Much as I like Final Fantasy, I must confess that I never actually suspected that a lone Canadian on the stage with a violin could be one of the best shows I’ve seen all year. But my god, man. Owen Pallett is just simply enthralling, from the moment one, to moment one-hundred. He had me so transfixed that, for the duration of his set, I momentarily forgot that I was standing in the wet, subtropical ground-floor basement known as Tonic.

J remarked afterward that Owen’s voice is like that of an angel. I thought that a fitting comment, considering that, as he played, I conjured this sublime image in my head: that striking young lad, standing under the hot lights, clad in heavy armor from shoulder to shoulder, beautiful white feathered wings outspread behind him, flaming violin at his cheek.

And I’m sure all those LARPers in the audience would have agreed, too.

Owen’s got just a handful of remaining North American dates, so do what you gotta do:

6/27 Cleveland, OH – Beachland Ballroom
6/28 Columbus, OH – Little Brothers
6/29 Cincinnati, OH – Alchemize

6/30 North Manchester, IN – The Firehouse
7/1 Chicago, IL – Lakeshore Theatre

7/8 Montreal, QC – Metropolis

Seen Studio has a really nice looking new book of art/photo/collage by Black Dice and Jason Frank Rothenberg called Gore that you might want to check out, if you like that sorta thing. “Art,” I mean.

Hey, can someone call up the EFF and tell them to get a case file ready for Girl Talk? Because that dude’s about to have about 9,000 uptight label suits yelling at his ass. The guy samples everything from James Taylor to the Pixies to LCD SS to BoyzIIMenABCBBD (The East Coast Fam-i-lee). His new album, Night Ripper, ain’t a mash-up, it’s a fucking 80-car collision. And I do agree with SCTAS; Biggie over a tweaked-up “Tiny Dancer” is a thing of beauty.

::: Girl Talk – Hold Up :::
::: Girl Talk – Bounce That :::

And you thought that Gnarles Barklay dude was crazy when he did that Beatlemania album or whatever.