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Last Night, Charged Particles From A Solar Flare Penetrated Earth’s Magnetic Shield And Collided With Atoms And Molecules In Our Atmosphere. You Won’t Believe What Happens Next!
Last night was just beautiful. Luckily, our photographer friend Art Bicnick was out and about, his trusty camera en tow. Thank you, Art. Thank you, solar flare. Thank you, charged particles. Thank you, atmosphere. Thankful for Aurora Borealis? Why not show your appreciation…
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Listen: New Of Monsters And Men Tune Is Called ‘Crystals’ And Has Lots Of “Whoa-oa-ohs”
Of Monsters and Men, everyone’s favourite Icelandic band that isn’t Sigur Rós, have just dropped a brand spanking new track, Crystals, along with announcing a release date, title and tracklist for their highly anticipated sophomore effort. After a couple of listens, it feels…
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Wow, Jessica Walsh Answered Some Questions Sourced From Some Of The Fancier Parties To Iceland’s Design Community
Hi Jessica, Ms. Walsh, sorry to be emailing you out of the blue like this. And, while you’re travelling? So rude. Either way, feel free to disregard this missive if you are busy with other things. Here’s the thing: I am editor…
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God Crying Gold Tears From Heaven Alert: Aurora Borealis Photos 4 U
If you are Facebook friends with an Icelander, or someone who’s currently in Iceland, you will have been barraged by Northern Lights related posts, photos and exclamations since last night. Your like-finger is probably getting tired. It’s no wonder: last night, the…
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This New Sóley Song Is Just What You Need
The wonderful Sóley just unleashed a new song into the ether. It’s called Ævintýr (that word means “fairy tale” (but also “adventure, but she keeps saying “fairy tale” in the song so that’s probably what she means)) and it is so great, you guys. Here,…
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Icelandic Music Awards: Prins Póló Wins 2 Categories, Is Playing Our Show Tonight!
Full list of Icelandic Music Awards winners below. Prins Póló—Grapevine’s BAND OF 2014 and makers of THE SONG OF 2014—won two categories at last night’s Icelandic Music Awards; for making “Pop Album of 2014,” and with main man Svavar Pétur claiming the title of “Songwriter…
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WHOEVER KEEPS TREATING IMMIGRANTS LIKE SHIT, YOU NEED TO STOP THAT
Every now and again, we’ll get letters from immigrants to Iceland. A lot of the time, those letters will relay stories of horrible treatment those immigrants have received at the hand of unscrupulous locals. After years of receiving such missives, it has…
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BJÖRK’S FOLK MUSIC
Björk has a way of messing up our plans. We were all set with a February-feature when she surprise dropped her new album, out of the blue. And, you know, it’s a really goddamn great album. Sure, her albums usually are—even if…
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Free Music: Singapore Sling’s “Absolute Garbage”
Late last year, Singapore Sling dropped a mother of an album—after such a long wait! Yup, Iceland’s Only Rock Band™ is finally back and active. The album is called ‘Tower Of Foronicity’. No guesses as to what exactly “foronicity” means, but it…
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VIDEO PREMIERE: múm—Slow Down
For your viewing and listening pleasures, we present a brand spankin’ new video from the one and only MÚM! Set to the track Slow Down off 2013’s wonderful Smilewound LP, it features a naked drummer, an elemental woman and layers and layers…
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WHERE WERE WE? WHERE ARE WE? WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
To mark the beginning of a new year, we posed two questions to dozens of Icelanders, old and new. Representatives of every single political party, ministers, mayors and machinists alike (as per usual, the governing parties mostly ignored our queries). We asked…
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Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson Wins Golden Globe
Composer Jóhann Jóhannsson has just been awarded a Golden Globe for his score to the film Theory of Everything, royally kicking the ass of lauded contemporaries like Trent Reznor and Hans Zimmer (in your face, Trent!). Based on Jane Hawking’s memoir, Travelling to Infinity:…
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Prins Póló At Home, In Love
Prins Póló is Reykjavík’s Grapevine BAND OF 2014! He is our cover star. We flew our wonderful photographer Baldur Kristjáns to Egilsstaðir to shoot that cover. And Baldur, that guy’s so hyper, he went all crazy and shot a video of The…
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Behold! The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Third Annual Music Awards!
The following is true: We at The Reykjavík Grapevine really like music. You could say we love it. We love music. Every goddamn person involved in this publication lives and breathes music every hour of every day. Every hour. It’s true. As…
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Track Of The Year: Prins Póló’s “París Norðursins”
Our panel of experts—along with the whole of the Icelandic nation—picked “París Norðursins” as THE song of 2014. The track is a true radio monster, which resulted in the perennial left-field outsider indie kid (who has rested so comfortably on the margins…
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This Feels Relevant Now
Hi. Happy New Year. Right now, at this very moment, you could certainly argue that shit is fucked up and bullshit. For all sorts of reasons. But, it feels sort of important that we don’t. That we retain hope. That we strive…
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Aurora Over Ísafjörður
Look. Early evening, December 27, Second Day Of Christmas, the good people of Ísafjörður were momentarily torn from the comfort of their couches and boardgames and families and binge TV by the appearance of fairly strong, wholly engrossing Northern Lights dancing overhead. Just…
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A Magical Amulet: The Best Xmas Gift EVER?
Hey. If you want to give your friend or loved one an almost absurdly unique Christmas present that will make them think you’re one of those adventurous, spiritual types: your search is over. Check it out: Icelandic experimental electro-noise artist Kira Kira…
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The Encyclopaedia of Icelandic Holidays
Aðfangadagur (Ath-founga-dager) December 24, Aðfangadagur, is the day Icelanders celebrate Christmas (as opposed to December 25 in most countries). The first half of the day usually goes towards finishing off all of the last-minute preparations, making food, wrapping presents, bathing and putting…
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Who Are GANGLY And Why Are They So Great?
Earlier today, long-time Grapevine contributors Straumur premiered a song/music video by a new, apparently “local” band that calls itself GANGLY. Now, this in itself wouldn’t be that interesting (lord knows there are plenty of bands out there making songs and videos), except for the…
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Healing Hands
In the above photograph, I am accompanied by one of my favourite people in the world, Dr. Haukur S. Magnússon, my paternal grandfather and my namesake (I had to make sure not to get a doctorate degree, so folks would be able…
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Christmas: Already In Ísafjörður
According to Ísafjörður locals, the month of November was “rather tropical,” in terms of the climate, with unusually high temperatures and a notable lack of unpleasant windstorms. Indeed, the Icelandic Met Office reports the average area temperature for last month at a whopping…
