Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.01.2010, Qupperneq 23

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The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 01 — 2010
23
THURSDAY 7 JANUARY
>> Saktmóðingur and friends
SATURDAY 8 JANUARY
>> Úlpa and friends

2009: Music
We sorta abhor year-end lists over here at Grapevine HQ. At least when it comes to
making them. That has always been a task, and whatever we’ve come up with in the
past has in retrospect usually struck us as forced, rushed and ill thought out. Plus, be-
ing the ADD kids we are, we tend to change our minds every five minutes: “The Ar-
cade who now? Fune-what? The best album of 2004 was totally Kanye West’s College
Dropout. No, wait; it was Blood Brothers’ Crimes. Oh, forget it.”
ANYWAY, regardless of our feelings on the matter, year-end lists are always pretty
popular, and we must admit we do enjoy perusing them as, ehrm, years end. They help
one discover neglected gems, albums that passed by without a sound or one just plain
never heard about, especially when those lists aren’t all uniform, vague and heavy on
the U2. Fucking U2.
So we decided to compile some year-end lists of our own. And who better to consult
about what’s going on in the world of music than the musicians themselves? No one,
that’s who (at least since most critics all started regurgitating P4K’s listery)! So we went
ahead and contacted some of Iceland’s finest musicians and asked them to write us
lists on what had been tickling their ears all year.
You may imbibe the results of that in these following pages. Some musicians wrote a
sentence or two about each item, some made fun lists of their favourite concerts or
the best places to pick up girls, some numbered their lists, others refused to – it’s all in
there.
And, yeah, we had our very own bunch of awesome music critics make up lists of their
2009 favourites, too (OK, we admit it, making lists can be sorta gratifying and fun. And
no one consulted Pitchfork, swear to dog!).
In the immortal words of the great John Cage: Happy New Ears.
Looking back On Another
Fine Year Of Music
Fuck year-end lists, here’s our
year-end lists...
PRESENTS
2009 | Concerts
Lilja Kristín Jónsdóttir
(Bloodgroup)
TOP 5 MEMORABLE CONCERTS OF 2009
bloodgroup – Iceland Airwaves 09! (The most
fun gig in the world!)
XXX Rottweiler - Iceland Airwaves 09 (Classic
hits and crazy action!)
Miri – Kaffibarinn, sometime this summer
(Can’t remember when, but I do remember that
they were great and they smiled through the
whole show)
Me, The Slumbering Napoleon – Sódóma
Reykjavík last summer (incredibly fresh)
Mugison – Rotterdam, December 19th
(Stand-up comedy and a concert at the same time
– it can’t go wrong)
Arnljótur Sigurðsson
(living legend)
Egill S – at Hafnarhúsið.
Haukur Gröndal with Narodna Muzika – at the
Reykajvík Jazz Festival.
Kimono – At NASA, Iceland Airwaves
Skúli Sverrisson & Sería – Þjóðmenningarhúsið
Stereo Hypnosis – release concert no.2 at Sódóma
Reykjavík.
benedikt Reynisson (Skátar)
TOP 5 CONCERTS OF 2009
1. Ghostigital @ Batteríið, Iceland Airwaves 2009
2. Amiina & Seabear @ Bæjarbíó, 28. júlí 2009
3. Gus Gus @ Nikita garden, 26. september 2009
4. Reykjavík! @ Nasa, Iceland Airwaves 2009
5. Caterpillarmen @ Grand Rokk, Iceland Airwaves
2009
Örn Ingi Ágústsson
(Skakkamanage, Seabear, etc)
A Hansen’s at Grand Rokk
Entombed at Sódóma Reykjavík
Micachu And The Shapes at Karamba
Sumargleðin tour in Hvammstangi
Yo La Tengo in Berlin
berglind Häsler
(Skakkamanage, Létt á bárunni)
1) Yo La Tengo in berlin
The best concert I’ve seen, period.
2) Reykjavík! and Sudden Weather change,
Herðubreið in Seyðisfjörður
It isn’t often that one gets to slamdance with the
mayor.
3) múm at HAVARÍ
I missed their show at Iðnó, but got this cosy
hangover concert instead.
4) FM belfast in Grundarfjörður
I haven’t lost it like this at a concert since I saw
The Prodigy in my heyday.
5) KK & Ellen and all the rest from this wonder-
ful Icelandic Von Trapp family at Herðubreið,
Seyðisfjörður
Most of all, I would like them to adopt me, really .
In Áki Ásgeirsson
(S.L.Á.T.U.R)
(1) Stelkur –February 11th at Hafnarborg
The band Stelkur from the East of Iceland
performed unforgettable compositions by Charles
Ross, the Icelandic nation’s secret weapon.
(2) S.L.Á.T.U.R. – September 5th at the
Nordic House
Performed compositions by the main proponents
of artistical aggression in Icelandic music.
(3) Kría brekkan – Helgileikur, December
23rd in the christmas Village by Laugavegur
The piece was performed in a musical vending
machine made to look like a nomad’s hut, where
Kría connected the audience to the holy umbilical
cord of the mother of god.
(4) The pots and pans revolution – January
2009 at Austurvöllur
A few hundred people banged pots for several
days in a spontaneous Icelandic rhythm. Unfor-
tunately, some unscrupulous parties brought
drumkits and foreign, cultural Samba rhythms for
the last few days.
(5) Monika Fryčová - Open Springs, February
at Listaháskóli Íslands
International cooperation in a loaded and high
strung inter-arts display from Friend Of Iceland
Monika – who danced on the tip of chaos.
ARTISTS PIcK THEIR TOP 5 cONcERTS OF 2009