The alter ego of multi-instrumentalist/programmer/videographer Janine Rostron, Planningtorock fuses all of Rostron's talents into a dazzling audio-visual presentation that borrows from classical music, rock, spacy imagery, and hip-hop. A classically trained violinist who began playing at age eight, Rostron moved from Bolton, Lancashire, to Berlin in the early '90s; the Planningtorock persona first surfaced in 2002, when she began performing at the city's clubs. Planningtorock's live shows blurred the boundaries between concerts and performance art, with Rostron wearing outlandish helmets and costumes and interacting with video characters. Planningtorock's debut single The Modern Lovers and the "Weimar Tour" EP arrived early the following year and showcased Rostron's unique mix of pizzicato strings, beats, and husky vocals that could change from bluesy to quirky (or vice versa) at a moment's notice. In 2004, Rostron issued the MP3 EP "Topics on a Foreign Mind" via Twisted Nerve Records, as well as EP Gefährliches Halbwissen -- which featured the underground hit "Local Foreigner" -- on her own Rostron imprint (which also released work by The Knife, The Soft Pink Truth, and Kevin Blechdom). After signing to Chicks on Speed Records, Planningtorock released the limited-edition 7" "Changes/I Wanna Bite Ya" early in 2006 and her first full-length, When It's All Over We Still Have To Clear Up, that summer. In 2010, she collaborated with The Knife and Mt. Sims on the Charles Darwin-inspired opera Tomorrow, In A Year. For her second Planningtorock album, 2011's Straight Outta Compton, Rostron moved to DFA and adopted a fuller, more ambitious sound. ~ Heather Phares, Rovi