Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.11.2011, Side 18

Nordic House Sturlugata 5 101 Reykjavík Tel. 5517030 www.norraenahusid.is
Zinat PirzadehAwarded funniest female in Sweden2010
Anna Svava
Icelandic
stand-up
comedian
and actress
Ruben
Søloft
Funnies
t stand-
up
comed
ian
in Denm
ark
2010
One night
Stand-up
in the Nordic House
Friday 11.11.11 at 20.00 FR
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Æskulýðssjóður
18
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 17 — 2011
In the beginning, Icelandic metal
bands kept to themselves and were
mostly left out of the mainstream. In
the movie Rokk í Reykjavík (1982)
for instance, the light, loverboy-
type metal band Start looked and
sounded like long haired elves out
of a hill. Other early metal bands,
such as Þrumuvagninn (“Chariot
Of Thunder”) and Drýsill (“Puck”
or “Demon”) played to few diehard
metal fans and both released lPs.
Some of Þrumuvagninn's mem-
bers had been members of pop
and ball group Tívolí and featured
a convincing rock barker, Eiður Örn
Eiðsson. Their self titled lP of hard
blues rock was released in 1982.
Drýsill featured red haired rock star
Eiríkur Hauksson (aka Eric Hawk), who
would later represent Iceland in Euro-
vision (twice!) and front Norwegian
metal band Artch. Drýsill’s sole album,
‘Welcome To The Show,’ was released
in 1985 and has been called Iceland’s
first "real" heavy metal album.
METAl TREE HUGGERS
Músíktilraunir, Iceland’s version of Bat-
tle Of The Bands, that started in 1982,
has always welcomed metal. Metal
band Gypsy won the battle in 1985 with
its old fashioned, slightly hairmetal-ish
rock. The band did not release a record
and gave up when Hallur, the drummer,
left to join Ham in 1989.
Bootlegs came from Garðabær and
played speed metal, with Metallica and
Slayer as role models. The band com-
peted three times in Músíktilraunir, and
finally won the contest’s second place
in 1989. Their début album ‘WC Mon-
ster’ was recorded shortly afterwards
and released by The Sugarcubes' Bad
Taste label (Bootlegs’ singer Jón hap-
pens to be Sugarcube Einar Örn's
nephew).
Around 1990, metal was in general
upswing with hair metal gaining popu-
larity and Guns ‘n’ Roses posters plas-
tered on every other teenager's walls.
That year, Nabblastrengir (“Umbilical
Cords”) from Hafnarfjörður won Mú-
síktilraunir, but gave up quickly after-
wards, as Bootlegs stole their singer, a
guy called Jón, or Jón Junior, to distin-
guish him from the older Jón that was
already in Bootlegs.
With two Jóns, Bootlegs was at the
top of the game and played at Laugar-
dalshöll along with the kings of Icelan-
dic pop in 1990. At the time, not least
as a result of President Vigdís' efforts,
a big forestry effort was ongoing in Ice-
land. The concert was to raise money
for a ‘Rock forest’ that was supposed
to be set out in all four quarters of the
reef. The ‘Rock forest’ still has yet to
materialise, but Bootlegs soldiered
on and signed with local ‘major label’
Steinar. They released a self-titled al-
bum in 1990, with a tasteful painting of
a tree raping a blonde woman on the
cover. Shortly afterwards lead guitarist
Guðmundur Hannes quit and a young
boy called Gunnar Bjarni replaced him.
This line-up was shortlived and Boot-
legs croaked soon afterwards.
DEATH IT IS
The year 1991 saw large hair metal
festival at Hafnarfjörður's football sta-
dium. Quireboys, Bulletboys, Thunder
and Slaughter showed up, but the main
attraction, Poison, did not, giving the
excuse that one of the members had
suffered an accident.
At Músíktilraunir in 1991 death met-
al was all the rage, and a band called
Infusoria won. They would soon change
their name to Sororicide. Garages all
over Reykjavík were at this point brim-
ming with long-haired teenage boys
sporting black t-shirts, with shiny and
menacing guitars, and all the right ef-
fects pedals. Death metal bands such
as Gor, Morbid Silence, Insectary, Con-
demned, Cranium, Viral Infection, Viru-
lenzy and Suicidal Diarrhea made the
rounds at bars and recreation rooms
with Sororicide as the dads and Ham as
the granddads.
Sororicide made a convincing al-
bum in 1991, ‘The Entity.’ Furthermore,
a death metal compilation entitled
‘Apocalypse’ was released, featuring
songs from In Memoriam, Strigaskór
no. 42 (“Sneakers #42”) and Sorori-
cide. With that, the first wave of Icelan-
dic death metal fizzled out.
GRUNGE IN ICElAND
Running side by side with death metal
were bands that harked back to the
golden age of "classic" rock (or just
‘rock’, as it was called then). One of
them, Deep Jimi And The Zep Creams,
sported most of their influences in their
name. At first Deep Jimi played cover
songs but soon started writing their
own material. The band played enough
cover gigs in Iceland to finance a trip
to New York and there played various
shitholes. Deep Jimi lucked out in the
big city and were eventually signed by
Warner Brothers. Grunge was the new
thing after Nirvana's breakthrough and
almost every band with long haired
members stood a chance. The label got
producer Kramer (of Shockabilly and
Bongwater "fame") to work with them
on their debut album.
"He was paid 60.000 dollars and
showed up driving a BMW shortly af-
terwards," said one of the Deep Jimis at
the time. "He did almost nothing in the
studio though, except smoke weed."
The album, ‘Funky Dinosaur,’ was re-
leased in 1992, but shortly afterwards
all deals were off as the label had vio-
lated most of their agreements.
Grunge was not that big in Iceland.
Bands such as Bone China, Deep Sea
Apple, Dos Pilas, Urmull, Quicksand
Jesus and In Bloom played and made
music but never got that big. The only
Icelandic rock band that was properly
popular was Jet Black Joe, because
they had what it takes: memorable, me-
lodic songs and an outstanding work
ethic.
THE FlIGHT OF THE JETS
Jet Black Joe was the brainchild of
singer Páll Rósinkranz and the afore-
mentioned guitarist Gunnar Bjarni
(fresh from his stint with Bootlegs).
At first, they made songs with a single
guitar but later got three more dudes to
form a band with. Major label Steinar
signed the band, and their first album
was made in 1992. Songs like ‘Big Fat
Stone’ and ‘Rain’ got popular and the
boys, all under the age of twenty, set
out to work only in music – "That is go-
ing fine. We make plenty money and
now drink Jim Beam instead of Bren-
nivín," Gunnar Bjarni remarked in No-
vember 1992. "It’s almost like a dream,"
said Páll. "We play music that we love
and people love it."
The self-titled debut album sold
7.000 copies, and label Steinar used ev-
ery possible connection to try and get
the band a record deal abroad. Waiting
for something to happen in the fickle
world of the music business is a sure-
fire way to mess up bands. Drinking
and smoking takes its toll but Gunnar
Bjarni wrote like crazy and had a new
album, ‘You Ain’t Here,’ ready for 1993.
It was not as popular as the first album.
"Mostly girls came to our concerts at
first," said Páll. "Now we get more boys
because our music is more heavy and
boys are more into heavy shit."
At the time various stories about the
band made the rounds. The advances
for the second album were said to have
been spent mostly on pizza to eat in
the studio and all around town there
were said to be unpaid bar-tabs from
the band. The story of how Páll shot the
drummer with a rifle was the most te-
nacious though.
"See," explained Jón Örn, the drum-
mer in an interview. "I went to Páll to
pick him up for a rehearsal. He said
he wanted to show me something and
when I came to his room he pointed a
rifle towards me. He shot and the bul-
let brushed by shoulder and hit the wall
behind me."
"Needless to say, I didn't know it
was loaded," said Páll.
"The best thing about it though was
when we got to the ER and I was being
sewn up, Páll said: Shit, now I will miss
my tanning session."
After one more album, 1995's ‘Fuzz,’
which included the hit ‘Higher & High-
er’, the band split up after a horrendous
trip to Austin, Texas’ SXSW showcase
festival. Singer Páll found God and left
the sinful world of rock to focus on
gospel music. Gunnar's various efforts
have never match the greatness of Jet
Black Joe, but the band’s keyboard-
player Hrafn formed Ensími, which is
still active and one of Iceland's most es-
tablished rock acts. Jet Black Joe have
of course had various comebacks and
even released a new album in 2006, the
not so great ‘Full Circle.’
Dr. Gunni
Photos:
The gentle art of Icelandic metal
album covers:
Drýsill's ‘Welcome To The Show,’
Sororicide's ‘The Entity’
Bootlegs's ‘WC Monster’
Icelandic Hard Rock In The Eighties And
Nineties – A Skin-Deep Account
Music | Dr. Gunni’s History Of Icelandic Rock: Part 32
By Dr. Gunni (Based on his book Eru ekki allir í stuði from 2001). We hear the
good doctor is working on an updated version of the book for 2012!