Atlantica - 01.03.2001, Qupperneq 48

i-site❍
46 A T L A N T I C A
Sitting quietly around two tables in the City Hall’s
café, are Mínus less one. “We’re still waiting for
our singer,” one of them tells me. “Is that what you
call him?” I ask. It is a genuine question and not a
quip, since their sound is a massive noise, dense
rock with a blend of shouting and screaming
through it – no riffs, no romance, a couple of
moments when the drummer could walk the whole
show off into some other musical forum, but
otherwise the sound of undiluted frustration and,
definitely, no singing.
That’s just my description but, according to the
band, their second and most recent album, jesus
christ bobby, is actually a step away from hardcore.
Anyone who’s up on this genre and the nuances of
its many-titled subgenres would probably know
that. Hardcore and co. have a massive following.
To me, however, it’s just a racket, although the
lyrics look lyrical enough on the CD sleeve. I come
clean and tell them I don’t get their music, in the
hope of gleaning some insight. Is it teenage angst
or politically loaded? “It’s just some kind of expres-
sion of our extremes,” says guitarist Frosti. And if
that’s so, I take it I met their pedestrian extreme.
Their album has been released on the Sugar Cube-
founded Smekkleysa label (Bad Taste Ltd), and fea-
tures vocals from ex-Cube Einar Örn on one track.
The glossy booklet suggests that the label is
putting a fair bit of cash at their back. “Yeh… I think
P
h
o
to
b
y
B
ri
a
n
S
w
e
e
n
e
y
Noisy Boys
Björk is paying for it,” says Frosti, “but we’ve
never met her.” The lads go on to name several of
the early Icelandic indie-punk bands among their
influences. But there is of course one significant
difference: jesus christ bobby, was written, and is
performed, in English only. The explanation is
obvious: “Eventually we’ll take this abroad. We’re
not going to stay here longer than we have to.”
One last question, out of curiosity more than any-
thing: Are girls into your music? “Well some girls
pretend to be, and they come to see us live, but
it’s definitely not their kind of music,” says Bjarni
(also on guitar). So then they’re coming to see
you… are you sex symbols? “Well I know I am,”
says drummer Bjossi with a grin. “One thing’s for
sure,” adds Bjarni, “if they really like our music,
then they’re also really ugly. It’s too noisy and evil
for cute girls.” Coincidentally his T-shirt reads,
“girls kick ass”. I take it that’s the cute variety.
They call their music “frat(ernity) rock”. Sounds
like another way of saying “boy’s noise” to me,
but if your fingers fall naturally into the sign of the
beast then you should look them up on
www.dordingull.com
Incidentally, their singer never did turn up,
although since he is notoriously late, we waited
for him for an hour. The others, having taken time
off work to do the interview, were not amused.
Trouble in the noisy fraternity? JMcC
45-53 ATL 2/01 i-site cmsx 20/2/01 4:07 pm Page 46