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Live Review: Bossanova Vincit Omnia
IDM duo Amor Vincit Omnia veered strangely acoustic during their release show Outside, snowflakes engulf woollen clothes. “Inside,” chanteuse Salóme Katrín explains, “is warm,” as she belts her final song of the night, “Inside”. Salóme Katrín is warming up for the electronica-cum-folk…
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Billy Corgan And The Pumpkins Energise Sold Out Crowd At Laugardalshöll
Smashing Pumpkins play Reykjavík 30 years late, but firing on all cylinders “I don’t wanna go to the fucking Blue Lagoon,” spits Billy Corgan, spikily. “I wanna go to the black lagoon, where all the goths go.” He breaks out into his…
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Spacestation Live Review: Nothing But Stomps And Chants
Tuning Into A Local Station Over the last couple of years, Spacestation transformed from a jingle-jangle unit with stylishly scruffy outfits to one of the coolest bands in town. Their debut album Reykjavík Syndrome, exploring the quintet’s uneasy relationship with their place…
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HAMPARAT Live Review: “A Yellow Weather Alert Experience”
On March 21, perennial rock band HAM teamed up with the synthesiser-based group Apparat Organ Quartet for a once-in-a-lifetime performance dubbed HAMPARAT. This is what it felt like. A female voice semi-whispers through the layers of white noise sounds as if it…
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Kiasmos Return To Stage
Bursting back into business Pioneering DJ duo and hometown heroes Kiasmos are officially back in business after finally taking the stage in Reykjavík on Monday, May 27. In March, they teased the end of their seven-year hiatus with the release of a…
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Airwaves Day Four: Good Music Doesn’t Care What Language You Speak
From the moment I heard of Bo Ningen, I was interested. A Japanese psychadelic acid punk four-piece? It sounded perfect! And, as I learned tonight, it is! Their sound went from heavy and sludgy to fast and twangy, and their lyrics, well, I…
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Airwaves Day Two: Contrasts Aplenty
Reykjavík is so swollen with Airwavesgoers that just walking down Laugavegur can be difficult—there are so many conversations to listen in on, so many people obviously walking in the wrong direction, so many snapping that tourist shot of those damnable two-metre-tall trolls……
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Airwaves Day One: Let’s Burn Down Reykjavík!
The first day of Airwaves has come and gone, and it was a blast. Caterpillarmen started the official festival, playing to a sober crowd of 40 people (with only a single open beer can in sight), but they still had fun with…
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Just Gimme Indie Rock, Again: Blonde Redhead Revisit Reykjavík
Blonde Redhead have an interesting connection to Reykjavík’s indie scene. Having developed an ardent local following trough the years, this visit marked the trio’s fifth concert trip to Iceland (quite a feat for a foreign band) since they first graced our stages…
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London: Good Moon Deer and M-Band Conquer A Pretentious Shoreditch Venue
Old Blue Last, in the middle of prennial London hipster-haven Shoreditch, makes for an interesting music venue. On one hand, the Vice Media operated club is small and frequently packed to the point of discomfort with the sort of folk you might…
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Floating In A Bubble
Red little spotlights moved constantly across the Húrra logo on the wall, and I could feel the relaxed vibes lingering in the air. Every seat was taken by folks enjoying pints of beer and chitchatting in the dimmed room, and everyone seemed…
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Low Roar Start Off On A High Note
What: Low Roar / Mr. Silla When: August 15, 20:30 Where: Tjarnarbíó, Tjarnargötu 12 Admission: 2,000 ISK It began with one of the best album openers I’ve heard this year. Clocking in at over nine minutes when performed live, “Breathe In” slowly…
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Grapevine Live Blog: ATP Iceland – Saturday!
It’s the end… the Bitter End! 14:00 – Media Hotel – Bob Cluness (BC) It’s 2pm and at the hotel, things are muffled and a little subdued. Last night, beer was brought back and there was a small party so several of…
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Grapevine Live Blog: ATP Iceland – Thursday!
W elcome to the Grapevine’s live blog action from ATP Iceland! Over the next three nights, we will be keeping you informed of the shenanigans, both legal and illegal, on site. So what’s been happening? 19:35 – Andrews Theater – Atli Bollason (AB): ATP…
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Colour Me Impressed – Iðnó Part Two
Belgian outfit Girls In Hawaii ran a very tight ship in the packed Iðnó, regularly engaging with the crowd and getting them to swoon from side to side. During their performance, the indie-rock band showed that they had a multifaceted and well-developed sound.…
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Kaldalón Attacked By Canadian Gay Pirates!!!
The first half of Harpa Kaldalón’s Saturday line-up felt incredibly random, as if the organizers pulled names out of a bag. I spent most of the night alternating between being deeply moved, annoyed, and confused. GUÐRIÐ HANDSDÓTTIR had a band on stage…
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They Played With Murder In Their Eyes, And Darkness In Their Souls
If a band like SVARTIDAUÐI had been booked to play at Airwaves a few years ago, they would likely have played to only a few people, with curious onlookers holding their ears and running a mile when their nasty black metal sound smashed their…
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Come Get Yr Fill: Deutsche Bar, Night One
Myrra Rós makes the kind of music that makes you want to close your eyes. Not because the band is terrible looking (they’re all cute!), but because it’s the sort of blissed out, mellow folk pop that causes people to stand, maybe sway…
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Youth Is Wasted On The Young…
It was halfway through the evening‘s music when I kept thinking of two pieces published by our paper. The first being last week’s news item on a report that Iceland’s youth was becoming “more conservative,” the other being a think piece from…
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Why Won’t You Dance?
by Arit John If I’ve learned anything about Icelanders, it’s that it takes a lot to get them to dance at a gig. I mean really dance. Not the disinterested head bobbing you see accompanying house music, but the reckless hip shaking…
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Special Live Report: How Cheek Mountain Thief Fixed It For Me
In a special live review, writer and Drowned In Sound photographer Carmel McNarmara, tells of experiencing Cheek Mountain Thief at first hand in Holland, and how Mike Lindsay ended up roping her in as a band member for the night… Who: Cheer Mountain Thief When:…
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Youth Is Wasted On The Young
The first thing that greeted my companions and I when we entered the sometime-concert venue Broadway on that fateful Tuesday night (after being dutifully frisked by the security staff, of course) was the sight of a dead-drunk 17-year-old boy vomiting furiously on the…