What's a Girl to do?
Bad names, good bands...
Bat for Lashes -What's a Girl to do? [mp3] (Fur and Gold)
When I was in primary school we had this whole assembly about not judging a book by its cover. It involved volunteers from the audience having to pick different chocolates to taste. Surprise, surprise, the one in the ugliest wrapper was the tastiest. I was obviously too busy thinking about football stickers or shiny pogs, because even too this day I seem to dismiss whole swathes of bands just because of their rubbish names.
Yet yesterday when I was, in an extreme turn of laziness, rendered unable to change the channel from MTV2's "Spanking New Music," I saw videos by three bands I would otherwise not have bothered with. Namely;
Tokyo Police Club: Could a name sound any more contrived than this? Exactly the kind of "we're so wacky" name that signals a middle-of-the-road indie band. Like Kaiser Chiefs.
The Rakes: "The" anything is just annoying. I fully assumed they'd be rubbish.
Bat for Lashes: To my mind, this could be nothing more than horrific Kate Bush loving electro with a slightly flirty edge trying to cover a lack of musical depth.
I was wrong on all three counts. To make amends, I'll big up Bat of Lashes' What's a Girl to do? and its excellent video . They claim influences like David Lynch, chamber music and Donnie Darko. For once in press-release history, these influences actually seem vaguely relevant, with a lovely harpsichord playing in the background and suitably dark lyrics and noises all over the rest of the track. The video is clearly a mish-mash of Lynch and Donnie Darko too. Natasha Khan's vocals remind me of Tracy Thorn from EBTG, which can only be a good thing. Buy some brilliant genre defying music from Brighton - just try to ignore the crappy name.
Bat for Lashes -
When I was in primary school we had this whole assembly about not judging a book by its cover. It involved volunteers from the audience having to pick different chocolates to taste. Surprise, surprise, the one in the ugliest wrapper was the tastiest. I was obviously too busy thinking about football stickers or shiny pogs, because even too this day I seem to dismiss whole swathes of bands just because of their rubbish names.
Yet yesterday when I was, in an extreme turn of laziness, rendered unable to change the channel from MTV2's "Spanking New Music," I saw videos by three bands I would otherwise not have bothered with. Namely;
Tokyo Police Club: Could a name sound any more contrived than this? Exactly the kind of "we're so wacky" name that signals a middle-of-the-road indie band. Like Kaiser Chiefs.
The Rakes: "The" anything is just annoying. I fully assumed they'd be rubbish.
Bat for Lashes: To my mind, this could be nothing more than horrific Kate Bush loving electro with a slightly flirty edge trying to cover a lack of musical depth.
I was wrong on all three counts. To make amends, I'll big up Bat of Lashes' What's a Girl to do? and its excellent video . They claim influences like David Lynch, chamber music and Donnie Darko. For once in press-release history, these influences actually seem vaguely relevant, with a lovely harpsichord playing in the background and suitably dark lyrics and noises all over the rest of the track. The video is clearly a mish-mash of Lynch and Donnie Darko too. Natasha Khan's vocals remind me of Tracy Thorn from EBTG, which can only be a good thing. Buy some brilliant genre defying music from Brighton - just try to ignore the crappy name.
posted by tox at 2:56 AM
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