Tonight: Bat for Lashes and Other Lives at The Parish Room

Bat For Lashes is the craftsmanship of British singer/songwriter Natasha Khan, who stretches far away from musicians who just pick up an instrument and decide to roll with it. Khan is devoted to her work, completely emerging herself into a visual wonderland when its time to write songs. For her latest album, For Suns, she went so far as to adopt the role of her desert-born (and very blonde) alter ego, Pearl, in order to gain a better understanding of the character. The experiment served as a great excuse to wear garish feminine makeup, and the result was a complete album full of lush tribal sounds.

She's been compared to Bjork and Kate Bush which, granted, are great musical company to be in. But there's something very different about Bat for Lashes. She remains autonomous in an age of imitation. Radiohead and MIA have reportedly sung her praises, and her Wiki page even suggests that Ringo Starr is a fan. But this girl's not all talk. Khan managed to wrangle psychedelic experimentalists Yeasayer to provide bass and beat programming on her latest album. The legendary Scott Walker also performs a duet with Natasha for the album closer "The Big Sleep".

Having spent parts of her childhood in Pakistan, Khan now lives in England. She studied music and visual arts and produced multi-media work centered on sound installations, animations and performance. Her background is likely a key ingredient in what makes her music so timeless and whimsical. Harpsichord and autoharp adds an experimental flare, creating the vision of walking through a dream.

Bat for Lashes will perform at the Parish Room tonight and is sure to be a crowd-pleaser. We're pretty pleased ourselves with how BFL describes its sound: "Halloween when you're small, dreaming by the sea, pine trees, UFO's, children's choirs, broken heart, harpsichords, big marching band drum, electric guitars, strings, autoharp and dark nightime lovemaking." If you don't enjoy at least one item on that list, we don't know what's wrong with you. Other Lives will open up the night with classical prog-rock from Oklahoma. Get on out and see the show.

Bat for Lashes [myspace] [official]
Other Lives [myspace]