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KOJA – KOJA
Forced yet sloppy, random yet predictable, difficult yet forgettable – it’s amazing how many times Koja can contradict their own music without really going anywhere. It’s just a bunch of badly produced guitar and drum noise occasionally punctuated by ‘symbolic’ caterwauls about…
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GUMMI JÓNS – JAML
45 minutes or so of ho-hum acoustic guitar pop fiddled out to the steady beat of a drum machine, Jaml is a pleasant enough entry into the solo archives of Gummi Jóns, guitarist for local shitbag pop outfit Sálin Hans Jóns Míns.…
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ANDREA GYLFADÓTTIR / ELLEN KRISTJÁNSDÓTTIR / HILDUR VALA / RAGNHEIÐUR GRÖNDAL / SIGRÍÐUR EYÞÓRSDÓTTIR – ÍSLENSK ÁSTARLÖG
Upon a glance at dictionary.com’s definition of the word boring, this came up: “refer(s) to what is so uninteresting as to cause mental weariness. Boring implies feelings of listlessness and discontent.” However, the condition described therein seems exhilarating and fascinating compared to…
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A Hardcore Seminar In Political Apathy
The atmosphere was strange at Grand Rokk. The New York band The Gang didn’t seem to attract a large audience. Most in attendance were there to see Æla and/or Benny Crespo’s Gang. Æla started off the night with sheer brilliance. There has…
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Thugz on Parole – Rape Time!
Although live recordings seldom do hip-hop bands justice, Thugs On Parole’s performance at Hitt Húsið may just be the single most energetic, hilarious, bracing and altogether perfect little thing ever captured on record. Three skinny white boys barely crawling out of their…
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Lára – Þögn
Foregoing unnecessary complications and abstract pretences, singer/songwriter Lára Rúnarsdóttir’s sophomore release, is at times, an honest, pretenceless portrayal of heartbreak and longing; so honest, in fact, that one is somewhat confused as to why Lára would choose to sing in English on…
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Barði Jóhannsson – Haxan
Barði Jóhannsson’s accompanying symphonic score to Danish recluse Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 surreal witchcraft documentary is very much Barði, with Bang Gang’s signature brooding melodies and dignified air, albeit taken much farther in their scale and bombast, but still retaining the cold, aloof…
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Til Hamingju Ísland! – 20 Ár í Eurovision
Maybe it’s just my odd sense of patriotism, but Iceland’s entries into the Eurovision Song Contest don’t seem to sexually violate one’s ear as badly as most of the other participants’ ‘songs’. They seem to have a fairly cheap and unpolished quality…
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The Besties – Singer
Eighties throwback girl-pop constantly on the brink of collapsing into indie gimmickry, the Besties ‘major’-label debut is made to be listened to religiously in the low-rent New York apartments that birthed the band, but has little lasting value due to the mostly…
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Darrell Scott – The Invisible Man
Shallow, pathetic and soulless country-pop without a hint of originality, the clichés run riot on this utter tripe, Darrell Scott’s sixth attempt to make music of his own as opposed to being Tim O’Brien, John Cowan or Guy Clark’s studio bitch. Maybe…
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A Hardcore Seminar In Political Apathy
Sigurður “Siggi Punk” Harðarson, activist, musician and the show’s organiser seemed hopeful, surrounded by stacks of anarchist and communist literature, including some of his own pamphlets on feminism and social reconstruction. He explained to me that all of the show’s proceeds would…
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Breaking the Chains
The seminal hardcore band I Adapt have been at the forefront of the Icelandic hardcore scene for over five years. They are about to release their third album, and have recently returned from a tour of the UK supported by the Reykavík…
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Three Days of Love and Chaos
Friday Due to wildly conflicting schedules, journalists from the Reykjavík Grapevine were only able to catch snippets of Friday’s program. What we did see is that the crowd did not show much interest early on Friday, as the first acts played to…
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Pretty Music, Ugly Spectacle
The stage set-up for Bubbi Morthens’ three-hour, live-on-TV, straight-to-DVD, 50th birthday show was beyond anything I had ever seen an Icelandic artist perform upon. There were two separate stages connected by a theatre-like catwalk and emblazoned with overpowering neon lighting, while dozens…
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Kamp Knox – A Tad 65
I fucking swear I’m going to pull a Tsar Nicholas II on these indie/lo-fi/folk motherfuckers soon. I know exactly how I’m going to do it, too: I’ll advertise an album giveaway of rarities by Neil Young, Nick Drake, Leonard Cohen and The…
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THE CHARADE – The Best is Yet to Come
Shallow, vacant Swede-indie that rather reminds one of the idiotic grin of someone who has recently inhaled far too much marijuana, or that intensely irritating person who always manages to see the bright side of anything that happens. Both of them may…
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Sigurður Flosason og Kristjana Stefánsdóttir -Hvar Er Tunglið?
In typically uncreative fashion, a bunch of classically schooled musicians have banded together to perform their jazzy takes on some modern poetry: Are you thrilled yet? Does this sound like your container of excrement? Well, guess what, you dull, tasteless snob… there’s…
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The Private Show
The atmosphere at NASA prior to the start of Coco Rosie’s set did not point towards a terribly enjoyable evening. The crowd was of the vegetarian coffeehouse variety, consisting mostly of smiling, smoke-free youths all here to see their favourite band, but…
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15 Great Minutes
It was my deep respect for Palli, guitarist from the pop band Maus, that led me to restrain a section of the audience from launching a surprisingly heavy ashtray (note to Nasa, remove heavy ashtrays when you have shit bands scheduled) at…
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Reykjavik Gets Tropical
The saxophonist for Zappa Plays Zappa provided us with one of the most surreal, and possibly precognizant, quotes in the history of the Grapevine: he asked us if Iceland was “quite tropical” like Hawaii. Maybe he was addicted to the science magazine…
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Fat Old Guy Mocks Pretty Girl
Arriving at Laugardalshöllin to see the Ian Anderson concert, I felt like this was the opening night at an oversized old folks’ home. Most of the people there had 50 or 60 years of experience listening to music, many still believed they…
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Sleater-Kinney Interview
The Riot Grrl threesome of Carrie Brownstein, Janet Weiss and Corin Tucker, collectively known as Sleater-Kinney has been touring Europe in support of the latest release, The Woods. The act will perform at club NASA in Reykjavík, on the 4th of June.…
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Harp Inspires Hyperbole
There was art in the air. Everybody was wearing woollen sweaters and scarves or hats or drapes they had ripped down to sew a gown. The first act of the evening was Slowblow, a band who personifies the word arty. Slowblow started…