This Is The Last…

Rökkurró is the cutest new band in town. The kids in Rökkurró play kinda a mixture of indie rock ambient nu-jazz. They in a way remind me of Múm without the electronics. I saw them play a few months ago in Gamla Bókasafnið in Hafnarfjörður and i thought they were really sweet kids with a lot of ambition.

Anyway so they are playing on friday 1.september at 12 Tónar which is in case you didn’t know is the best record store in Reykjavík. What other record store would offer free red wine and free concerts every friday just for you. So see you all there!

While i was in Denmark last weekend i saw Massive Attack for the first time. That’s experience i’ll never forget. They did all their great old hits and put on really great show. The only thing that bothered me was that the music wasn’t loud enough and that the crowd wasn’t tough enough. Or maybe its just that i’m spoiled by small intimate venues and a hardcore music fans in Iceland.

Anyway what i wanted to tell you about is my new discovery of a danish band called Under Byen. They were one of the bands that supported Massive Attack last friday at Forum in Copenhagen. I have to admit that i’m not too familiar with the danish music scene and that I’d never heard of them before so i had no idea of what to expect. But they really blew my ears away! That amazing voice of Henriette Sennenvaldt, so smooth, jazzy, old school, mumbling and whispering words that i couldn’t understand but it just made it more mysterious. It took me awhile to actually spot her on the stage cause she was way in the back next to the bass player Sara Saxild. Sometimes her voice reminded me of Björk, Stina Nordenstam and Hope Sandoval. Under Byen sounded very scandinavian to me and their violins reminded me of Sigur Rós. Dramatic, sincere and so powerful. My only question is why didn’t i know of them before? Shame on me! If you haven’t heard of them i dare you to check them out.

I just found out that my favorite Icelandic reggae band Hjálmar has quit! sniff sniff… i’m feeling pretty sad right now. How could they just quit without asking my permission? Well well i guess they have new protects coming up for them. And yes i understand that it can be difficult keeping a band together while the band members are not living in the same country. But i’m still sad. In my mind i felt like i’d still be going to they’r concerts in my 50’s and dancing like a crazy elf. At least we had 3 great years together and 2 beautiful records and oh yeah all those amazing concerts! So all i can say is Takk fyrir mig!

I’m back from my camping at the beach. Saturday night, I took a break from sitting around the campfire and went to see a concert down at the Casbah.

The first band to play was Oh No! Oh My!. They had a Belle & Sebastian, happy, fluffy, lightness to their songs with a lot of energy behind them. I didn’t like them at all. Half way through their performance, I leaned over to Jason and said,”Jason, these guys are awful. I hate them”. After they were done performing Jason told me that he totally liked them and so did our friend Symeo. Jason ended up buying the album, because he liked them so much. I have to admit, I’ve been enjoying listening to the album. Maybe they’re better studio performers, than live? Or maybe I’m just a snob. They did say they were short a few of their musicians that night.

The next group to play was Stars of Track & Field. I thought they sounded amazing. The singer’s voice reminded me a little of Jeremy Enigk’s. They played songs with heavy guitar and really pretty, dreamy keyboard parts. I was pleasantly surprised by how awesome they were, especially since they were dressed so silly. Boys you don’t need your lacy cravats on such a hot San Diego night. Jason bought their album, too.

And then there was Jeremy Enigk. That guy can do know wrong in my book. He played mostly songs off of his upcoming new album, which will be released in October. All I wanted to hear the whole night was “Explain”. And he played that for his final encore, alone with an acoustic guitar. That made me so happy, because I’ve been trying to learn how to play that song, and I got to see close up what was he was doing.

If you’re interested in hearing these bands, all 3 of them have their songs up on My Space. Oh No! Oh My! have their cd for sale at Insound and Stars of Track and Field’s music is for sales on iTunes.

I’m taking off today, I’m camping at San Elijo State Beach through Monday. This has been a family tradition, since I was a little kid. Even though I have no kids (yet), I really look forward to it every year - surfing and campfires and bbq.

I also, have tickets to see Jeremy Enigk this saturday at the Casbah. I’m really look forward to seeing him perform. I love his solo work. Casbah is a perfect venue, since its so small and intimate.

Do you feel like the summer is almost over? I know school is starting and the new season for sitcoms has started. I actually started school this week. Jason and I are taking Japanese 101 class at the community college. So, this camping trip is like my last summer hurrah.

Dewa, mata.

Photo Copyright 2003 Donald W Larson

This weekend I saw Little Miss Sunshine. I liked this movie. And not just because Devotchka performed almost the whole soundtrack. Its a road trip movie and a family satire. Its better to not conform, than to be caught up in weird American values.

I really liked the character played by Paul Dano. The brother who reads Nietzsce and has a taken a vow of silence. His face is so expressive, without saying a word.

I loved this sad comedy.

After seeing Bjorkestra last week, I’ve been going back and listening to all my Bjork albums. I found a few good Bjork tidbits to share.

This first one is when Bjork was on MTV Cribs. I never knew she was on this show. You can watch that here.

This is an oldie, but goodie. Its the SNL skit “Celebrity Jeopardy” - where Wynona Ryder plays Bjork. You can check that out here.

I check out Gorilla vs Bear weekly. They have a new writer joining their team, whose writing style is pretty damn funny.

He wrote this “Are You A Hipster” quiz. Go here to take the quiz.

I scored a 45…

You could be hipper, but you are quite hip. You order stuff from the H&M catalog and swear Neutral Milk Hotel changed your life. If you lie in this category, you can no longer be in hipster denial. If I call you a hipster, you have to respond with something along the lines of “yeah, whatever, I guess so.” Who am I kidding? You’ll keep on denying it.

This weekend, Jason and I helped my grandparents get setup with a computer. They’ve never owned a computer, and don’t know how to use the internet. We got as far as setting up the computer, and showing them how to use the mouse and how to play solitare. They did pretty good, but I have a feeling that once they get the internet, we’re gonna be hearing from them daily.

In honor of this momentous event, I present you with one of my favorite Onion stories…

“Getting Mom Onto Internet a Sisyphean Ordeal”

This story might as well have been about me and my mom.

Baby Rock Records does lullaby renditions of songs by Radiohead, Bjork, the Cure, Metallica, Smashing Pumpkins, and Tool. They use delicate instruments like the glockenspiel, vibraphone, mellotron, harp and bell. There’s no singing. This could be really lame, but its not at all. I actually am gonna buy the Radiohead one for myself, because it sounds so damn pretty.

If you wanna check it out, the Radiohead and Metallica pages have sound samples.

(Link and clever post title via Stereogum)