.

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