Not only has M.I.A. gotten in her second quarrel with The New York Times of the year, but she’s dropped her second original anti-Times song, as well. Back in January, Ms. Arulpragasam made an audacious, though fair, attack on the Times’ travel section after they followed a feature news story about executions in Sri Lanka by giving her native country the top spot in a “31 Places to Go in 2010” listicle. While that spat was followed by a so-called protest song (also our first listen to her forthcoming album), the latest round between the esteemed newspaper and the singer/rapper now has a soundtrack too—though it’s presumably not a song from / \ / \ / \ Y / \ this time.

Shaky YouTube footage and TwitVid sneak peek aside, this is our first real taste of the new M.I.A. album, which is due out in June. Perhaps Diplo wasn’t entirely messing with us when he appended his claim that the new album would be “Animal Collective/gospel/giant-drum record” with this little nugget: “We did, like, a punk thing… It’s weird.”

There’s certainly some punk/acid rock in this stew (Stereogum says M.I.A. wrote the track with Suicide’s Alan Vega), as they most likely saved the “Wall of Sound, Motown kind of thing” for a different track.

MGMT and Gaga, take heed: this is what I would call pushing the envelope and challenging the mainstream. Listen to M.I.A.’s “Born Free” below (via P4K):

In light of a few cryptic details dropped by the M.I.A. camp (not to mention the timing of certain summer festival appearances), this weekend’s revelation may not be a big surprise to some. According to Rap-Up, the folks at HARD hired a blimp to fly over Jay-Z’s set at Coachella Friday night to not only advertise M.I.A.’s upcoming performances in LA/NYC, but to also announce the release date of her third album.

So when’s the big day? “New Album 6.29.10,” read the blimp’s massive digital billboard.

[Insert “Paper Planes” pun here.]

Is it just me or do all the musician pull-quotes coming out of NME’s new 10 Special Edition Covers issue make the artists sound a bit irritable? Between Jack White’s rant against the internet, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy’s take on TV talent competitions, and M.I.A.’s epic Lady Gaga diss, it sounds like they all woke up on the wrong side of the bed that morning. Either way, it’s hard to disagree with what was said (save for Jack’s generalization that the web is “in direct opposition to the art of music being treated with respect.” Easy, tiger.)

Earlier last fall, Diplo was the first to drop a few deets about M.I.A.’s forthcoming third album. His “description,” however, didn’t quite paint a clear picture: “It’s like Gucci Mane meets Animal Collective.” Hmm. Now with summer festival dates on the way, and speculation of a June/July album release brewing, Diplo has dropped a few more somewhat cryptic comments for us to obsess over.

“It’s sort of like an Animal Collective/gospel/giant-drum record,” he told MTV at SXSW last week. “And she’s singing on it. I think you might expect some rap/club music, but nothing on there. It’s more of a heavy record. All kinds of different sounds. We did, like, a punk thing. … It’s weird.”

That makes for a decently ambiguous MySpace genre tag, I suppose, but Diplo isn’t done teasing us:

Despite a few teases on Twitter, we still can’t confirm that a new M.I.A. album is due in June, but something does appear to be brewing for this summer. The Scenestar reports that M.I.A. will perform at the Cornfields of Los Angeles State Historic Park on July 17, according to a twitpic/poster/announcement from HARD, whose website also states that Ms. Arulpragasam will perform in New York City on July 24.

Details are scant regarding the latter gig, but tickets will go on sale for the LA show starting next Friday (Mar. 26) via Groove Tickets here.

In other “M.I.A. is back!” news, Pitchfork is reporting today that Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells, one of the most deservedly hyped acts around the blogosphere, IMO, have teamed up with M.I.A.’s NEET label and Mom & Pop Records to release their debut album, Treats, on May 11.

When it comes to issues involving her native Sri Lanka, the U.S. president, or confronting fashion tycoons, M.I.A. certainly does not hold her tongue or—in this case—tweets. I’m not going to get too political around here, but Ms. Arulpragasam does have a point: Only two days after running an article with the headline “Video of Sri Lankan Executions Appears Authentic, U.N. Says” on their news blog The Lede, The New York Times Travel section counted down “The 31 Places to Go in 2010.” So what “teardrop-shaped island off India’s coast” landed the number one spot? Ugh…

“FUCK NEW YORK TIMES!” M.I.A. tweeted (Kanye caps are hers). “DO YOU THINK YOU NEED TO GO HERE ON VACATION?” Her tweets are accompanied by gruesome Twitpics of dead bodies, which are presumably of victims of the country’s brutal civil war.

“HERE IS THE LUSH COASTLINE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT,” she continued, with a photo of hanged children, adding later, “GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT.”

Something tells me that M.I.A. will come through on her promise to keep LP3 “honest.”

Let’s clear out the bookmarks folder: Here are a few quick stories of note…

• First off, this is sort of big news: M.I.A. is prepping her follow-up to Kala for this summer! Speaking to Rolling Stone, she revealed two new track titles (“I Fight the Ones That Fight Me” and “I’m Down Like Your Internet Connection”), and a few other deets.
• The February issue of Vogue has a great interview with Alison Mosshart that’s chock full of possible pull quotes. Here’s my favorite one: Jack White is asked to describe the Dead Weather/Kills frontwoman in just three words. His answer? “Lady Gaga’s nightmare.” The article isn’t officially online yet, unfortch :(
• Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien spoke in a video for MIDEM recently about the story behind the band’s In Rainbows scheme, while sporting (what I’ll wishfully call) a recording sessions beard. Watch it here.
• The New York Times posted an interesting piece on Spoon in which frontman Britt Daniel sounds off on the “indie band” label and more. There’s also this funny bit:

“What’s your criteria for a good video?” Mr. Harvey asked.
Mr. [Britt] Daniel: “Is Devo in it?”
His band laughed, but Mr. Daniel seemed serious.

Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but with new albums on the way from Arcade Fire (likely), LCD Soundsystem (def.), Spoon (yup), Leonard Cohen (?), and M.I.A. next year, it’s shaping up to be an epic ‘10. The anticipation for M.I.A.’s upcoming third LP is particularly high, as it will have been three years since her last album and the post-Pineapple Express explosion of “Paper Planes” (among other feats) has brought her into another realm of notoriety.

Pedstrian.tv got Diplo, a producer on both of M.I.A.’s previous albums, on the phone recently and we have our first quote about what Ms. Arulpragasam has in store: