Given my very public rants about the quirk, I find it completely inexplicable that this is what I've been listening to nonstop recently:
Pakistani-born Brit Natasha Khan's band Bat For Lashes makes Renaissance Faire-esque sounds for the 21st century quirkster. And I can't get enough of it.
Yes, I can see that she's wearing what appears to be Native American (Mayan?) headdress. Her backup vocalist has gold glitter facepaint. I am completely mesmerized.
Update: In case my confusion over my enjoyment wasn't clear, how about this gem below?
...more than a nod to Björk, right? Quote (from first video, around 1:25): "Horse and I, we're dancers in the dark." Say, speaking of Björk, what do you make of her quirkiness? She's banked more on the quirk than anyone on the planet, possibly, maybe... er.
Posted by: Carson | September 13, 2007 at 07:16 PM
Oh, BFL definitely draws a lot from Bjork (the "dancers in the dark" line made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it), but her vocal register is a bit lower, along slightly more Catpower-y lines. (The wailing is still very Bjorky.) Man, she and Bjork ought to do a duet. I'd probably start convulsing from the technicolor dreamcoats that they would no doubt wear.
As for Bjork and the quirk (the qjork?) -- she's definitely got the quirk in spades, but I think the fact of her Icelandicness and her ur-quirkness make her seem more like an alien than anything else. Like she was the first one to come down from the quirk spaceship.
Posted by: ht | September 14, 2007 at 01:31 PM