Mindless Self Indulgence

Have you ever looked at one of your favorite bands on MySpace and just happened to glance over at their amount of plays for the day and saw that it was some ridiculously high number? From there, do you ever wonder to yourself what band might have the most plays on the networking site, and just how many people listen to them? Well if you’ve ever actually taken the time to look, you may have discovered that the honor belongs to none other than Mindless Self Indulgence, the dance/industrial/shock punk band out of New York.

If you are like me, you are a little bit shocked. I expected Radiohead, or NIN or some humungous stadium band to wear the MySpace crown. But to give you an idea of what an enormous presence MSI (as they are known) has on the social networking site, on April 21st the band announced their entire new album, If, would be available for streaming. In just a single day’s time, every track on the album had received over 680,000 unique hits. To put that into perspective, a band that is considered to have a very successful presence would receive somewhere between 15,000 and 50,000 hits in a day.

When If hit the shelves later that month, it did quite well, hitting #27 on the Billboard top 200 and selling over 30,000 units in its first three weeks. Those numbers might seem surprisingly high for a band that really goes out of their way to show how “punk” they are with their stage antics and attire, but surprisingly low for a band that has well over 20 million people tuning in online. Such is the world of MSI.

“Our recent success doesn’t change anything. We did what we wanted on our terms and the world caught up



finally,” quips frontman and mastermind Jimmy Urine when asked about how the bands recent success has changed them. “If the mainstream wants to hop on the Mindless Self Indulgence Express, they can go right ahead. They just need to bring money.”

After a successful stint as the headliner on the Revolution Stage on Linkin Park’s Projekt Revolution tour, and currently as headliners around the globe, what’s next for the band that really doesn’t care what you think?

”Touring, touring and more touring.” And they are true to their word. MSI have been on their own headlining run across the US since late April, and won’t finish those dates until June 28th. Even after that grueling schedule, the band says they already have plans for another huge tour immediately to follow.



If you would like to catch a glimpse of the anomaly that is Mindless Self Indulgence they will be touring throughout June. You will be guaranteed to see lots of black and hot pink clothing, eyeliner and over-the-top stage antics. But can MSI capture the same vibe on stage as they do on their chart topping CD? Urine says not to worry about that. ”I don’t capture vibes, I capture hearts.”

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