Billboard reports (and the show's website confirms) that M.I.A. has been added to the already-jammed roster of performers at this Sunday's Grammy Awards telecast. "Paper Planes" is, of course, nominated for Record of the Year in an uncharacteristic bit of good decision-making on the Grammy folks' part, and the news of M.I.A. getting Grammy-stage shine would be good in any circumstance.
But, uh, M.I.A. is nine months pregnant, and she reported in a MySpace blog post last year that her baby is actually due on Grammy night. This leaves a possibility that M.I.A. will give birth onstage.
We'll see what happens. One thing that's certainly likely: that this will be one talented kid. Much less attention has been lavished on the Dad-to-be Benjamin Brewer, a fantastic guitarist, singer and songwriter in his own right.
I first saw The Exit, Brewer's band, blow away a crowd of 30 at The Shelter in Detroit in the fall of 2001. The band I was in at the time was headed east and they were headed west, and we went to their show to hand out fliers for our show that was coming up a couple of weeks later. They showed up late after losing a front tire on the interstate and nearly going over the divider, quickly set up their gear, and blew every other band that played that night far out of the water with their Police/Clash inspired rave-ups.
The Exit earned a lot of respect from peers, but never the commercial success they deserved. When their second album "Home For an Island" came out on the gigantic Wind-Up records, I thought "Back to the Rebels" and its clever video would send them to the stratosphere. It didn't, but as we know the charts don't always account for taste.
