Pollapönk's Eurovision adventure provided SO MUCH FUN a few weeks ago. They became a social media sensation all around Europe when they got into the final with the very last announcement and then just carried on really, really, really enjoying themselves. It all gave people I know a chance to tell me they had seen […]
I was pretty lucky and excited to get a promo copy of the brand new FM Belfast album recently, it arrived in one of those square parcels with Icelandic postage on it that I so love to receive. This is their third album – if you discount that oddly premature but excellent ‘best of’ that […]
The brief version of how I came to be this "crazy foreign person who loves Icelandic music" (said the airline Iceland Express, who later disappeared) is this… In 1987/88 I fell in love with this band called The Sugarcubes, you probably know them. Therefore when my Dad asked 14 year old me where I would […]
I do love an end of year list. This is the third time we've done a vote here for the best Icelandic record of the year. There were 61 voters this time, so we've lost 3 people from 2013 somewhere along the way. Each voter was allowed to vote for up to 5 albums, each […]
It is December, so it must be end of year list time. This is the third time I have run this particular piece of fun. Last year, 64 of you lovelies took the time to cast your votes and we managed to get a bit of press attention too. The search for a worthy successor […]
"Grúska Babúska is a 4 piece all female band, with an out-of-space wonky, electronic, synth, melodic, acoustic and twisted icelandic fairytale sound" I'm not even going to attempt to better that description which you can find on Grúska Babúska's very fancy website. It does sum the sound up pretty nicely, plus I really like the […]
The Anatomy Of Frank are, as far as I can tell, a bunch of fun and friendly Americans with a thing for Iceland. In other words, exactly the sort of international band you want to see at Iceland Airwaves. At the last count they had 10 off-venue shows lined up, I rather suspect they are […]
Reykjavik! have been one of the highlights of Iceland Airwaves for years and years. But even better than that has been their annual interview with a website called 'iceblah'. And the unbelievable, distressing, but ultimately true fact that Reykjavik! are not playing this year wasn't going to end that particular brand of fun… Hey […]
The website straum.is is exactly the sort of wonderful looking and clearly essential Icelandic website that makes me resolve again to try a little bit harder with that language. It is a great looking place with a load of news and features plus plenty of videos. And, it has just turned one year old (CONGRATULATIONS!!!). […]
Úlfur Eldjárn is already well known as a member of the legendary (there I said it) Icelandic act Apparat Organ Quartet – a band high on the list of the "must-sees" for this and many previous Airwaves festivals. This year, Úlfur is also playing for the first time as a solo artist and is working […]