Spotlight: Rockettothesky

Concept explained here.

Rockettothesky

Jenny Hval a.k.a. Rockettothesky
Image from panorama.no

pearls roll roll in the shell at night

Simply: Norwegian one-woman band. She makes what I like to describe as fairytale music: electronica with folk undertones.

Why? People who see the world in their own special way, and who are also capable of giving voice to their view never cease to amaze me. Jenny Hval (or Rockettothesky) does it in her lyrics, in the way she sings, and in the way her songs are structured. And what I love, when you go to see her live, is that her way of speaking to the audience in between songs is just like her music: whimsical and childlike, yet somehow very grown up.

Her first album “To Sing You Apple Trees” was up-beat, with songs like “Cigars” and “Barrie For Billy Mackenzie” that guaranteed a lot of radio time. Her second album, “Medea”, is a lot darker, but I think it’s just as good as her first. If you follow the link to her Myspace page above, you can listen to “Grizzly Man”, a haunting and beautiful song that I personally think is better than any of the songs on her first album. It’s inspired by the movie of the same name, but you get to hear it all from the bear’s point of view.

Another great song from her newest album is “Call Medea”, which has some really beautiful lyrics.

I’m convinced that Rockettothesky could make it big abroad, and this is, I guess, my tiny attempt to introduce her to people outside Norway. Listen to her! She’s amazing.

Spotlight: Starbuck

Concept explained here.

Starbuck

Kara Thrace, image © Yahoo

nothing but the rain

Simply: Originally male character, made female for the 2003 reimagining of Battlestar Galactica. Kara “Starbuck” Thrace is the best shot in the fleet, in cockpit or out.

Why? I have, hands down, never seen a female character like Starbuck on TV before. She’s tough, confident in her abilities and she never backs down. In boxing, she’s an even match for any of the male pilots. But what I like most about the character is that the writers have never fallen into the trap of making her “mannish”. She is all the above, but still clearly female. I don’t mean feminine, I mean she’s a strong and powerful woman. And though she has many flaws, she’s still accepted by the crew for who she is and what she can do.

Starbuck, especially the Starbuck of the first two seasons, never fails to boost my self-esteem. The character affirms my belief that women can be just that strong, that complex; and that we aren’t the weaker sex.

She’s the strongest of many strong female characters on BSG, and she’s the main reason why I think Battlestar Galactica should be shown to teenage girls everywhere.

Spotlight: Sigur Rós

What is Spotlight, you ask? Nothing more than me fulfilling the wish described both in my first post and on my About page: writing about something I find cool and unique and different. The idea is not particularly original, but I hope I might introduce people to something new, that they’ll love. It can be a book, an author, an artist; or, like today, a band.

Sigur Rós

Lead vocalist Jónsi

ég fæ blóðnasir

Simply: An Icelandic band, formed in 1994, that plays something which might be described as alternative rock with classical elements, sung in a mix of English, Icelandic and a make-believe language, all with a fairytale topping.

Why? Featuring Sigur Rós as something unique and different is not exactly new. It’s widely established that they are just that. Still, I had the pleasure to see them live last week, and that performance is why I’m spotlighting them.

With glowing bulbs in the background, they delivered a show that fit their music perfectly: introverted, with a sense of wonder. Jónsi, the lead vocalist, hardly communicated with the audience at all, once asking politely if we could maybe clap along with them. Usually I like it more when the band has an active dialogue with the audience, but with Sigur Rós, it would have felt wrong. Instead, the lack of communication helped create a special atmosphere in and around the stage. To me it felt like we’d gone someplace else: Iceland, maybe, where, out of respect, roads and houses still aren’t built where the Underground People live.

There’s something childlike about the band, emphasised by Jónsi’s high-pitched vocals. The title to my favourite song, “Hoppípolla”, means jumping into puddles. On stage, the female band members all had colourful dresses and bows in their hair; whereas the brass band had uniforms you might see in cartoons. This contrasted the costume of the main vocalist. If he resembled anything, it was a bird. He had on an old-fashioned military uniform, but around his neck, and fastened to his earplugs, were feathers. Across one cheek he had a spray of silver powder. Even his movement was birdlike.

Using everything from a glockenspiel, to a cello-bow on the guitar, to singing into said guitar, they created that special sound of theirs. And of course it was the music, more than the costumes and the on-stage personality of the band that made this one of the best concerts I’ve been to. I started crying during one of the songs, simply because it was all so beautiful. That’s never happened to me before.

So, I guess I should end this with recommending that everyone go see Sigur Rós. I do. But be warned that you might be compelled to go out and buy all their albums. Or worse: go to Iceland to live with the elves.