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How do you like AIR?
They’re veterans, AIR. They’ve been doing the album-tour-album-tour format for almost a decade now, squeezing in the occasional festival gig just to show the world that they’ve got a massive fan base . The band has been touring for its latest release,…
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Better Late Than Never
Icelandic/Swedish reggae band Hjálmar set the perfect example of how not to reward their dedicated fans. Let me explain. Hjálmar were due on stage at around midnight but didn’t show until 1:00 am. Although I’m not a longstanding fan – I’ll admit…
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Swooning With The Rapture
I wonder if the Motions Boys have been having nightmares about power. For those of us who were there for the Great Motion Boys Power Blowout of 2007, there was undoubtedly a little anxiety in the anticipation of Motion Boy’s second live…
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A Super-slow Evening
The electro duo Isan was finishing their set when I arrived at Iðnó theatre on a Tuesday evening where the Morr Music night was taking place. The British pair is signed to the Berlin-based independent music label, as were the rest of…
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Bastards of the World
When going to a concert in Reykjavík, it’s all too easy to acknowledge the eternal coolness of the Icelandic music scene and the way it pours itself over an equally cool audience. Sweaty boys in leather and jumping girls in what can…
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The Strength of Street Knowledge
As I write this, we are putting the finishing touches on the issue you are now holding before shipping it out to print. Coincidently, it is June 13, and the date marks the four-year anniversary of the Grapevine, as the first ever…
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Stephan Bodzin: Liebe ist Luna
You played in Reykjavik on Saturday June 2nd, can you tell me about that? I expected a strange night in Iceland, somehow, and it turned out to be one. I was playing an Eve Online party at Nasa, I didn’t anticipate that.…
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Peddling Death Metal to the Gore Starved Masses
The Buffalo born, Tampa raised band Cannibal Corpse has long been a staple of the Death Metal genre. Their lyrics are gore obsessed (pun intended), although not in the humorous medical book fashion employed by Carcass or, more recently, Exhumed, but in…
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Reykjavik Nights in London Preview
Live Icelandic music in the UK has long been a slightly ramshackle affair with occasional bursts of gig activity organised around festival appearances or low-key tours, such as the recent series of gigs undertaken by Benni Hemm Hemm. However, now British-based music…
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The Night the PA System Blew
As a part of the Take Me Down to Reykjavík City concert series, the Grapevine assembled a handful of upstart bands from Reykjavík to showcase at Iðnó. The historical theatre house is not typically used for shows, even though it has a…
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Orchestral Manoeuvres in London
The venue in East London known as Catch does have a catch – it’d be easier to track down one of the Jule lads in June than locate this bar, situated just outside the city’s main financial district in the fashionably scruffy…
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The Motion Boys Fear For Their Success
How did it all start? Árni: We started working together about a year ago. Biggi asked me to help arrange a song he was writing for Sigtið [an Icelandic comedy show]. He came to my studio and we wrote one song just…
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Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band – Fnykur
Only 7 years out of music school, Samúel Jón Samúelsson has already built an accomplished resume. A graduate of the prominent Tónlistarskóli FíH, the composer has done arrangements for Sigur Rós, Sálin, Reykjavík Big Band, and Trabant and has been a key…
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Morr Music: One Big Happy Family
The Berlin based independent music label, Morr Music, known for its quality electronic and dreamy indiepop releases is highly influential in the international music world. Having previously released artists such as The Notwist, Lali Puna, Styrofoam, B. Fleischmann, Phonem, Ms. John Soda;…
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Hraun – I Can’t Believe It is Not Happiness
I’m not going to tell you that the packaging of this album didn’t frighten me. That would be lying. Hraun is written in Old English font, and the album title is obviously an emotional take on the margarine company I Can’t Believe…
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Ruddinn – Ruddinn
Calling himself a ‘true Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,’ the lone Ruddinn has been writing and putting forth pop for the past 15 years. If I’m doing my math right, this guy has been around since the early 80’s. It seems that…
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Björk – Volta
Like enthusiastic parents, we’re supposed to egg Björk on. Even if she doesn’t score a goal or win first place at the science fair, we’ve still got to hand it to her just for being, well, Björk. And I acknowledge that her…
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Weight Issues and Gimmicks
I’m quietly kicking myself for not having paid attention to Celestine earlier. What tightness they might lack in the live setting, they more than make up for with their ear shattering intensity. For pure unadulterated heaviness, theirs is definitely the level for…
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Nubean Nintendo
When I hear the term “World music” I automatically think of Nick Hornby’s negative connotation. He used the word describing how lame his next door neighbour was: “Ray was into whatever world music that was trendy at that time.” But when I…
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Trassar Regroup for Another Attack
“But it’s been 14 years of silence, it’s been 14 years of pain, it’s been 14 years that are gone forever, and I’ll never have again,” sang Axl Rose on Use Your Illusion II in 1991. I am pretty sure he never…
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I Adapt – From Town to Town
Hardcore mainstays I Adapt have been quietly building steam for their next full-length album, dubbed A Chainlike Burden. The upcoming album was second on the Grapevines most awaited albums year-end list last December. While fans wait for the full-length release, I Adapt…
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t.A.T.u. – The Greatest and most Awsome Band in the World, Part 3
It’s been entirely too long since I last reported to you about t.A.T.u. – the greatest and most awesome band in the world – and as you can imagine, they’ve been busy spreading their greatness and awesome around the globe. So great…
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Severed Crotch – Soul Cremation
Severed Crotch is a five piece progressive Death Metal band out of Reykjavík. Severed Chrotch is what you get when you mix Death Metal with quantum physics and ADHD. Their debut, Soul Cremation, is a self released 5 track EP and its…