Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2009, Page 32

Reykjavík Grapevine - 28.08.2009, Page 32
20 The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 13 — 2009 Dr. Gunni just happens to be an extremely respected pioneer of Icelandic punk rock. HE IS PLAYING GRAPEVINE GRAND ROKK on Friday 04.09. Attend.r. The History of Icelandic Rock music: Part 9 Hard Rockin’ In The Early Seventies The Icecross album from 1973 has in recent times fetched high prices on the international psych record market. This is due to the fact that various noteworthy collectors have raved about the “legend- ary and mysterious” album. For instance, the Dead Kennedys’ Jello Biafra is quoted in the tome Incredible Strange Music Vol. II (1994) saying: “Iceland has produced one of the darkest, grimmish and most brutal psych records I’ve ever heard: Icecross. At times they even remind me of the early Meat Puppets, especially the song 1999.” The truth, naturally, isn’t all that mys- terious. The band rose from the debris of Tilvera (‘Existence’) in 1971. Tilvera had been bound for glory, as it contained some heavyweight Icelandic stars, but the band’s output only amounted to two passable singles. Icecross played dance balls and was successful even though they only performed original songs writ- ten by guitarist Axel Einarsson and bass- ist Ómar Óskarsson. They both sang, while the power trio line up was complet- ed by drummer Ásgeir Óskarsson. The band got known for being gloomy, even though the members never dabbled with the occult. They were also without doubt the noisiest band in Iceland. The band had eight Marshall boxes with four ten- inch speakers in each, and Ásgeir had built his own drum kit out of aluminium. In 1972 the band moved to Copenha- gen were very favourably received when they played at the main club of the time, Revolution. Says Axel: “When The Who played in town, the members came to watch us play. There must have been some reason why Pete Townsend stayed and watch us for 55 minutes. He sat fac- ing the stage with his beer and didn’t move until after we had finished our set.” Icecross recorded their eponymous and only album in Copenhagen with Dan- ish pop star Tommy Seebach on the mix- ing board. Only 1000 copies were made of the album that reached Iceland early in 1973. By that time the band had split up because of tensions that built during their stint in Copenhagen. The album has nev- er been officially re-released, but many bootlegs, both on CD and vinyl, have been made. An Icecross comeback—and even a second album—have been dis- cussed, but nothing has materialised as of yet. Ævintýri, the former bubblegum band lead by pop star Björgvin Halldórsson, got hard and heavy on a 7” single in 1970 (two songs, Evil/Depression, in Icelan- dic). The band made more original songs and wanted to do a LP, but split before carrying out their plans. Two Ævintýri members, guitarist Birgir and drummer Sigurður, went on to form the similarly hard and heavy Svanfríður, named af- ter a barmaid at Club Glaumbær. Other Svanfríður members were bassist Gunnar from Tilvera and vocalist Pétur Kristjáns- son, who had sang with Pops and Nát- túra. Svanfríður called their music “rock” which hasn’t been a fancy name to drop for many years, as it reminded too much of the corny fifties rockers. Svanfríður was a popular ball band during 1972. The band played the hits of the day with jam sections in-between to keep things interesting for the members. In the summer Svanfríður went to London and recorded nine songs, which ended up as the album What’s Hidden There. The music is progressive and hippy-ish in parts, especially the lyrics, the transac- tion from hippy innocence to rock tough- ness not wholly complete. That transac- tion would come through in 1973 when Svanfríður split and Pétur and Gunnar went on to form Pelican, Iceland’s most popular seventies rock band. Svanfríður’s album is though considered a rarity amongst psych collectors and has been bootlegged severely, as no official reissue exists. - DR. GUNNI By Dr. Gunni, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki allir í stuði? (Rock in Iceland). A revisited up- date of the book is forthcoming in 2010. 1. Icecross 2. Icecross LP 3. Svanfríður LP RETRÖN is a strange animal. Loved by hipsters and metalheads alike, there's much to be said about this unique band. With their debut, Swordplay & Guitar- slay, on the streets via Kimi records, we got Retrön guitar god Kolli to tell us about the band, its ideology and and what the hell they’re on about. “This is actually sort of our third at- tempt at making this record,” says Kolli. “The first two were unsuccessful, be- cause we didn't really know at the time that the band was supposed to be a rock band. We were stuck in the beginning as an IBM PC Speaker 8-bit sort of thing. We didn't have a drummer then and didn't know how to make things sound good without them being rock. So now, almost three attempts later, we have a drummer and a bunch of synthesizers compliment- ing what we thought the band needed for extra awesomeness plus it rocks cancer into your balls, GWAR-style – with extra volume. I want my rock as well as my shampoo with extra volume! You been working on this record for what seems to be aeons now. How has it af- fected the band and your feelings towards the material? I think it has been good for the band. If the record had come out earlier, it would have been way too immature and aged badly. Now we sort of know better what Retrön is and what the band can be. Also the record would be by this time older and therefore less virgin! MUSIC FOR PC SPEAKERS So, this idea of a band playing a computer- influenced music or just to cover songs from computer games it isn't a new one. There are plenty of bands doing that. However, you guys seem to have forsaken the idea in lieu of doing more original material. What is the reason for this devel- opment and what do you offer that other computer-bands do not? Well I don't want to say that our band is any better or worse than other videogame based outfits out there, but we don't con- sider ourselves a totally videogame based band and maybe we never have. The thing that is different with Retrön and maybe some of the other bands is that we actually started out as a computer game. Kári and I actually made a mini game with a bunch of levels that was called Retrön. There was a bunch of music in the game that was all made in a text file on a program that Kári wrote. That music was all made with the PC speaker (the thing that goes bleep when you turn on your old computer). Then people started to hear the music and started asking us if we could play the music live. So we start- ed thinking, ‘How can we play this music without it being a boring laptop band?’ That's where we decided to pick up the guitars and learn the music for the game. So it's all kinda backwards. The first bunch of songs that we per- formed live were all written for the PC speaker. After that we started to imple- ment the computer more as a part of a band, and that's how we played for a long time. Made the PC speaker mostly do drums and some leads. So, we were not only trying to be a rock band playing video game cover songs, it was sort of just means to be able to play the Retrön game music live. There are still remnants from the game in one of our visual programs that we use in concert sometimes. And we have only ever covered one video game song, Koji Kondo's theme from Zelda. This record will go a long way to termi- nate the misunderstanding that Retrön is a videogame cover band. But we have gradually been going away from using pre-programmed stuff, so now we have a drummer and try to capture the atmo- sphere of the old game inspired songs with synths. REAL MEN LOVE THEM SOME METAL The music has become considerably more metal sounding. Why is that? I know all you guys are real men, and thus love your metal, but please give me a more educated insight into this development. The real reason is that getting a drummer made everything sound heavier. We have not knowingly changed our approach to writing the guitar riffs. It used to be me and Kári chugging away on unplugged electric guitars, but now we can try out instantly what sounds right. Has your background as an performance artist at all bled into Retrön? I think you can't escape what you are, but Retrön is supposed to be a rock band, not a fucking performance piece, god- damnit! Art performances can be great, but in most people’s mind they are just a perverted weak evilness made to burden people. I would rather say that a bunch of Retrön has leaked into my performances than the other way round. Anything else? Buy our album and ride a wave of suc- cess. You don't want to be the person left standing behind with no copy and "Necroloser" written all over you. Also. Take it slow. Advanced Retrön & Dragons Bringing the vision of Roberta & Ken Williams into the 21st century BIRKIR FJALAR VIÐARSSON RETRON Music | Interview

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