What do M.I.A, fans think of this album?

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They were the M.I.A.'s of 1991. In many ways.

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 21:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Hahahahaha, you sound like gygax!

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Friday, 25 February 2005 21:49 (twenty-one years ago)

The clips are fun if a little cheesy and plodding - I could probably get into it. I usually think of Bow Wow Wow or JJ Fad as the M.I.A.'s of the past.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 25 February 2005 21:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I can't remember if they were Swedish/Ethiopian or Swedish/Eritrean. I think Tom Ewing likes them, though.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 25 February 2005 21:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I confess to owning and liking this.

― Daniel Peterson (polkaholic), Friday, 25 February 2005 21:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Frank Kogan likes them, too, yeah?

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 25 February 2005 21:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Do any British people like them? I mean, there's Tom Ewing but he's not really "British" is he?

― adam.r.l. (nordicskilla), Friday, 25 February 2005 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Bow Wow Wow and JJ Fad did indeed do songs that one could jump rope to, which is important, but they had no connection to a war zone! (Or to reggae. Well, maybe Bow Wow Wow did, slightly. But Bow Wow Wow were the Phat Sk8trax of 1981. Or so. Unless the Waitresses were.)

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"bad bad boys" is still great! (though i'm an american)

― joseph (joseph), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh come now, it's not that hard to have connections to a war zone.

― nabiscothingy, Friday, 25 February 2005 22:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I think the whole "war zone" thing is a big red herring as far as M.I.A. is concerned. I know she cultivates it to a degree, but still, the music is all about jumping rope as you say.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:18 (twenty-one years ago)

That whole M.I.A. thread went way off the rails as far as her music and even presentation goes.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Frank Kogan likes them, too, yeah?

now there's a reliable bet. I actually wouldn't mind seeing a list of albums Chuck & Frank completely disagree on.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:28 (twenty-one years ago)

extra points if they're albums that have sold 100,000 or more copies.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:29 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, he likes Jay-Z way more than I do, Anthony. And the Beatles!

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 22:38 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah but you put The Blueprint in your P&J ballot, I think. Are there any bands, Beatles aside, where one of you is raving and the other is like GOD that is DOGSHIT?

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe some metal bands. (We used to argue about Black Sabbath a lot, but he finally came around to those guys, I think.) And I like pretentious artfuck Muzak and '70s prog-rock (and probably most free jazz) more than him sometimes, and he has way more use for African stuff and John Lee Hooker and James Brown (none of which I think are dogshit) than I do. And oh yeah, I once called him "The only rock critic on who underrates Funkadelic"! That was a good one.

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 22:46 (twenty-one years ago)

...only rock critic on EARTH...(that is)

But yeah, I totally admit it, we do seem to have a pretty good knack for convincing each other that dogshit is non-doghsit. (Or we just have really similar ears. Or nervous systems. Or whatever.)

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 22:50 (twenty-one years ago)

> Bow Wow Wow and JJ Fad [...] had no connection to a war zone!

You've never been to Oakland, have you, Chuck?

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Friday, 25 February 2005 22:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Also: Frank doesn't get Skye Sweetnam. And I totally don't get Tupac (who I'm pretty sure he's said good things about now and then.)

― chuck, Friday, 25 February 2005 23:04 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I've been listening to Skye Sweetnam all week in order to keep confusing her with Bobby Darin or someone, and she's very good, great at playing provocative but in control. Certainly better than most of what Dareen (or whoever) did in the '70s. Best song is "Hypocrite," where she cuts and pastes everything anyone's said who's called her a phony, and flaunts it. And scans just like that Darren guy's song about jr. h.s.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:20 (twenty-one years ago)

But Skye's not as good as the early Beatles. Yet. Midi, Maxi & Efti are, and there's nothing plodding about them. If you don't believe me, take it on authority of Renée Crist, who sent me a postcard once to tell me that the MME album "kicks!" But they're disco-pop jump rope, whereas M.I.A.'s art-school jump rope (which I insist is a totally valid form of jump rope, and can't really comprehend Simon R's jump-rope-from-nowhere contention, or even if it is from nowhere [if her jump rope's from nowhere, then Elvis Presley's jump rope was from way more nowhere], why that would be a reason for nonlove; but I digress).

Big disagreements with Chuck would be over anything Debbie Gibson did after her first album (he likes, I don't), the Kinks (I like far more than he does and far more than the Beatles, for that matter, who did kind of plod) (but so did the Kinks, I'll admit), the Jefferson Airplane (also better than Beatles but unloved by Chuck, and didn't plod; cooked and swung, in fact).

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Midi and Maxi were from Ethiopia, Efti was from Eritrea. Bunnyhopped way better than Bow Wow Wow or JJ Fad, both of whom were better in concept than in sound. Up there with L'Trimm.

(By the way, the new Fannypack LP is very good, and splits the difference between art-school and disco-pop jump rope.)

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:36 (twenty-one years ago)

"Bad Bad Boys" is only the third-best song on the LP. There are no bad ones.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Saturday, 26 February 2005 02:39 (twenty-one years ago)

i bought the Bad Boys 12" for a buck today because of this thread. they're kinda, really hot

― LaToya JaXoN (JasonD), Sunday, 27 February 2005 08:13 (twenty-one years ago)

Hmm I'm interested in a new fannypack album.

I quite liked the last one.

― djdee (djdee2005), Sunday, 27 February 2005 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha, I like the Kinks and (epecially) Jefferson Airplane (who I believe I've defended on this board a couple times) more than Frank thinks I do (and more than I used to) (though probably still not as much as Frank does). Also, though I definitely prefer Midi Maxi and Efti to MIA (or to Skye Sweetnam for that matter), I'm not so sure I buy Frank's disco-pop/art-school dichotomy -- weren't Midi Maxi and Efti Army of Lovers proteges, somehow? (Not that that necessarily made them more art-school, I guess. Actually, I forget what my point was.)

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:24 (twenty-one years ago)

And oh yeah, I can't remember the last time I listened to any post-debut-album Debbie Gibson (though I did definitely like it at the time it came out).

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I DO (and did) like Britney Spears's first non-LP B-side "Autumn Goodybe," though, which I remember Frank calling something like dogshit.

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

First time I heard "Autumn Goodbye" was at 3 am suffering from jet lag in a Melbourne motel near its airport. The experience was slightly bizarre but not unwelcome.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Frankenchuck tried to get me into MM&E back when it first came out. I do like some of it, but's mostly plodding. So I hope M.I.A. comparisons aren't totally apt!(PS: did MM&E ever do anymore apst that first album, some more mixes at least? The cassette bonus, "Ragga Steady Dub," is my fave, next to "Bad Bad Boys," the best)(should be on some v.a. mixes or DJ Eddyson's wheels of steel, at least)

― don, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:37 (twenty-one years ago)

> that Darren guy's song about jr. h.s. <

by the way, i am completely drawing a blank as to what frank means by this (or who dareen is), though I'm sure when it hits me I'll feel dumb that I didn't get it right away.

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

wait, or were "dareen" and "darren" and "darin" all the same people? i'm confused. did bobby darin even *make* records in the '70s? or does frank mean somebody else? (hey kids summertime blues jump up and down in your blue suede shoes see her shake her movie screen bobby dareen?)

― chuck, Sunday, 27 February 2005 17:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Bobby Darin's main talent seems to've been for biting prev. hitmaker's styles, but then adding a little mashup finesse. Like "Won't You Come Home Bill Bailey," but with some ersatz rockabilly hiccup. Or "Beyond the Sea," an Italian weeper, but in a Sinatroid, American Italiante style, worthy of Frank, unlike most of what his "followers" did. And even "Simple Song Of Freedom," BD's self-enned Tim Hardin imitation, good enough that not only did Tim cover it, but it held its own with Tim's original Most Requested (not my cup of meat, but still)(like Miles did a good cover of David Crosby's "Gueniveire," or however you spell it, based on a theme from Miles' Sketches of Spain[well Miles didn't compose that, but wht Gil arr. and Miles played]) So maybe Dareen and Darren are (Morrison-to-Top-Jimmy-type)"posthumous, hide-in-plain-sight, further B.D. regen-finesse.(Under Dr. Franken's care of course).

― don, Sunday, 27 February 2005 18:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I knew this would be Midi, Maxi and Efti before I clicked on the link.
MME have 'Ragga steady' / 'Culture of youth' / 'Bad bad boys', but MIA has '10 dollar' / 'galang' / 'uraqt'. Though 'Uraqt' needs a good remix (more like the Diplo version but less cheapskate) to do it justice so MME win for me. Plus they make me grin more.

― Affectian (Affectian), Monday, 28 February 2005 23:33 (twenty-one years ago)

djdee - I like the new Fannypack even more than the previous one. Release date March 22.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 02:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck, I'm basically being meaningless in the Darin et al. stuff, just an allusion to a dumb joke or allusion I made here that no one paid any attention to but that for some reason I don't want to "explain" and thereby ruin it for some future archaeologist who digs up the thread in the years following the cataclysm, and an allusion to the gal I'm alluding to making a song that reminded me of a song that reminds me of Junior High.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

props to this thread for "bad bad boys". great great track.

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

Chuck, there was some post-Out of the Blue Gibsonia that you thought was the best of the year for about two weeks (around the time that that Quebecois Debbie fan sent you that great "Va Te Faire Foutre, Chuck" letter in multi-colored markers).

Mark, I think you and I were two of the three people who voted for Crime Mob's "Knuck If You Buck" in Pazz & Jop. That was a great track that somehow didn't hit with critics, though it got airplay.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Bobby Darin died in 1973; divorced Sandra Dee about six years earlier. Probably why he was on my mind.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:45 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, i will never, ever understand why "knuck" didn't take with critics. that track is a slam dunk. have you heard the mashup with billy joel's "pressure"? it is... something.

midi, maxi & efti - "bad bad boys"
http://s28.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1EA56VW5KG7EI3B4H4JFBM797V

― mark p (Mark P), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, the point I was trying to make over on the Arular thread was that critics flock to what speaks to their hopes and their dreams; "Knuck" is merely a bunch of kids nattering on about how they're knuckin and buckin and ready to fight, and someone in the background is playing gorgeous chimes like a'ringin' a bell; this doesn't evoke much in the rock-critic demographic. I thought it was even better than "Galang."

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Knuck if you buck was great! That was like the anthem this year, parties weren't the same without it. Definitely better than galang!

― djdee (djdee2005), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 03:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i figured crime mob would be a big chuck eddy thing.

the two girls (princess and...[x] i forget her name) are so great.

― djdee (djdee2005), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 04:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think Chuck even heard it (there's so much music these days, and the man is inundated). But he'd have loved those chimes. They're pretty enough to be Europop. I can imagine Chopin getting behind that melody.

Not that "Knuck" was the first crunk song to use chimes - there's Sammy Sam's "Knuckle Up," and others - but it developed the melody for eight bars rather than the usual two.

― Frank Kogan (Frank Kogan), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Princess and Diamond are so crushworthy (and I'm close enough in age to be not creepy about it). Also, "Knuck If You Buck" is not properly heard unti you hear it out of passing car windows.

― Matt Chesnut, Tuesday, 1 March 2005 05:27 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah they're like 16! Maybe 17 by now.

― djdee (djdee2005), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 06:01 (twenty-one years ago)

http://profiles.myspace.com/users/11236251

you can hear the fannypack single there. I like it.

― djdee (djdee2005), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

http://img147.exs.cx/img147/8494/fannypackcopy1ap.jpg

THE REMIX!!!! Like whoa.

― djdee (djdee2005), Tuesday, 1 March 2005 08:09 (twenty-one years ago)

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