heima

certain artists make great news: for new dirt on amy winehouse, pete doherty, or bradford cox you certainly won't have to work too hard, and the results are always amusing. but some bands never make news. when was the last time you saw jón Þór birgisson in the news for boozing, cocaine, or questionable revelations about poo? right. that was never. that's because birgisson, frontman of the simply lovely icelandic quartet known as sigur ros, is a delicate and restrained person (not that you'd ever guess from their songs). in fact, i'd lay a handsome wager that, when the 'ros boys say they want to get together for a drink, they're talking about soda pop. why all this fiddlefaddle about the drinking habits of sigur ros? because i couldn't think of a better way to open this post.

here's the real deal: the world's favorite icelanders (yeah, bjork, i said it) have been busy boys (though you'd never guess it from the torrent of press releases we've seen). the music slut reported today that they're lending two old songs to a leonardo dicaprio documentary, 11th hour, to be released tomorrow, but we haven't heard much from the 'ros in a while (unless, of course, you actually listen to what nme has to say). here to rectify these reporting inequities is, well, me.

first of all, they've got a movie of their own coming out. entitled "heima," the film documents their 2006 tour through iceland. rather than have me butcher a number of fine icelandic words, here are some of the places they played. "heima" is set to be released on november 5th, the same day as the sigur ros compilation disc "hvarf-heim." "hvarf" features new studio versions of four live standards, while "heim" is made up of six acoustic takes on old sigur ros classics. in peripheral sigur ros news, amiina is currently touring north america. sadly, i will not be in attendance as i am not in north america.

so, there you are, all fresh and caught up with the news from the unparalleledly (not a word) awesome sigur ros. what you do with it is up to you. but i'll be biding my time until 11/5 and saving up.

here's the heima trailer:


sigur ros - "von" (live in reykjavik 1999)