Gestir – Burtur Frá Toftunum
This Faroese melodrama doesn’t really focus on its strengths enough to create the rain-drenched mental murk it strives for, but there are slices of brilliance here, such as the c
A Basic Form of Communicating
“Music has been intertwined with my life from the age of six. Actually, I didn’t give up my soul to it until I turned nine and started playing an instrument. […]
Vulgar Display of Re-arrangements
So, Nick Cave had returned to Iceland. Again. As I entered the stadium and saw the assembly of VIPs, celebrities, socialites and one head of state for good measure, gathered [&hell
Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Iceland Airwaves is Coming Again!
Now that last year’s Airwaves hangovers have finally receded to the point that we can once more look one another in the eye, listen to modern music without retching and […
Good Intentions Fall Short
In the terminology of “the industry” (read: the entertainment industry), the phrase “to pull a spinal” is reserved for situations where, despite the producer’s best inten
Nick Cave’s Love Affair with Iceland Continues
In October 1986, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds visited Iceland. The visit has long since entered the annals of Icelandic rock n’ roll history, not for the musical performance [&hel
The Night Horny Electronica Lostto the Horny Countryside
“You know you’re at a Sveitaball when someone is vomiting outside and the show hasn’t even started yet,” a friend and veteran country boy informed me around 11:30 p.m., 30
The Ringleader Refuses to Fail
For me, You Are the Quarry, by Morrissey, is one of the best comeback albums ever. Up there with Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks. The chance to see him […]
Are You Ready to Eat Fiber!!!
The suburb of Grafarvogur was quiet the night Roger Hodgson, former leading man of Supertramp, performed at Broadway in Reykjavík. All the middle-aged men and women in southern Ic
Return to Form
Who: Mínus and Langi Seli og Skuggarnir Where: Sirkus When: August 19th 2006 Feminist philosopher Sandra Harding is perhaps best known for her critique on Western science’s clai
“We Like Country People”
Borgarfjörður Eystri is a beautiful place, a small town in the country with a population of about 140. You wouldn’t expect culture to erupt from this place. Yet Borgarfjörður
Concerts So Successful the Band Was Forgotten
Sigur Rós are an experimental rock band from Mosfellsbær, essentially a suburb of Reykjavík, who have become international critical favourites with three extremely respected alb
Nature Grabs You by the Back of the Neck
The last weekend of July, you couldn’t help but think that thanks to visionaries like Andri Snær Magnason and Sigur Rós you’d have to be a complete moron to support […
The Day the Hippies Took Over the Park
The Sigur Rós show in Miklatún was a success, of sorts. They are probably the first Icelandic band to arrange a free outdoor show that wasn’t part of an event […]
No frills reviews of the festival for homebodies
Innipúkinn is an annual music festival for the colourful characters who decide, for some odd reason, to stay in the capital while the rest of the nation scatters to various [&hell
“That’s Not Arrogance; It’s Ambition”
“I love the amount of personal space you get here, and the good company. They don’t let just anybody in here, you know.” I would hear that sentence, or at […]
Black Keys Chulahoma – The Songs of Junior Kimbrough
On the surface, it seems like an evil idea: two cutish white kids from Akron, Ohio doing a six-song EP of covers of the greatest, hardest living, relatively unknown Mississippi [&h
Telepathetics – Ambulance
Give the Telepathetics credit for two things off the bat: an amusing name, and a huge amount of creative energy – meaning they are trying very hard to be creative, […]
Bela – Hole and Corner
Like the Telepathetics above, Bela is an Icelander “discovered” by British industry people. Like the Telepathetics, Bela has excellent production. In fact, Bela sounds quite to
Guðlaugur Kristinn Óttarsson – Dense Time
We got this CD months ago, and we never put it on the stereo. It comes in a jewel case, just a piss yellow booklet on it saying the author […]
Æla – Sýnið tillitsemi, ég er frávik
Keflavík punk prima donnas Æla’s debut release is a serious sufferer of Garage Band Syndrome, an illness that manifests itself by having a lead singer that drags the rest of [&