My Fantasies Realized

Well, last night I saw Final Fantasy and Bobby Sandal in Brussels. The venue was upstairs at the Ancienne Belgique (in a small, stuffy room that turns out to still be better than 90% of the indie rock venues in the states), but Stella was still cheap and on tap so it was all good.

If you haven’t heard of Bobby Sandal (and no, you most certainly haven’t), he’s a guy from Mechelen (a city in Belgium roughly between Brussels and Antwerp) who sings sappy, ironic alt-country songs in English. Surprisingly, his lyrics are really sophisticated for a non-native English speaker (although the music itself is just campy). He’s something like Tenacious D, but his homoeroticism is more conscious and explicit than D’s. And he’s not culturally insensitive or stupid. I don’t think he’s ever actually released an album, but everyone should check his web site and his music (WARNING: MUSIC TALKS ABOUT ORAL SEX AND DISEASED VAGINAS AND OTHER THINGS THAT ARE TOO FUN FOR THE KIDDIES).

Then Owen (who IS Final Fantasy) emerged. He messed up a lot, but it was fun, and he was using machines that I don’t understand to loop his violin (I don’t understand violins, either!). He has recently appeared in NME, so he must be good! But you’ve heard it here, too: he is good! I wish I could find a bootleg of his cover of Bloc Party’s “This Modern Love,” but I can’t. I did, however, find his cover of Joanna Newsom’s “Peach, Plum, Pear”, which is quite good. (There’s a little feedback, but it’s worth it.) Seriously, this guy will get buzz. People have been comparing him to Sufjan, Devandra, and Joanna for a while now, and the comparisons are justified.

Seriously, I have linked you to many relevant things today. How about two pop-culture articles on feminism, which are both more worthwhile than you might think? Number One is the first Maureen Dowd piece ever to impress me (if only for its writing style); and Number Two is a PopMatters piece on Liz Phair’s career as analogy for the destructive commercialization of third wave feminism.

Oh, and Halloween is a floating signifier holiday. Think about it while you’re trick-or-treating.