Where is Maya Mind?

After an eventful and social morning of flag-making and trench digging in Fort Greene Park, I rode the G train back to CG$ (the cutesy moniker I bestowed upon my hood, Carroll Gardens), threw on my white jumper and some big earrings, tossed a ridiculous amount of liquor into a water bottle, topped it off with a little ice and mixer and headed right back out the door. The destination: Coney Island for Village Voice's 7th Annual Siren Festival.

My friend and I touched down on Coney Island just in time to catch the end of Lavender Diamond over on the Stillwell Avenue stage. The LA based outfit's set was highlighted with beautiful, ethereal vocals and lovely melodies but the highlight of the performance was the banter between songs. Front woman Becky Stark lectured the crowd on the use of compost toilets vs. shitting in our water and asked us to believe that matter didn't exist and that Earth was the best "planet in the world."

Everyone around us nodded in agreement when we suggested that we'd like some of whatever she was on.

Afterwards, we made a bathroom stop, loaded up on beer and fought the crowd to secure a spot for M.I.A.'s set on the main stage. Before too long, Sri Lankan songbird Maya Arulpragasam burst onto stage.

She blew through most of Arular, including "Pull Up The People", "Bucky Done Gun", "Fire Fire", "Bingo", "10 Dollar" and, as her last song, "Galang" and played the few new tracks off the upcoming album that I'm familiar with such as "XR2", "Boyz" and "Bird Flu." She completely surprised us with a cover of the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind" that I didn't even recognize until my friend pointed out the lyrics 3/4th of the way through.

She also made a lot of jokes about her highly publicized visa woes.

I'm kicking myself for not grabbing tickets to her Studio B show this Wednesday. It should be amazing. At least I can find solace in the fact that Kala is on the way (one day before my birthday!) Rumor has it that she worked with Timbaland, Diplo (of course), Blaqstarr and Switch. Can't wait to hear it!