Shorts, Beer-guts & Blastbeats
Owing to the fact that by some freak accident of nature the promoter managed to stick to the posted schedule, I rob myself of the always enjoyable Celestine, whose Cult […]
Hard Rock At Grand Rokk
It seems hardly a month can go by without another of Reykjavík’s few suitable live venues going under, so seeing Grand Rokk getting back into the game is a thing […]
Oops.
Ratatat fucked up. Well, it wasn’t their fault entirely. There were other fuck-ups involved. And maybe theirs wasn’t even the biggest fuck-up. But somebody fucked up, and I hav
A Short Trip to Hopeland
I was expecting a special Sigur Rós show this night. For one thing, the band had just finished their recent tour, which had been their first one without their fellows […]
Broads and Balloons
The band Mammút have been in somewhat of a coma since they won the Icelandic version of ‘Battle of the Bands’ and released their debut, which received mixed feedback four [&he
Tellier: The French Eargasm
Having high expectations is an almost sure-fire way to be let down and when I entered Rúbín for the Sebastien Tellier concert my expectations were sky-high. When I first heard [&
Thuggish, not Sluggish
It’s normally nice to have four diverse bands on a bill – the assumption being that things will build up nicely for the main act. The atmosphere normally goes up […]
The Night of the Transvestites
Shabby, boozy, rugged and mucky are good candidates to describe the mood at Kaffibarinn when I arrived on this Friday night. Æla decided to offer the audience vast amounts of [&he
Metal: Industrial Strength
Celebrating the release of their respective albums and the formation of their own record label, Molestine Records, two Reykjavík metal bands, Momentum and Celestine, seized the ol
All Bark and No Bite
I must say that the extremely merry atmosphere at Organ on Gay Pride Night overwhelmed me a bit upon entry, but in a moment I settled down with the thought […]
Rock ‘n’ Responsibilities
Four left-field bands – Benni Hemm Hemm, Reykjavík!, Morðingjarnir and Borko – circled the whole of Iceland in a rickety bus along with their work-laden label manager, playin
Forgive Us Our Trespasses
Steed Lord are about to embark on a month long trip of the States, which will see them supporting Chromeo. In Reykjavík tonight, they raise the roof as the home […]
A Midsummer Night’s Boogie
I have to note that going to a Trentemöller concert is a special event for me. Arriving at Tunglið, I pondered if it would be a challenge to remain completely […]
Lose Your Moral Boundaries and Get Shitfaced!
It might seem a bit crazy, even ludicrous, that one weekend a year, the preceding weekend to The Labour Day public holiday (one Monday), Icelanders simply go berserk. Innumerable,
Hjálmar Go Wicked on the Drums
Hjálmar knows how to stir it up with drum-bumping moxie! The group best known for being the leading proponents of Icelandic reggae, performed a surprisingly pumpin’, highly rauc
Middle East Music Fest
A Palestine benefit concert in Iceland – not an obvious event for a Thursday night at Organ, but who cares when they mix and match some pretty decent music with […]
Deafening Silence
Sigur Rós, despite their success, is a band that is still on it’s way out of Iceland. In a way, they are still local. It wasn’t so long ago that […]
Formulatic but Fun
Since the release of his latest album, Murta St. Calunga, no more than three weeks ago, Benni Hemm Hemm has been popping up in venues around Reykjavík with all the […]
Sugar and Bass Make Singapore Sling Just Palatable
Drone-laden psych rock is a difficult beast to tame – too much noise and feedback and it sounds like an inglorious mess, too precise and energetic, well, it’s something els
Icelandic Hip-hop Grows Up
At 12:30, one and a half hours later than the concert was advertised to begin, the first performer, Sesar A, stepped on stage. Although Sesar A deserves respect for his […]
Summer Celebration
I was sure the editor of Grapevine was busting my chops when he asked me to cover The Reykjavik Grapevine’s Sólarsamba Concert at Organ. Reasons being the following: my own [&he