I heart Bat For Lashes, which is half-brown. 😉 Like the blog I am currently so addicted to, I have a massive girl-crush on Natasha Khan. This is complicated, and not just because I’m straight; it means that even though I also have ole voice of the beehive on my iPod, I’m totally going to be a bitch to her, since she is also up for a Mercury Prize, and I want my Natasha to win (no, not because she’s desi, because she rules):
Kind of like how Chan Marshall is Cat Power, Natasha Kahn is Bat for Lashes, a British singer/songwriter and visual artist whose album Fur and Gold made the short list for the 2007 Mercury Prize (but will most likely lose to Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black). Kahn is beginning to make waves on this side of the pond. She’s touring the U.S. right now with her all-girl live show lineup. [Jezebel]
The line about squash in her bio keeps summoning “The Royal Tenenbaums” to my memory, I’m random like that:
Bat for Lashes is the stage name of Natasha Khan (born 25 October 1979), a Brighton-based songwriter.
Born to a Pakistani father, part of the eminent family of squash-playing Khans, and an English mother, her early childhood was spent travelling the world following her father who trained the Pakistani squash team, summers in Pakistan, and the rest of the time in Hertfordshire[1][2]. She had a strict religious upbringing until her parents separated, when she was eleven years old. [viki]
Her next four Amreekan shows are in Chicago, Minneapolis, SF and LA. Sigh. Why couldn’t she come to Hollywood for ugly people? Oh, and FYI, she is SO not a creepy Lily Allen. That is like, sooo mean.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go cry, which is what I always do after watching this video, but only because it reminds me of my beloved BMX, which got stolen when I was seven. That and those stuffed animal heads haunt my nightmares.
::
Updated for fsowalla:
wow anna! thanks for sharing! i dig, i dig. what’s your favorite song of theirs?
I love “The Wizard” and obviously, “What’s a Girl to Do?” but I’m smitten with her cover of a certain Springsteen song I sang along to cluelessly, when I was 10. She’s brilliant. Love, love, love her voice, the way I love Lush, Cocteau Twins et al. If she gets rotated more heavily, I might have to ditch my sundresses and dig up my old goth stuff. Suh-woooon.
Glad you liked. 🙂
that wuz kool. i endorse half-brown khanz 😉
well cool, the video is well good. “sad eyes” is a Tune!!
Born to a Pakistani father, part of the eminent family of squash-playing Khans,
The Khans are the first family of squash, and they are royalty in Pakistan, for that matter any place in the world.
It is a family that has produced multi-generational world champions.
I LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE! and the video is FANTASMIC! simple and different..it reminds me of Donnie Darko: w/ the stuffed animal heads!
Not surprising, the scythians excelled at racket sports except for badminton which was the exclusive domain of the lemurian indigenes of the subcontinent.
I like Ms. Khan’s music and hope she wins. Amy Winehouse scares the crap out of me with her tats and belligerent boozehound demeanor
Great music!
I don’t know why, but Natasha Khan kind of reminds me of Hope Sandoval, the lead singer Mazzy Star.
Maybe its the whole “dreamy” bit, coupled with here demeanor?
Did you really just channel Voice of the Beehive? As in:
I saw a girl one day, she had these long, tight legs.
She said I get it every night and he calls me every day.
He leaves me black and blue.
He’ll rip your heart in two.
He’ll wake up in the morning and say “who the f— are you?”
Excellent.
Makes me want to see Donnie Darko again. More videos from director Dougal Wilson.
I don’t get it? What’s so cool about it?
sadaiyappan – i can see your point. i really wanted to like this song/video (and not just because NK is ultra-cute) but there was something that would prevent me from liking this song enough to play it over and over again. she’s got a great voice, though, and i liked the video, and bits of the song. maybe i would like the rest of her album….
speaking of girl crushes, where is bar maid these days? i am really missing her blog, and last i tried to read it, i got a picture of a teddy bear and a revolver. i miss her!
Anna gone Goth….I have something to think about all day now! lol
She was on WNYC’s “Soundcheck” yesterday. Here’s link to audio. (Scroll down.)
siddhartha!
I haven’t seen the video yet but just that one freeze frame makes me think she’s a brown Brit Natalie Merchant wannabe. I’ll check back to confirm my suspicion…
Btw, how many of you play guess that Mutineer when you read a new post? Obviously the “I Heart ____” gave this one away but I swore the previous one about the Yo Mammma guy was going to be Abhi.
Yo.
Uh, I didn’t make a point, I asked a question which no one has answered yet. What is so special about this girl? Her video seemed stupid to me.
Duh, she’s a brown hipsterette who hasn’t given into whitey’s standards, she keeps it real, makes us proud and makes the orientalists wet and that’s why we heart her. Or something like that, right brownies?
(Watched up to 1:52 on mute, damn conference calls…)
Because it wasn’t worth answering.
Great, good for you. Why the hell would you want someone to explain it to you, if you thought it stupid? I don’t understand you– are you asking us to convince you to like her? That’s not our job. You are so strange.
ca fait longtemps! glad to see your alive.
Razib: cute 🙂 I do, too. Especially in your case.
Kush: Thanks for the info!
Louiecypher: 1) hilarious. 2) yeah, her open oozing wounds kind of freak me out, too.
Cyrus: I understand why…the voice. 🙂 The whole ethereal thing summoned Cocteau Twins for me, but I can grok Mazzy Star, too.
Fsowalla: I giddily updated the post, just for you. 🙂 Ah, 1991…I miss you. I’m THRILLED someone got the ref.
Vedauwoo: It would be “Anna returning to Gothâ€. 😉 Age 12-20.
Zen: The point was the music, not the video, believe it or not. 😉 I hope you get to take it off “muteâ€. It’s been on repeat internally for me, for days. I love this song so much.
Well I want to like her because she is desi. But it’s hard to like her when she is so stupid. And it’s not that I am asking you to convice me to like her, I want to know why other people like her. I want to know what they are seeing and understanding that I am not. They must be thinking about it differently then I am because they have a different view.
Why?
Then, don’t like her; that’s allowed, you know. Problem solved.
Well that certainly was an interesting blend of elements starting with the Phil Spector inspired intro. I can definitely picture her alongside the Cure and all the other late 80s acts I liked. Without putting too much thought into it, I’ll just call her an edgier Kate Bush, I was way off on the Natalie Merchant knee jerk reaction 🙂
And while the point was the music, I just have to say what I enjoyed best about the video was the fact that it contained so many long takes. Too many quick edits make me nauseous.
I’m not sure what airplay has been like in the rest of the country but I can’t imagine it would ever bubble up to the mainstream in the NY market which sadly only has room for the lowest common denominator.
She has a shot at the mercury prize, a lot of the artists are established (ie radio 1 friendly) bands, with the exception of the artic monkeys last year, they tend to give the prize to a artist not yet established.
It’s a weird award that still holds a slight bit of credibility. Lost a lot when M.I.A lost out.
Kate bush that’s the one!! 😉
The video reminds me of a shahrukh film song 😛
OT – I can’t decide what’s funnier, Royal Tenenbaums or the polarizing Bottle Rocket. In my opinion, one of the funniest exchanges in BR was:
Kumar: Man, I blew it. I blew it, man. Anthony: Kumar, what were you doing in the freezer? Kumar: I don’t know, man, I lose my touch, man. Dignan: Did you ever have a touch to lose, man?
Ok super cute but is it just me or when the biker animals came out suddenly from behind her am I the only one that got scared and jumped? That freaked me out!!
I’m not sure what my feelings are on Ms. Khan musically, but I actually really loved her 80s-style glam rock eye makeup in this video. She reminded me of Glimmer (from She-Ra) or Jem & the Holograms.
JOAT, the animals totally reminded me of this video, which I also find scary/creepy.
Oh, and I forgot to write, ANNA I love Springsteen, particularly circa “I’m on Fire” 🙂 According to my mom, when I was younger she and I would have arguments over what the “real songs” were because I heard most of my fave songs on Sesame Street (of course with changed lyrics, e.g. the look both ways at the crosswalk before crossing the street song).
I am surprised nobody else has mention this obvious fact:
HAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWT.
🙂
That video rocks! Watched it a few times, the long shot with the bikers is hypnotizing.
Loved it!!! That rabbit head in the video will haunt my dreams though.
Thanks, Anna. It got me dusting off some vinyl and downloading a few choons as well.
I’ve been playing this on repeat for probably too long last night. The song’s still stuck in my head.
I like BFL’s “Sarah”, too.
Hmmm, like ANNA, I absolute lurv twee and shoegazer music (am a long-time adherent of Cocteau Twins, Lush, Slowdive, Heavenly, etc.) but I actually find the song kind of boring and irritating if I keep listening to it. The other two songs on her website are equally humdrum, I think, but perhaps I just haven’t heard enough? She’s playing in SF, where I live, on Monday, so maybe I’ll go just to get a better feel for her.
Smoky, mysterious female singers always intrigue me, but they gotta have a dramatic edge also. I’ve been obsessed with Allison Goldrapp for a minute now…
Typo alert! I meant Allison Goldfrapp, of Goldfrapp.
Saw her at the Brudenell Club in Leeds earlier this year. Beautiful voice, beautiful music, a winning personality between songs – I give you the future Mrs Taj UK.
She does not look desi at all. Neither in her looks, her physique, her energy or her sensibilities. She looks more like an authentic central asian turko-mongolid khan than the millions of fake “khans” running around in south asia.
Another example of the authentic mughal look is Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the greatest singer to come out of Pakistan.
SCYTHIAN ALERT!
She is more like Bjork than anyone else. The same shamanic, dreamlike, ethereal sensibility. Like Bjork she also has the part-oriental ageless girl look. She looks half her age in that video.
Pondatti:
Lemurians to all battle stations immediately!
I stand ready with couplets from the Tirukural.
We shall hold off the Scythians with pithy advice about married life…to the bitter end!
God! That’s songs on a loop in my head. I can’t get rid of the image of the bunny clapping and riding that bike.
Make it stop! Make it stop!
🙂
I just came back from her show here in SF, and I have to say that she was amazing; others clearly knew beforehand what to expect, as it was completely sold out. It’s hard to believe that a tiny person would have such a rich voice!
thats so random, I didn’t know anyone followed Bat for Lashes in the U.S. I emailed “Natasha Khan” 2 years ago, it was unavoidable (she kept coming up on my narcissistic google searches)…and she vowed to give me backstages passes when she toured the states.
I think she sounds a little like Bjork 🙂
w00t! Melody records just called me this morning, to tell me my copy of Fur and Gold is here! 😀
I’m just pointlessly resurrecting this post to mention that I’m going to see Radiohead next week and Bat For Lashes is the supporting act! squeee