Breaking Artist: Bat For Lashes

Who: Brighton, England-based singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist Natasha Khan, a 27-year-old former teacher who plays haunting, atmospheric pop. Sounds Like: Khan's ethereal, moody work recalls quirky eccentrics Kate Bush and Bjork.

Three Things You Should Know:
1. Kahn regularly carries a staff and had a pet goat as a child.
2. She studied film, which she says has had a huge influence on her songwriting and performance style, but she's no snobbish cinephile: E.T., The Goonies and The Karate Kid are movies that made a big impression on her.
3. Though her aesthetic gets a bit fairy-like at times, Kahn is a rocker at heart. Proof: She covers Bruce Springsteen's "I'm On Fire" in her live shows. "I just love that song," she has said. "It's a masculine, sexy song but I felt the words and I felt where he was coming from, so I wanted to take it for myself."

Get It: Bat For Lashes' debut album Fur and Gold comes out July 31 on Caroline Records (it was released overseas in September 2006 on Parlophone). In addition to watching the awesome clip for "Prescilla" above, check out the remarkable video for "What's a Girl To Do"-- it features BMX bikes and guys in bunny heads.

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Song Stories

“Smells Like Teen Spirit”

Nirvana | 1991

"Smells Like Teen Spirit," named after a brand of deodorant marketed to girls, was Kurt Cobain's attempt to "write the ultimate pop song," he said, using the soft-loud dynamic of his favorite band, the Pixies. Cobain "had that dichotomy of punk rage and alienation," the song’s producer, Butch Vig, told Rolling Stone, "but also this vulnerable pop sensibility. In 'Teen Spirit,' a lot of that vulnerability is in the tone of his voice." Sadly, by the time of Nirvana's last U.S. tour, in late '93, Cobain was tortured by the obligation to play "Teen Spirit" every night. "There are many other songs that I have written that are as good, if not better," he claimed.

More Song Stories entries »

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