New York rockers The Vandelles are very likely the coolest band to hit Airwaves this year. With their mix of sixties surf, psychedelia and a noise laden wall of sound they’ve hypnotized crowds with something that has been described as an audio…

Sometimes it takes a long time for bands to form. Childhood friendships, painstaking auditions and frustrating jam sessions until the perfect balance is found. For Yuni In Taxco, a five-piece band from Seattle, it happened very suddenly under the awe-inspiring force of…

There are all these nice krútt bands around, but evil also lurks in Reykjavík’s cutesy music scene. There are dark sinister bands out there, bands that play dark and sinister music. One of Grapevine’s favourite purveyors of evil are definitely DLX ATX,…

Sonic Iceland is the brainchild of two bloggers, Kai and Marcel from Germany and Ireland, who – being fascinated with Icelandic music ever since – decided to spend the whole month of June this year in Iceland. We conducted loads of interviews…

After a decade’s worth of editions of the Iceland Airwaves festival, the event has finally been captured for the big screen. The documentary Where’s The Snow?! directed by Bowen Staines and Gunnar B. Guðbjörnsson was shot on the spur of the moment…

“I started playing when I was six years old. I stopped playing for a while to explore some other things but I needed to come back to it. It’s pretty much what I’ve always wanted to do.”   Do you have anything…

Retro Stefson are responsible for some of the rocking-est, dancing-est, most joyous live shows this fine publication has ever had the good fortune to witness. The young gang of merrymakers has been an Airwaves staple ever since first playing the festival back…

We keep getting e-mails from folks that are upset about Bedroom Community not staging an event at this year’s Airwaves bash. We e-mailed Valgeir Sigurðsson, Ben Frost and Nico Muhly to ask them: What’s up with that?   So, why no BC…

In the big bad world of dubstep, there are followers and there are leaders. Mount Kimbie belong to the latter camp, for sure. Comprised of two guys, Dom Maker and Kai Campos, their debut album ‘Crooks and Lovers’ has been heralded as…

My Summer as a Salvation Soldier is one of Þórir Georg Jónsson’s many musical projects. Þórir first stormed the 101 Reykjavík music scene with a fetching and ultra-sad cover of Outkast’s ‘Hey Ya’ back when that song was still relatively fresh. Since…

You know Bang Gang, right? Barði Jóhannsson’s project has throughout the past decade continually contributed to Icelandic music’s reputation abroad, and greatly enriched our musical output at the same time. Barði is a renaissance man if there ever was one; when he’s…

You all know Krummi from his epic ventures with the rock band Mínus. If you don’t, go right now and read up on Mínus and their adventures. Listen to their music. Watch clips of them playing on YouTube. You will find, as…

This brainchild of the mighty Einar Örn Benediktsson and the also-mighty Curver needs no introduction. So you won’t get one. But by all means go and see the excellent show they’ve put together at Tjarnarbíó on Saturday. It will be epic-slash-massive.  …

Dan Deacon is best known for two things: a profanity laden viral video and bleep-bloopy dance music that hipsters really, really love. The Baltimore resident is actually a conservatory trained musician with a degree in electro-acoustic and computer music composition who can…

Dan Deacon is best known for two things: a profanity laden viral video and bleep-bloopy dance music that hipsters really, really love. The Baltimore resident is actually a conservatory trained musician with a degree in electro-acoustic and computer music composition who can…

Welcome to Efterkids, the brainchild of Danish super band Efterklang. The project, which out in February of this year, seeks to raise awareness around the issue of greater music education in public schools, as well as fundraise for increased access to music…

For a few depraved souls, the off-off venue Kaffistofan was the ultimate place to be on Airwaves Saturday. This venue was so underground it even failed to make the Airwaves off-venue schedule. This small white house on Hverfisgata used to serve free…

I will come right out and say it: I have been in love with the Iceland Airwaves festival ever since I was a teenager. There’s just something about it. Something in the air. I can’t really define it. I guess it’s some…

Sódóma got the musical ball rolling nicely on Airwaves Wednesday, with a strong line-up that pulled a solid crowd and provided to good times for all. Hurrah! One thing that was quite surprising about the evening was how packed the place was…

As I sit down to accept the gauntlet of tonight’s bands, I pause to consider the price of the alcohol that is being served to me. Although we have published that Cafe Amsterdam is a place to get cheap beer, 800 ISK…

Pétur og Úlfurinn started their set with a long minimal drone intro, later layered with smokey vocals. A solid song with minimum compositional effort but works perfectly. Sadly this was also the best song of their set. This bands forte is be…

Venue was an excellent start into this year’s Airwaves as its first day’s programme offered – just like the festival does on a bigger scale – a wide variety of music from folk to post-punk, sweet pop and even a fierce metal…

Funny how an artist can convince you their music is good just by the way they move to it. Premiering the festival’s (and NASA’s) lineup on Wednesday night, Eleni Tzavara of Athenian foursome Film did just that—tactfully writhing on stage, arms upraised…