2006.11.23
— Music
Although Iceland is a beautiful country, has the cleanest air, best water and the most beautiful women, there are days that many Icelanders wish they lived elsewhere. In fact, this includes most if not all days between september and june, when the wind blows fiercely from all directions, and showels snow, sleet, rain or hail in your face and through every crack and crevice in your clothes. It’s dark when you wake up and go to work, and dark when you go home again. Then we wish we’d been born in Hawaii or Honolulu.With this fact in mind a young and talented musician named Magnús ížór wrote a song which was released on his debut album back in 1972. He used the artist name Megas and the album was also named Megas. This first album of his spawned heated discussions and is still the subject of much controversy, because he dared to poke mercyless fun at Iceland’s greatest heroes; the national poet, the hero of indiependence, the fierce warriors of the Icelandic sagas and last but not least Ingólfur Arnarson, the founder of Reykjavík, the nations now proud capital.
In the song he says that we speak fondly of this Ingólfur in speeches, but deep down inside we wish that his ship had sunk on the way here; meaning that he did us no favour when settling this miserably windy rock in the middle of nowhere.
Megas has since had a colorful and no less controversial career in music, he’s been branded a drug-addict and a pervert, but is still releasing records, that I, for one, enjoy mightily. And despite this controversy he is generally regarded as a master songwriter and an admirable poet.
Enter Magga Stína who’s also a highly talented musician, who first sprang onto the stage in around 1989 with her band Risaeðlan. The band was signed to the Sugarcubes’ Bad Taste label and released a few poptastic and fun albums, chock full of unusual popsongs laden with violins, saxophones and bongos. A few weeks ago she released an album which is a tribute to Megas, containing eleven of his songs sung by her, some of them previously unreleased. And one of them is the controversial song about Iceland’s first settler, and here I offer you both versions of this beautiful song, which I think may be enjoyable to listen to though you may not understand the lyrics. And tell me who you think is a better singer! :o)
Magga Stína – Um óí¾arflega fundvísi Ingólfs Arnarsonar
Megas – Um óí¾arflega fundvísi Ingólfs Arnarsonar
More info on Megas
2006.11.16
— Music
There’s bunch of indiepop flowing out of Sweden these days, but I’ve come across precious little from Norway. Until yesterday when I stumbled across The Ethnobabes on a spanish language website called Mira El Pendulo.The Ethnobabes produce instantly toe-tapping guitar popsongs, of which I hope to hear more in the future. They’ve released on full-length album and a few singles on the norwegian Perfect Pop label, and they have an interesting list of other bands, and quite a lot of mp3’s which I intend to listen to more closely. Until then, here are two goodies by The Ethnobabes:
The Ethnobabes – My favorite fool
The Ethnobabes – Make some sound
2006.11.14
— Music
Apparat Organ Quartet seem quite popular, and I just came across this recording of a new song, Polynesia, on the Icelandic National Television. I don’t know how long this will be available there, they seem to throw stuff away as it gets a few weeks old, so if you like them, hurry up. Unfortunately I can’t find a way to save the video file.Apparat Organ Quartet – Polynesia (streaming embedded video file)
Update 21. november: The video has now been pulled off the site. But it’s still a pretty cool band.
2006.11.14
— Music
Due to the imminent Sugarcubes concert, the national radio station decided to hold a competition, to see who could best do a cover version of a Sugarcubes song. A good many musicians took the challenge, and submitted songs, out of whom 10 likely candidates were selected, and who are now being submitted to the reader’s judgement. On the eve of the concert the winner will be announced.There are a few interesting songs to select from, and some quite miserable I might add. Highlights for me are the following:
Sign – Delicious Demon
Worm is Green – Blue Eyed Pop
Dimma – Mama
Silla & Gísli – Ammæli
Listen to the rest of the songs here.
2006.11.10
— Music
It’s a fun time in Iceland now. Cars are literally blown off the roads, most if not all domestic and international flights have been cancelled, ferries can’t sail to Vestman Islands and troops of policemen and rescue workers are chasing after rooftops which have blown off houses. And on top of all this fun The Sugarcubes are playing a one-off show next week in Iceland. What you may have failed to notice is that Múm has been confirmed to open for them. So if you feel like coming over, it seems there are still tickets available for the concert at midi.is, so head on over there, and come visit us! And if you like Sufjan Stevens, you can catch his concert the same night, which has been moved to an earlier time that evening so he himself can go to The Sugarcubes show.
