Check out M.I.A.’s insane performance of “Born Free” on Letterman last night complete with lots of M.I.A. doppelgangers. This is just too noisy for many listeners but I think it straddles the border of unlistenable dissonance on the right side. The insistent drums and bass along with the sloppy energy of the vocals makes it work for me.

It has this feeling of barely controlled chaos that makes it exciting. It’s rare that something this chaotic makes it’s way to network television and I think that’s a big part of what makes it interesting. Of course this makes it easy to say it’s “performance art” rather than “music.” But I don’t think it’s necessary that we make these clear lines at where one thing starts and another begins.

I don’t like embedding YouTube videos (especially when it’s copyright stuff like this) because they get deleted so often, so I’ll just point you to the video (if it gets deleted, just search for it, someone else will probably upload it.)