Bag of Joys
2006.04.17
Hi. My name is Magnus and you may know me as an occasional contributor to indie-mp3.co.uk. Now I can happily add my interest in nordic culture to this already flourishing web site. Let me start by bringing up an Icelandic band, which few outside a limited circle of indie entusiastics in Iceland have ever heard of.
Bag of Joys were a quirky and funny band, which never got the recognition I think they deserved. They will now however get some, since I’ve gotten their permission to post some of their excellent songs. The band was formed in 1994 when a few friends who’d been making music together at home decided to start rehearsing properly and put together a live band. In 1995 they released a cassette called “Minnir óneitanlega á Grikkaland” of rather poor recording quality. The name roughly translates as “Kinda reminds me of Greece”. It was limited to a total of 40 editions, and managed to get bad reviews which were then reprinted on the sleeve of their next publication, the 7″ single “Nú á ég vermand vini”. This single was released in 250 editions later that same year and the recording quality had improved somewhat.
In 1997 Bad Taste ltd released a series of smallish cd’s with a few notable young underground bands, each CD containing around 7-9 songs, so these were kinda mini-LP’s designed to get the bands some starting point, but not distributed or promoted widely it seems. I think all of these bands disbanded pretty soon after those releases, and never properly got off the ground. The CD “Eins og ég var motta” (“Like I was a rug”) was released in 1997, and here they had aquired a female vocalist named Lena. The recordings are great and the songs are sparkling with naivety and non-sensical lyrics, including a cover of “We like to do it” by a band I do not know called Avocado Baby. They had a well attended release party, and then promptly disbanded.
Since then they’ve occasionally resurfaced playing one concert in 2002 and at a wedding last year, and one member named Sighvatur, also known as Musikhvatur, has been seen lurking behind keyboards as member of Apparat Organ Quartet along with Jóhann Jóhannsson of Daisy Hill Puppy Farm.
Here’s a few songs from their only cd, “Eins og ég var motta”:
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Bag of joys: Lovepotion
Bag of joys: Sveitasnakk
Bag of joys: Sappa Oj
Bag of joys: We like to do it
Bag of joys: HA 498
April 18th, 2006 - 07:32
Welcome Magnus, and thanks for this great first post!!! You forgot to say to the world (you’re probably too modest!!!) that you play in this great icelandic band, Dyrdin. I’m not sure how to put a link from this comment thingy, so just search “Dyrdin” on Noisedfisk and you’ll find the wee text i wrote about them.
April 19th, 2006 - 01:14
ahh! i listened to you guys! except i didn’t know about the website i just saw the myspace. anyway way to go bass-player magnus :-)
i really enjoy bag of joys! thanks for pointing them out. this year i really started looking into tons of icelandic bands and i was surprised how many icelandic twee/indie-pop bands there are. these guys kinda remind me of runk, who i heard on the ‘lobster or fame’ compilation that badtaste put out.
April 20th, 2006 - 01:44
Hi. Thanks for pepping me up. Actually, I’m surprised how few indie-pop bands there are in Iceland, and indeed until we read about ourselves on various blog sites we had no idea what twee was, and no idea there was such a genre as indie-pop. I must dig up that Lobster or Fame collection and give Runk a listen to!
April 21st, 2006 - 15:28
Thanks a bunch Magnus. Excellent post. There’s so much Icelandic music out there that it’s hard to know where to start. Be my guide!!!
June 1st, 2010 - 15:27
Hi there!
My band just made our first song!!!
Check it out, we’ve learnt a lot from your blog! :)
xxx