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TENDERFOOT: Without Gravity
Tender Steps Towards Grace I must admit that I approached Tenderfoot’s debut with some caution even if the word on the street was mostly favourable. The first couple of songs I had heard before and the cover art made me wonder if…
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FROM HANGIKJÖT AND DRY FISH TO COWBOY HATS AND HORSES
“It’s kind of alternative, electro-pop music but with a lot of noise,” say the members of Danish band epo-555. “Powersolo, on the other hand, are nothing like us when it comes to music. They’re rock and roll all the way.” Both bands…
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Jagúar: Hello somebody
Album of the Month (not necessarily this month) The Funkin’ Champs Although Jagúar missed out on Album of the Year at the Icelandic music awards, the band still got the vote for Performer of the year after opening for James Brown and…
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DURAN DURAN Rumoured Preparing for Iceland Visit: Wham fans fear for life
Although analysts are still unclear as to when the conflict officially started, most agree that the fighting between fans of Duran Duran and Wham reached a period of escalated tension in the mid-80s. Friends, co-workers and sometimes even members of the same…
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5th Column Takes Moscow
The rock-band “5ta herdeildin” (The 5th Column) has just returned home after marching on Moscow. Internet sites that deal with Icelandic rock usually describe 5ta herdeildin as a folk band that performs melodies based on Icelandic and foreign folk tunes. But Gísli…
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TEABAGS & TUNES
In fact, some of the lyrics to her songs date back to her childhood in Denmark, when at the age of eight or nine, Sigríður started writing rhymes as gifts for her family. In 1949 she came to Iceland to work as…
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HURTING MY DICK: A Review of the Rolling Stones
Charlie’s Good Tonight Charlie is brilliant and right on the button as usual. Track one on CD2 is the hottest version of “ NEIGHBOURS” I have ever heard! Now this one makes this trip worthwhile, fantastic drum work, full throttle Chuck-Berryish guitars…
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CURVER SÆR 1991-1994
He’s turned everyday things like eating hamburgers and tidying his room into a form of art, but it was through his not so everyday music that Birgir Örn Thoroddsen originally made his mark. His debut album, Haf, is very much a product…
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Don´t mention Nick Drake
It’s opener, ‘Introduction’ is a perfect example; a soft and sweet guitar/cello melody in the vein of Halifax Pier or Sackville, although I´m not sure if Doddi is familiar with either of them. The same formula is applied on ‘Forest’ but the…
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PALLI and KALLI: Do they care?
At the bottom with Páll Rósinkrans With the hunt for a new Idol already underway, it won’t be long until Kalli Bjarni is merely yesterday’s news. Sure, it’s a shame for him, but the record industry is a cruel business and far…
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WHITE LIGHT – WHITE HEAT
“Part of our heritage is Prussian German. Also our eyes are blue, and Prussian Blue is just a really pretty color. There is also the discussion of the lack of “Prussian Blue” coloring (Zyklon B residue) in the so-called gas chambers in…
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Like a Kraftwerk Christmas Album Had There Ever Been One
Different from all of these is Jólaplata, a nice mixed bag of styles and approaches, with original songs written just for this album, some traditional Icelandic carols and modern takes on classic Christmas numbers. All this with a cover which looks like…
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Five Main Reasons Why I Hate iPods
1. It’s unfair. I spent 16 years buying over-priced CDs and searching through bad neighborhoods, and worse, yuppie neighborhoods, for records. Now a 12-year old can get a similar collection by plugging a cord into a computer. 2. 8-hour albums. Through convention,…
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albums
Zonet: Ólafur Haukur Símonarson: Allt í góðu. Compilation album of songs by renowned playwright, featuring KK among others and the irrepressible Heiða. Búdrýgindi: Juxtapós Skífan: Kristján Jóhannsson: Portami Via. Veteran opera singers’ first album in six years. Kristján sings in Italian and…
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THE SIMPLE BEAUTY OF TENDERFOOT
People seem not quite to have grasped it yet, as was to be seen from the poor attendance at the Tenderfoot gig at the Smekkleysa record shop last Friday (November 19th). Those who did turn up enjoyed a startling set of mellow…
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“Nick Cave is a real motherfucker”
That “almost everyone interested in music in Reykjavík is in a band at one point or another” is a well-known fact that Águst, guitar player of indie rock band Jan Mayen points out to me when I meet him for a short…
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THE ALBUM: MUGISON MUGIMAMA IS THIS MONKEYMUSIC ?
Mugison is one of Iceland’s most celebrated live musicians at the moment, and rightfully so. His live gigs at the Iceland Airwaves festival as well as the recent release party for his new full-length album have been energetic and quite simply a…
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ANTLEW AND MAXIMUM: Predecessors of Icelandic Hip-Hop
Before Hæsta Hendin, before XXX Rottweilarhundar, even before Quarashi, there was an Icelandic kid living in Sweden who heard hip-hop for the first time and inadvertently became the predecessor of them all. Having become a producer by the age of 12, Maximum…
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INDIGÓ: TOO LATE TO SHINE
You hear it sometimes: “If you squint, your friend kind of looks like Tom Cruise.” And you try it, and yes, indeed your large-nosed geeky friend can look like Tom Cruise and you shudder to think that the homely girl he’s dating…
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PORNOPOP: AND THE SLOW SONGS ABOUT DEAD CALM IN YOUR HANDS
Remember Pornopop? No? Well, don’t worry because most people had totally forgotten about the band…if they even knew about it in the first place. It’s been 7 years since it’s first album, ‘Blue’, saw the light of day and despite some great…
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COMPILATION : VARIOUS ARTISTS
On this compilation, 18 Icelandic artists come together to raise money for the young people of Balata, one of the most densely populated refugee camps in Palestine. The album starts off with a song from well respected troubadour, KK, before making a…
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HOFFMAN: BAD SEEDS
For listeners of local rock station, X-ið 9.77, the name Hoffman might ring a bell as two of the bands songs have been featured on its playlist in recent weeks. Both can be found on ‘Bad Seeds’ as well as four brand…
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ÞÓRIR: I BELIVE IN THIS
When you slip the lyrics “but your bad sense of humour and your laughter’s like a tumour to my brain,” into a song you deserve to sell a couple albums (and probably a kick to the groin too). On his debut album,…