Bamboo Banger

Try this musical experiment just for giggles: The next time you’re hanging out with someone who is sonically conservative -- parents who yell at you to turn that crap off, your boyfriend who’s way too into jam bands, that prissy co-worker who couldn’t let her hair down if her life depended on it -- crank M.I.A.’s latest album, Kala. Watch their faces contort at the Indian-influenced chirps of “Bird Flu.” By the time they feel the booming braggadocio of “Boyz” in their chest, they’ll probably ask you to turn the CD off. And that’s just Track 3!

Sri Lankan-born, British-raised Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam doesn’t make music for everyone. She spits bewildering lyrics over out-there beats that blend British grime, Brazilian baile-funk, Baltimore club music, Trinidad soca, and Jamaican dancehall influences. Sometimes the choruses of her songs are repetitive phrases, like “na-na-na-na,” or “a-nee-nee-nee-nee.” Her voice can seem almost deliberately annoying. But once you fall in love with the quirky rapstress, there’s no turning back. And once you realize she’s actually chanting about war, poverty, and violence, you just might fall in love. Tonight she performs at Studio A, and the venue is bound to be overcrowded with booty-shakin’ hipsters. Doors open at 8:00. Tickets cost a mere $27.
Mon., Oct. 29, 8 p.m., 2007