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22
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2010
Dr. Gunni’s History Of Icelandic Rock | Part 21
1. Þeyr do their N azi "joke" in Rokk í Reykjavík.
2. & 3. The soundtrack from Rokk í Reykjavík was
released as a double album in 1982. Singer Ellý from
punk band q4U was on the cover. When the CD came
out in the nineties she had been replaced by Björk
for some reason.
Music | Album Review
There was a point somewhere about
five years ago when post-rock went
from still being something with indie
cred, kinda, to becoming full-on
cock-rock that overcompensating
dudebros could justifiably cry over.
Probably due to the fact that the super
emotionally-charged song structures
are played on really, really loud guitars.
Then football movies oversaturated
their soundtracks with Explosions In
The Sky and it all went bust. Thanks a
buttload, Friday Night Lights!
Now it doesn’t seem like it‘s been
quite long enough for the genre
to make a full-on comeback, but
Strafrænn Hákon’s latest album does
make a worthwhile effort to launch it
back onto the runway.
Everything else I’ve heard this
guy do has been really experimental,
ambient, weird noise stuff that I
REALLY loved, so hearing him go all
melodic and lyrical kind of took me by
surprise, but it’s not bad at all. I didn’t
really lose my shit either though. It
doesn’t really have a consistent flow of
energy from start to finish, albeit some
solid songwriting. The stand-out track
here is definitely ‘Val Kilmer’, which
is about as intense and scary as the
actor himself was in Top Gun.
- REBECCA LOUDER
Stafrænn Hákon
Sanitas
shakon
How about tossin’ around the ol’
pigskin?
In 1981, filmmaker Friðrik Þór Friðriksson
began filming Icelandic rock bands in action
around Reykjavík for an upcoming documen-
tary about the scene. Friðrik had at that point
already made a short documentary about
a recluse in the countryside, as well as an
adaptation of Njáls Saga (“The Story of the
burning of Njáll”), which consisted of footage
of the book being set on fire with a challeng-
ing soundtrack by Þeyr. But now he had his
sights firmly set on Iceland’s rock scene.

Friðrik included almost every active Icelandic
group in the documentary, so the film is very true
to the times, a real and valuable documentation.
It was premiered just before Easter in 1982 and is
considered an absolute Icelandic classic. It is such
a definite movie that this period in Icelandic music
has since been known as the ‘Rokk í Reykjavík’-
era.
EvERyBODy AND EvERyTHING
In the movie we see everybody and everything go-
ing on at the time of filming. Slick rockers Start do
their slick rock, the prog new wavers of Þursaflok-
kurinn do their thing, and girl group Grýlurnar rock
out and talk about the isolation they feel being the
only women on the scene. Purrkur Pillnikk go ba-
nanas and Fræbbblarnir, in a semi sulky mood, tell
us that they feel left out, as nobody is considered
cool unless “he has worked in a fish factory for
ages.” This was a stab at Bubbi Morthens, his no-
torious work history and the importance it bore
during his initial rise to supremacy.
We see Bubbi talk about drugs and an early
version of Egó, the band he formed after Utan-
garðsmenn, plays some classic tunes. In the open-
ing scene, we witness Sveinbjörn Beinteinsson,
the founder of the Ásatrúarfélag (“The Ásatrú as-
sociation”), recite some rímur as he often did at
rock concerts at the time. To show a swift transfor-
mation to the modern times, rock group Vonbrigði
appear abruptly after Sveinbjörn with their clas-
sic song ‘Ó Reykjavík’—an anthem of sorts for the
times.
GLUE SNIFFING, HEN-KILLING AND NAzI
COSTUMES
The movie caused controversy for various reasons.
The young punk rockers in the band Sjálfsfróun
(“Masturbation”) are given plenty of room in the
film. We see them bash out their super-naïve punk
rock, which culminates as singer Bjarni “The Mo-
hican” smashes up his bass with an axe. The film-
makers then follow Bjarni and his bandmates to
bus station Hlemmur, which was a punk rock hang
out at the time. Bjarni gives a classic monologue
about the glue-sniffing-and-arguing-with-bus-
drivers existence of an Icelandic teen punk anno
1981. His unabashed speech resulted in the film
getting a rating of “banned for ages 14 and under”
by the Icelandic Film Administration. A new ver-
sion with Bjarni's monologue removed soon ap-
peared so the kids could attend the movie.
Notorious performance art group Bruni BB also
caused some controversy with their part in the
film. Acting under influence from extreme Aus-
trian artist Herman Nietsch, the band always gave
very outrageous performances. For ‘Rokk í Reyk-
javík’, the group was filmed during a show at the
Living Art Museum where they beheaded a hen
with a paper cutter (perhaps on loan from their
art school?). The police arrived on the scene and
freed a pig from the museum's toilet stall. It is still
unclear if the band had plans to kill the pig or were
just going to have it "perform".
The third cause for controversy was Þeyr's de-
cision to perform in full Nazi regalia. Contrary to
most of the other bands in the doc, Þeyr weren’t
filmed during a concert. Instead, an ‘acted’ ‘mu-
sic video’ was used to present the band. It shows
the members goose step in Nazi gear towards the
Icelandic president's house at Bessastaðir in-be-
tween shots of them rocking out in their rehearsal
space (which was conveniently located at Álf-
tanes, right next to Bessastaðir). Their Nazi get-up
spurred the heated debate "Are Þeyr Nazis on top
of being snobs?" The band of course denied all
Nazi accusations. They did it ambivalently though,
using the old "it was a joke" explanation.
ÞEyR SOLDIER ON
After the release of their album 'Mjötviður mær',
Þeyr tried to break into the English scene. The
band hung out in a sinister part of London, met
with John Peel (who played them on his BBC
show) and were offered a six-month support slot
with The Cure (that they turned down). However,
they did score a record deal with a new label,
Shout Records, which released their album ‘As
Above’ in the spring of 1982. The album had re-
assembled bits of music from Þeyr's previous Ice-
landic releases. It received good reviews, but not
much more happened.
Jaz Coleman from the doom rock group Kill-
ing Joke had become a good acquaintance of the
group and had hung out with them in Iceland in
1981, sometimes searching for "power spots" near
Snæfellsjökull glacier. In February of 1982, he
freaked out at a concert in London and ran away
to Iceland, where he had big ideas for the Icelandic
scene. One of them was to open a rock club. He
was a heavy drinker though, so not much came
of his ideas. He formed a group with most of Þeyr,
calling it Iceland (and later Niceland). The band
recorded three songs that would later turn up on
bootlegs.
Parallel to their collaboration with Coleman,
Þeyr soldiered on and toured Scandinavia. The
band recorded some songs in Denmark, which
would be released on the 12" EP ‘The Fourth Reich’
which was dedicated to Wilhelm Reich. The music
was now darker and less accessible, and did little
for the band's popularity. The end soon came for
Þeyr after bouts of existential crisis. The final nail
in their coffin was when bassist Hilmar Örn left the
band. He had been undergoing stringent music
training during all his time with Þeyr, and now had
to choose between rock and classical music.
HOLLOW HANGOvER
In Iceland, after the premier of Rokk í Reykjavík, it
was as if the scene lost its intensity and dynamism.
After the great and creative 1981, 1982 felt like a
hollow hangover. Þeyr's guitarist God Krist and
drummer Sigtryggur would return in 1983 with the
band Kukl, featuring other veterans of the ‘Rokk í
Reykjavík’ era, including a young girl named Björk
who had received some attention due to her lively
appearance in Rokk í Reykjavík, singing and bang-
ing her toy drum with the band Tappi Tíkarrass.
- by DR. GUNNI, based on his 2000 book Eru ekki allir
í stuði? (Rock in Iceland).
Dr. Gunni is a man of many talents. He's drawn comix, written books, released
records and conducted a quiz show. He is certainly an asset to Reykjavíks lo-
culture life. Thank you, Gunni!