When they were 14, Jófríður and Ásthildur started a band for no other reason than it seemed like fun. However, the twin sisters never anticipated Pascal Pinon would be anything more than an enjoyable after-school activity.
"We're so super shy," says, Jófríður laughing while recounting the horror of their first concert. "We couldn't stand, we had to sit down. My feet were shaking tremendously! I could barely speak between songs."
Now 18 and on the cusp… more »
From 1999-2011, Robert Toher led the atmospheric post-rock band Apse, but by 2010, he was growing frustrated with that group's direction and organization. He started working on a separate project, ERAAS, with Apse guitarist Austin Stawiarz – Toher is drawn to the word "eras," he says (it had also been the title of a limited-edition Apse album). Toher and Stawiarz holed up in an old house in Northampton, Massachusetts, and gradually refined their new sound:… more »
Whether you're happily married or told Cupid to shove it a long time ago, we can all agree on one thing: to quote the one-and-only Nazareth, "Love hurts/ Love scars/ Love wounds/ And mars." Or something.
That's why we went ahead and compiled a list of 36 Songs To Soothe the Pain, from the bloodletting confessionals of Neko Case, Bright Eyes and Sunny Day Real Estate to the melancholic melodies of Sigur Rós, the Shangri-Las… more »
It started with a note of relief.
Our computers had survived; we had made it. The clocks had passed midnight into the year 2000, not 1900, and all those tanks of propane and fresh water cached in the garage became souvenirs of an instantly-embarrassing paranoia.
Perhaps the year 2000 was the last time many would regard a computer with suspicion. Fears of the machine-chaos that would ensue as computer clocks the world over tried in vain to… more »
A brass-based remix of the title track, titled “Rafmagnið Búið,” is an ambient slice of ECM-like chamber jazz that bleeds seamlessly into the original version of “Ný Batterí.” Forming a 13-minute suite of sorts, it’s just as fragile and somber as Radiohead’s “Fake Plastic Trees” until thick, rusted drums and muted, clangorous sound FX kick in at the ten-minute mark. Jon Thor Birgisson’s voice levitates much like Thom Yorke’s here, but there are no rough edges — it’s as smooth as a satin sheet. The tracks on the flip, which also flow uninterrupted, were used in the film Englar Alheimsins (Angels of the Universe). “Bíum Bíum Bambaló” is a darkly droning, seven-minute affair based on an Icelandic lullaby that allegedly hadn’t been recorded previously. It leads into the organ-based “Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir,” which begins innocently enough but explodes into something dangerously close to pompous ’70s prog. Still fine as a whole, and certainly essential for the fan. – Andy Kellman