Europe is Still Weird
Okay big surprise here. Chris Moreno has never been any where other than the U.S and Mexico. Not because he doesn't want to. But because he and his parents could never afford it.

I wanted to be one of those kids sent to to Europe every year. I wanted to save up money and go to Norway or Japan. But alas, I have been flat broke since I was born and remain flat fucking broke. STILL, I have always marveled at how fucking weird Europe is. There is a stereotype (especially about Scandanavians) that paints them as weird, post-post-modern, avante-garde, synthesizer induced druggards. Bands like Kraftwerk and Aqua don't help the argument against it either.

Over the years, I've learned to respect and even admire Europeans. I want to visit Norway-Sweden-Findland and Germany in the near future. Mainly because of their sick music scenes which offer music that is far advanced than the sandboxed noobs here in America. My favorite band is Swedish for shits sake. Of course I wanna go there!

And then I see shit like this. Shit that reminds me that no matter how much people want to act like any european city is better than an American city, it's still fucking weird. Shit that makes me feel like a justifiably apprehensive and ignorant American motherfucker. This is the Swedish version of the grammys. Fever Ray won best dance album. I fucking love Fever Ray, but this is is seriously exactly how I pictured Europe when I was nine years old. This was their acceptance speech and everyone cheered like it was the greaest thing ever! I just don't understand the way Europeans think. Sometimes I think I really don't want to. It may seem ignorant as a motherfucker thats never been there but I feel that apparently I was right all along.

Remember that episode of the Simpsons where Grandpa Abe lost his paintings to that German Eurotrash and he drove away listening to Krafwerk. I somehow envisioned watching this thirteen years later and knowing this is exactly how Europe is.



Of course not everything about Europe is fucked. This is weird. But fucking amazing. I await the day I'm in Umea and can feel both alienated and enamored with shit as weird as this continent. This song rules:


That's it for my xenophobe talk. Anyone wanna pay for my ticket to Oslo?

- Espedal or Bust