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Wish We Were There
Grapevine resources were stretched too thin, and no reporter was able to document the chemistry of Mugison, Trabant and Hjálmar playing together at NASA just before the holidays. According to those in attendance, highlights included Hjálmar doing straightforward back-up for Trabant, and…
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Sturdy Bar Required
Walking into Hressó on December 21st to see a Þórir gig, it felt a bit like New Year’s Day—the party had obviously already happened, and Reykjavík! was entirely responsible. While there was a universal view that Reykjavík! were “morons”, there was disagreement…
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Atmospheric Basement
Some bands are possessed of an eerie, if not very adventurous, talent: The ability to sound almost exactly the same live as they do on record. Worm Is Green is definitely such a band. They relied completely on the atmosphere of the…
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Sex Division – Lengi Lifi Lýðveldið
Lengi Lifi Lýðveldið is a collection of pointed and remarkably accurate political and social satire hollered off-key over the lamest, blandest and most rushed post-punk ever distributed. These guys bring a whole new meaning to the words cringe worthy. They put nails…
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Ingibjörg Þorbergs – Í Sólgulu Húsi
The house songwriter Ingibjörg Þorbergs was born in eventually housed poet Kristján Hreinsson, and here they have collaborated on an album whose mere creative process seems to guarantee it instant success among the knitwear-clad “cute” generation of Icelandic musicians and artists Reykjavík…
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ÚlpaAttempted Flight By Winged Men
Úlpa’s sophomore effort is a bittersweet listen, flowing surprisingly smoothly from the tortured screams of opener Sexy Dick to the shy mumblings of the title track. It’s also a surprisingly visionary album, not because of any bold sonic experimentation, but rather for…
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Honeyboy Edwards
When I arrived at NASA, two men were already onstage. At first I didn’t think any music was being played, but as I apologised my way through a crowd full of dirty jeans and bomber jackets I realised there was an ethereal…
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White Stripes
Arriving early for the Sunday evening White Stripes show this November, one month after Iceland Airwaves, and 12 hours after a long party night, the whole world looked a 1950s hangover—the scrubby, resolute working man’s hangover in which everyone puts on a…
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Two Meanings for Viking
The idea didn’t sound promising: someone at Vífilfell Brewery—the people who make Coca-Cola, Viking Beer, Thule, even the Icelandic version of Tuborg, invited the Grapevine to fly from Reykjavík to Akureyri along with six Vikings to sample a new Christmas beer. As…
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Bubbi – Kona
Many a creative masterwork has been salvaged from the shards of a broken heart, and although Kona is by no means a work of genius, it certainly stands out as Bubbi’s best work. A musical manifestation of desperate bitterness thinly veiled behind…
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Bubbi – Ísbjarnarblús
It’s undeniable: Blues-rock revivalism has a very captivating energy when done by the right people at the right time, and Bubbi Morthens was undeniably that. A bitter, opinionated youth and visionary musician in a stagnant, short-sighted society whose creativity was grinding to…
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Helgi Björns – Yfir Esjuna
An album seemingly intended for the music collections of those who can’t be bothered to have a musical taste, Yfir Esjuna looks as perfect on the shelf of your local Hagkaup as it does on the Ikea-purchased coffee table next to your…
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Ég – Plata Ársins
The album says it will be album of the year, and the production, a blend of bedroom studio technique with Pet Sounds ambition, feels audacious enough to deserve the title. The 20 tracks on this album take time to digest. Many times…
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What Icelanders listen to when the town isn’t full of music critics.
From Radio X, 91.9 FM. Reporting the top songs of the first week of October. 01. Foo Fighters / DOA 02. Jeff Who? (isl) / The Golden Age 03. The Magic Numbers / Love Me Like You 04. Coldplay / Fix You…
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Worm is Green – Press Play
What do you like in your ambient electronica? Perhaps evocative basslines and drums with presence (similar standards, of course, as you might have for rock or pop or reggae.) Worm is Green have the groove down, and they set up the vocals…
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Iceland Airwaves
Four young concert organizers, with the help of a young ambitious airline, and a little more than a hundred local bands, have worked together in the past few years to give Iceland a reputation of rock music dynamo. All of October is…
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Jeff Who? – Death Before Disco
Is it irony to name an album that follows a music craze that dominates the music charts and uses a disco beat Death Before Disco? Like Franz Ferdinand, Jeff Who? write about relationship difficulties, though they’re a little less cutting in putting…
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Grapeivne has Bad Taste
Over three months in 2005, the Grapevine, with the help of Bad Taste Record Shop, Gallery Lobster and Fame, Bar 11, Sirkus and Thule was able to put on 36 shows featuring more than 70 local bands. To close out, we selected…
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Hermigervill – Sleepwork
There really aren’t that many clubs with good dance music in Reykjavík. One wonders where Hermigervill honed his craft. In any case, he’s got good beats and nice melodies—more raw and aggressive than Beatmakin Troopa’s (also mentioned in these reviews.) Hermigervill also…
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Franz Ferdinand Warms Up
Glasgow’s rock quartet Franz Ferdinand, responsible for imprinting the auditory canals of millions of people worldwide with their trademark disco rock sound, have come to Iceland (and the inevitable Blue Lagoon) for the first time. The Grapevine spoke to guitarist Nicolas McCarthy,…
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Cynic Guru – Iceland
Roland Hartwell is a violinist for the Icelandic symphony orchestra and the frontman of Cynic Guru. As their debut single demonstrates, Hartwell has an impressive vocal range, and a great ear for pop—he seems to blend later Beatle melodies with Depeche Mode,…
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Hjálmar is the Stuff
Thick fog is closing in on the road down to Hveragerði. The car in front of us is moving at 20 kilometres per hour, and there’s no way of passing. Three tipsy Icelanders are trying to calm me down, telling me the…
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Hoffman – Bad Seeds
A tight rock band that respects its grunge… that’s Hoffman. The drumming is as impressive as the genre demands, the vocals are hard to decipher, but often employ the pronoun “we”, which seems appropriate. Of the six tracks on the CD, the…