Monday 1 December 2008

Fabchannel.com is Fab!

Fabchannel.com is a Dutch company that aims to give recognition to artists that are largely unrecognised by the mainstream media. Their main outlet is the Fabchannel website that streams live and on-demand of concerts for free.

Why should you care? Well, Bawley-approved artists such as Wire, MGMT, Midnight Juggernauts, Digitalism, A Place to Bury Strangers, CSS, Of Montreal, The Presets, Spank Rock, Iron and Wine, Xavier Rudd, Patrick Wolf, Bonde Do Role, Elbow, Bloc Party, The Arcade Fire, and Okkervil River all have full sets on the site.

An endless list of indie bands is all well and good, but the real treasure in the fabchannel.com closet is footage from the 2003 to 2005 Dutch air-guitar championship finals. Gems in three years of air-footage are the 2003 battle between The Scarecrow and Funky Jordie for the best air-version of Michael Jackson’s Beat It; Barbie Rock, a semi-hot blonde chick air-riffing on a metalled up version of the Grease Mega Mix in 2004; and the progression of The Devastator from middle-aged man with long hair, black jeans and black t-shirt in 2003, to slightly more middle-aged man with longer hair, black jeans and a sports bra air-rocking out to the Foo Fighters Low in 2005.

Each year’s air-guitar concert is closed by B.O.G. Holland’s best poodle rock tribute band: Van Halen (Jump), Bon Jovi (Livin On A Prayer), Europe (The Final Countdown), Guns n’ Roses (November Rain), ... they have it all.

It is no wonder the Dutch smoke so much.

1 comment:

Nick said...

This is literally brilliant - There's loads of great stuff here - I can see this site being a big timewaster in weeks to come.

Great find and thanks for the heads up!