Well, that was quick. A mere 73 days after basically announcing her retirement at Bonnaroo Music Festival, cult Brit/Sri Lankan M.I.A. told Entertainment Weekly that she’ll be working on a new record soon. What caused the change of heart? M.I.A.’s song “Paper Planes,” from her 2007 record Kala, has had a huge spike in popularity after being featured in the stoner flick Pineapple Express‘ trailer. Here’s what she had to say to EW:

When you performed at Bonnaroo this year, you said it was going to be your last ever show. Did you mean it?

Well, it was my last ever show. And it still is. I stopped touring after that and I didn’t want to make music again. I was quite happy to just leave it all behind. I was happy with what I had achieved. Now, with the success of “Paper Planes,” there’s pull for me to make another record. Even my mum believes in me more [laughs]. It’s a nice encouragement. But I was planning my life as a fishing woman on the outskirts of Cambodia. That’s a joke.

-Melanie Donnelly

M.I.A. - Paper Planes

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, you know it’s serious when Diddy starts complaining about something. Anyone who keeps up-to-date with Diddy’s video blogs on YouTube knows what I am talking about. On his 12th video blog, Diddy begins to complain that gas prices are too high and he can no longer fly his private jet.

Aww, Diddy! I completely sympathize with your situation. If I couldn’t fly my private jet, I would get a camera, complain and put it on YouTube too. [lol]

But in all seriousness folks, you never know; maybe gas prices will start to decrease. I mean c’mon! What isn’t possible through the power of Diddy?

Didn’t you see the Burger King commercial?

-Jacklyn Mendoza | J.FRESH

R&B singer John Legend performed If You’re Out There with the Agape Choir on August 25th at the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

The song, produced by Trevor Horn and Devo Springsteen, will appear on Legend’s forthcoming album, Evolver, which is scheduled for release on October 28th.

– Tony Z

That’s right!

You didn’t read the title wrong and no, this is not a joke.

Daddy Yankee has publicly endorsed John McCain.

Over the weekend, the presidential candidate John McCain made a campaign stop at Central High School, a dominantly Latino school located in Phoenix, Arizona. While attempting to encourage the group of students to “be involved”, McCain softly acknowledges the real reason any Latino student would stand to listen to him. He begins to introduce his “special friend”, whom he describes as an “all American success story” and list this guest’s credentials, but falls short of mentioning the house with the white picket fence and the little dog in the backyard.

Right after miserably failing to make a joke out of Yankee’s hit song “Gasolina” and the rise of gas prices, McCain introduces Daddy Yankee to a number of screaming and excited Latino high school students.

Now beside the obvious shock of Yankee endorsing John McCain, there is only one thing I find very curious about this whole video. Right as Daddy Yankee makes his greeting, he is quickly interrupted by a man in a blue collared shirt (obviously a man who works for the McCain camp). After stopping Yankee’s speech for about 20 seconds, Yankee gets back on the mic and proceeds to continue his speech. But alas, Yankee is once again interrupted by the presidential candidate himself. McCain, quickly grabs Yankee’s arm and directs him to the group of students behind him.

Yankee, always being the crowd pleaser, proceeds to greet every single one of the Latino students. Once he does finally get to speak, Yankee begins to slowly state how he chooses “him [McCain] as the best candidate”.

Now I don’t know about you, but I just find this whole scenario a bit odd. I mean, whats the deal with all the interruptions! If your going to bring out someone to endorse you, wouldn’t it be a good idea to let them TALK!

And honestly, how much did they pay Daddy Yankee for that endorsement? Or did they threaten to revoke his passport or something. I dunno, maybe it’s just me. But I don’t really picture McCain drinking a Corona and shouting CAPICU at the Domino table.

-Jacklyn Mendoza | J.FRESH

Minitek Festival Flyer

The summer is just about over. What’s one to do?

PVD on the pier is history. Ibiza is shutting down. Burning Man is kicking off, but we certainly don’t have gas money for the RV this time around. Our prodigal American DJs are returning stateside to residencies that pay them 1/4 of what they’re actually worth; to a battered economy and and a country frozen by fear-factoring Republicans.

Where can one find inspiration and creative dose of liberal relief? Minitek! That’s where!

Perfectly situated at the end of summer parties on the Hamptons and the influx of thousands of NYU students returning for the Fall semester, the first ever Minitek festival kicks off between September 12 and 14th at various venues and locales throughout New York City. Home base, where all the exhibits will be on display, is Penn Plaza. If you don’t know Penn Plaza, think Madison Square Garden and the surrounding streets

The festival organizers are on an ambitious effort to organize a celebration of elecontric arts, culture, technology and music. Innovation Pavillion is the epicenter, where the festivals installations, exhibits and vendor booths for companies the digital media and music spectrum will be contstructed.

According to the festival organizers, projects on display will “explore new technologies to create sounds and visuals, with emphasis lying on interactivity. The pavilion will be present at the day site and the original creators have been invited to present their work to you live; sometimes you will even directly or indirectly become part of the art presented.”

DJ sets will take place at various venues throughout the city. Confirmed are Richie Hawtin, Magda, Audion, Heidi, Tiefschwarz, M.A.N.D.Y. and more. Record labels will also have booths set up to promote the latest electronic beats.

For more information on installations, vendors, DJs and locations, visit MiniTekFestival.com. For tix, visit ResidentAdvisor.net.

We’re looking forward to this event and are planning to provide some coverage here. So stay up with Netmix and we’ll bring you a little slice of the Minitek Festival.

Geez, Kanye seems to have his music video cannon set to rapid fire. After releasing his Olympic-themed video just two weeks ago, he’s out with a new clip for Good Morning, which is a sweet little anime video featuring furry creatures and a hover Delorian. Good times.

-Melanie Donnelly

Kanye West - Good Morning [V]

Peter Kafka on Tech Ticker

Everyone seems to have an opinion on what ails the music industry. In this Yahoo! Finance Tech Ticker video interview, Silicon Insider managing editor, Peter Kafka proposes that labels drop supporting new music and focus on their valuable catalogs. Doing so would leave the door open to independent labels to figure out how to sell music in a digital era.

Then again, if things continue the way they are, major labels will end up getting dropped from the stock exchanges anyway, once their stock drops below a buck for a few quarters. Once that happens, they could feasibly take themselves private and go back to the way things used to be. Cultivating artists instead of churning out pop crap to see if it sticks to the wall.

On the other side, Sony Music Entertainment, the new entity born out of BMG’s desire to extract itself from the music business, may know something we don’t. Or, they may be doing exactly what Kafka thinks is going to happen, control the masters of all those hits over the last 50 + years and/or simply control the music in a convergence strategy tied to their original video content.

We’ll keep watching and waiting for the music giants to figure it all out, while the digital era continues to chip away at their profits.

Netmix Global House Podcast

We’re back with a new podcast, Global House Sessions - August 2008. All tracks are available through Beatport.com. Subscribe to the podcast to download.

Download

Track Listing:

• Rock To The Beat - Kevin Saunderson - Christian Smith & John Selway Remix
• Reynosa - Emilio Fernandez - Original Mix
• Diablo - Oliver Huntemann & Dubfire - Original Mix
• Chime - The Shapeshifters - Martin Ten Velden Remix
• Born Slippy - DJ Joe K and Beto Dias Remix
• I Begin To Wonder 2008 - Jean Claude Ades - Jerome Isma-Ae Remix
• Solid - Sweno N - Original Mix
• Space Time - Deadmau5 Vocal Mix - Mike Di Scala, Colin Airey
• Get Wild - Sharam - Steve Agnello Remix
• Deep Down feat. Shirley Davis - J Nitti - Original Mix

Dear Jona from YACHT,

Just saw your new video, Summer Song, today. Well played, sir. Anyone riffing on Tapeheads gets a gold star in my book, though your striking resemblance to Jon Heder from Napoleon Dynamite is, on occasion, distracting.

Keep up the good work.

Sincerely,
Melanie Donnelly

P.S. Please rejoin The Blow immediately, kthxbai.

YACHT - Summer Song EP

You know what I love best about the music industry, post-Radiohead’s crazy In Rainbows stunt? The surprise album release. It only makes sense that it would take off, given the rampant, months-early album leaks that plague traditional releases, and as a fan, there’s nothing quite as thrilling as flicking on your computer and reading that your favorite band is dropping a record in two days.

That said, Bloc Party’s fans must have shat a proverbial brick this week when the band announced via web chat that they’ll release their new record, Intimacy, for download tomorrow (August 21st). $10 will get you high-quality digital files delivered tomorrow, and $20 will get you tomorrow’s digital copy, plus a physical disc on October 28th.

If you’re interested in a sneak peek (er, listen), head over to NME to hear the single, “Trojan Horse,” in full.

-Melanie Donnelly

Bloc Party

I must have listened to this song 20,000 times in 2004, and you know what? It’s still great.

Xiu Xiu’s percussion master Ches Smith is about to go all new music on our asses. While manning the merch booth at each of Xiu Xiu’s upcoming tour stops, Smith will be recording sounds made by fans–bleeps, bloops, what have you–for a new project, entitled Y/OUR TOWN. Smith will incorporate each city’s audio snippets into percussion pieces written for each town, and at the end of the tour, free mp3s of those compositions will be posted on Xiu Xiu’s website for your downloading pleasure.

Want to get in on the project? Take a gander at Xiu Xiu’s remaining tour dates after the cut for your chance to contribute.

-Melanie Donnelly

Read the rest of this entry »