heima kicks ass.

end of story.

i managed to take a video of sigur ros performing "agaetis byrjun" as part of the pre-heima acoustic set.

sigur ros - "agaetis byrjun"

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)

celebrating kurr

if you're like me, you hadn't heard of amiina until you went to see sigur ros (best icelandic band around...take that, bjork!), and you regretted the oversight for months. also known as sigur ros's backing string quartet, these four women can play more instruments than i know the names of. their sound is at once gentle and quirky, finding simple, cyclical melodies with unique sounds.

amiina put out their debut LP recently (because it was self-released, the date was somewhat iffy), and i managed to hop over to sandbag and get one of the 200 copies made. pretty sweet indeed. aside from making the bitchingest case ever (forget plastic and those damn irritating stickers), kurr, as this gem is called, is all new except for one song, "seoul," that great fan favorite from the seoul ep (it's the one with the musical saw).



to celebrate kurr's release, i'm posting this sweet 30 minute live set from icelandic TV. featuring old and new songs (plus people speaking icelandic), the visual quality is high and the audio quality even better. as you'll see in the video, their instruments include said musical saw, cello, violin, viola, some bells, water glasses, a couple different keyboards, a music box, an apple laptop, some xylophones, a guitar, and a casio keyboard from when i was a toddler.



i've managed to see amiina once sans sigur ros, at the bang on a can marathon in new york last summer, and, if anything, they're even more withdrawn than the 'ros, which makes them twice as intriguing. do yourself a favor and check them out.

tour dates available here.

amiina- "seoul." ep available at itunes and sandbag