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Jan 14

Apr 25

Aldrei fór ég suður 2014

For the past few weeks I have been considering returning to this music blog I ran some two years ago. And yes, I have decided to make a fresh start. Still, though, I won’t promise anything, I probably won’t update it as frequently as I did - but let’s see.

Also, you might have noticed that the text that you are reading is in English. Switching from Icelandic to English was an easy decision. The majority of my tumblr followers don’t have Icelandic as their first language, I had been asked specifically to write my posts in English and it could be a good method of practicing writing in English.

Last weekend, Easter-weekend, I went to the 2 day music festival Aldrei fór ég suður in Ísafjörður. I don’t know where to begin to describe this festival.. No tickets are sold (as in: there is no entrance fee), people of all age show up (1 year olds - 91 year olds), the sets are short (5-6 songs), each year a good list of great performers participate (the festival holders most likely pay for accommodation and travel expenses), there are no sound checks, everyone is allowed to bring their own booze to the venue, the venue is half indoors…

We rented a house in Flateyri (15-20 minute drive from Ísafjörður) and stayed there for 4 nights (I started writing this blog in Flateyri, now I am back home in Keflavík and will finish it).

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Our house in Flateyri

Because of the bad weather forecast some of the acts cancelled. This is the final and confirmed Friday lineup and honestly I can say that I enjoyed every single performance of the night (which started with VIO). It was VIO’s first “actual” performance after winning Músíktilraunir (Icelandic battle of the bands) and I was completely blown away by their performance, the frontman was extremely confident and knew exactly what was going on - which made everything much better.

Other highlights of Friday night were Mammút and Hermigervill. Hermigervill started out by playing the theremin, something I have wanted to try for years. Mammút were just great. Recently I have listened to their 2013 album Komdu til mín svarta systir (spotify link) and I can highly recommend it.

Páll Óskar gets a special mention. He was added to the lineup last minute for Kött Grá Pje who couldn’t make it west because of the weather. Páll, and his euro-dance-pop, has this special ability to make everyone feel fantastically great. And he brought lots of confetti with him. A+++ performance. 

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Páll Óskar

Saturday nights lineup was good as well but I must say that I enjoyed the previous night much better. The highlight must have been Dj. Flugvél og Geimskip. I had not been a fan of hers up until that point but her weird (of course just my opinion) songs which consist of random synth beats and sounds and strange lyrics about cats that are planning stuff your backyard turned me into a fan. Sadly I kind of missed the Hjaltalín show because I had left the venue during the previous performance. I heard their set and saw most of it from far away but just wish I would have been closer to the stage and able to focus more on the music. Hjaltalín is awesome.

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Outside view

Bottom line: Aldrei fór ég suður is great. Last weekend was fun. 

Apr 08

Urgent security update -

staff:

Bad news. A major vulnerability, known as “Heartbleed,” has been disclosed for the technology that powers encryption across the majority of the internet. That includes Tumblr.

We have no evidence of any breach and, like most networks, our team took immediate action to fix the issue.

But this…

Today, 20 years have passed since Kurt Cobain was found dead at home

Jul 03

John Grant - Live Session & Chat

Ég hef verið aðdáandi John’s Grant síðan ég sá hann koma fram á Kaffi, kökur og rokk & ról tónleikum SÁÁ, snemma á síðasta ári. Hann spilaði nokkur lög í beinni útsendingu á netinu núna í vikunni og svaraði spurningum frá áhorfendum. Skelli þessu auðvitað hingað inn.

Grant hefur búið á Íslandi í þónokkurn tíma. Eftir því sem ég best veit tók hann að mestu leyti upp plötuna Pale Green Ghosts (2013) hérna á Íslandi í samstarfi við Bigga Veiru. Mamma rakst á Grant fyrr á árinu og spjallaði aðeins við hann. Hann útskýrði fyrir henni, á góðri íslensku, að fyrr um daginn hafi hann verið að læra forsetningar.

Eitt verkefni sem hann vinnur að um þessar myndir er að semja tónlist við leikrit sem Mikeal Torfason samdi (Getum við hætt að tala um Noreg?). 

  1. Where Dreams go to Die
  2. GMF
  3. Glacier
  4. It Doesn’t Matter To Him

Ég þakka Bjarna fyrir ábendinguna!

Jul 02

Rick Rubin on Crashing Kanye’s Album in 15 Days -

Ég las þetta viðtal fyrir nokkrum dögum og datt í hug að geyma það hér. Rick Rubin, fyrir þá sem ekki vita, er einhver áhrifamesti framleiðandi (e. producer) sem sögur fara af. Hann hefur víða komið við, hjálpað tónlistarmönnum á borð við Jay-Z (99 Problems), Adele (21), Johnny Cash (American Recordings verkefnið), Red Hot Chili Peppers (Blood Sugar Sex Magik) og svo mætti lengi telja.

Rubin “framleiddi” m.a. Reign in Blood (1986), þriðju stúdíóplötu Slayer.

Jul 01

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Jun 26

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Feb 16

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Feb 08

bestindiemusicblog:
“ Daniel Johnston
”

bestindiemusicblog:

Daniel Johnston

(via gonzomuzicblog-blog)

Oct 09

[video]