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It is very difficult for any Sigur Rós fan - no matter how long they've fed their ears with some of the most glorious music put to record in the 21st century - to free the band from the association they've been given with the words 'glacial' and 'epic'. The band themselves have found these seemingly tailor-made-for-Icelandic-music tags difficult to shake off. The release of new album Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust was designed as a reaction to their international perception. "We're all sick of doing the 10-minute epics, the really quiet bit followed by the really loud bit. We just go straight to the point now, and have some fun with it," was the summary of the new album by bassist Georg Hólm. Tuesday's concert in Wolves - the first gig of a European tour that finishes in Reykjavík on the 23rd of November - marked the first full European tour for a number of years in which the band played without strings or brass accompaniment and my first ever Sigur Rós gig, something which had been me ridiculously excited for a week leading up to the event itself.
After the well-received performance from support band For A Minor Reflection - a band who are much tighter live than on record and commented that the usual attendance figures of their gigs were closer to 15/20 people rather than the sold out Civic Hall - and a wait of half an hour, Sigur Rós took to the softly-lit stage and launched into 'Svefn-g-englar'. The years of listening to this song through headphones does not prepare you for the sheer onslaught of volume as Jón Þór Birgisson's bowed guitar wails and roars through the mix. The force of it all is extraordinary.
'Ný batterí' continues the volume onslaught as drummer Orri's bass drum pounds away and the bowed guitar continues to scream wildly. After the song has died down to strong applause, they play two songs from Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust, 'Fljótavík' and new single 'Við spilum endalaust'. If either of these had been written for a previous Sigur Rós album, they would have been made in reverb chambers and sounded like a voice crying in a snowstorm, but they are warm, organic, almost pop-esque songs that still fill the room with the same atmosphere as gems such as 'Viðrar vel til loftárása', a song that stripped from layers of studio production and left with the four men on stage is still able to send shivers down your spine.
Most Sigur Rós concertgoers treat it like a reverential experience, and despite a moment in 'Viðrar...' where a long silence halfway through is interrupted by a handful of narcissitic idiots, they are responsive, appreciative, and even keen to join the party. Jónsi rouses the audience to sing along with 'Með blóðnasir', and implores everyone on the balcony to stand up and join in with the clapping of the euphoric 'Gobbledigook', which ends in a shower of confetti and sore hands.
'All Alright' is astonishing, its personal lyrics sang in delicate English create a intimacy beyond words, before the band finish the set with 'Popplagið', in which the Sigur Rós interpretation of 'epic' is taken to ridiculous proportions as the build-up to the final crescendo threatens to come for several minutes before finally spilling out in a storm of low-mid frequencies before it ends in white noise and chaos. Everyone stands to applaud, before filing out of the building with dazed, confused and gobsmacked expressions.
To sum up how good it was, the word 'glacial' hasn't occured to me since.
In a recent edition of the Radio Times - which, for those of you not acquainted with what's stored on British newspaper racks, is a weekly magazine filled with radio and TV programme listings - music journalist Stuart Maconie argued that only "earnest, dull men" kept the concept of the guilty musical pleasure alive. He claimed that these men promoted figures such as Tom Waits and Nick Cave as credible musical figureheads, whilst bands like ABBA were often dismissed for seemingly being insincere and 'poppy'.
Ignoring the fact that he was a journalist for the NME who gave out accolades galore to earnest, dull bands aimed at earnest, dull men, Maconie had a point. Music journalists, bloggers, your friends, your teachers - almost everyone has a little switch in their head which turns on every time they hear something that wouldn't even be allowed into their houses, let alone put on their CD player. So, to extend Maconie's argument - why?
At London's Stay Beautiful club night (06/09/08), the Top 40 caught up to me in the form of Katy Perry's 'I Kissed A Girl'. I knew nothing of her then, and since then I'm not exactly a fountain of knowledge on all things Katy Perry.
What I do know is that I LOVE THIS SONG:
I can hear the objections already - "It's all a gimmick!" "The lyrics are terrible!" "It's trashy!" "How dare she revel in kissing another girl!" "What on earth could you like about this song?!"
I'm happy to say that I like that it's trashy-pop that you can dance to and is as catchy as MRSA in a British hospital. It's begging to be turned up and danced to at home. I enjoy listening to it on its own merits. It sits happily between Kate Bush and Kraftwerk on my iTunes library, and represents 79p of upbeat pop music. For me, there's nothing guilty about that.
I also love the work of Mark Kozelek (particularly early-Red House Painters) and Nick Cave (from The Birthday Party to modern-day Bad Seeds records), and again, I love their music based on its own merits. I could listen to all of Ocean Beach or Murder Ballads without fail; they are brilliant songs played to exceptionally high standards. However, you can't have shade without light, and so the aforementioned Miss Perry, Dusty Springfield, Scissor Sisters and all other non-earnest bands and artists are welcome to my ears. Any comments will fall on deaf ears.
Do other Moggers think that musical elitism is an issue in modern society? Is it driven by fashion, cultural backgrounds, or plain old-fashioned spite for anything different?
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No more play ons to the title of the track "I Kissed a Girl and I Liked It."
I posted and I liked it :)
Everybody's favourite purveyors of alternative rock in a David Bowie-meets-Sonic Youth kind of way are coming back soon - Placebo have been working on their sixth and-as-yet-untitled studio album with producer David Bottrill (Tool, Silverchair, dEUS) and engineer James Brown (who also worked on Placebo's fifth album Meds) at a studio in Toronto, Canada. This will be the first Placebo album since the depature of drummer Steve Hewitt; former Evaline member Steve Forrest has taken his place behind the kit on a full-time basis.
A studio feed featuring a selection of photographs from the sessions can be found here. There is currently no word on a possible release date, but an early/mid-2009 release is feasible.
In other Placebo-related news, Brian Molko is to appear at a concert in Paris celebrating the release of Serge Gainsbourg's Histoire de Melody Nelson. The concert is a reprisal of an event at London's Barbican Theatre in 2006, which saw Jean-Claude Vannier conduct and guest vocals from Jarvis Cocker, Brigitte Fontaine (who will also feature in this year's performance) and Mick Harvey from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, amongst others.
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i remember seeing them this year in new york and i have to say...that they might be the most underrated band in all of music right now.for the almost 2 hour set the concert-goer gets a feel of euphoria and the soundtrack to what we might think to be utopia.cheers for your review.
I agree with the comment about the euphoric nature of a Sigur Rós concert; a lot of the new material such as 'Inní mér syngur vitleysingur' and 'Festival' (which they also played in Wolverhampton - not London as MOG says!) caused a pleasant headrush.
aww jealous! i didnt get to hear them play svefngenglar when i saw them. but it was an amazing show none the less. for a minor reflection's guitarist is the brother of georg. which is funny because when i saw sigur live, the opening band was parachutes, whom jonsi's boyfriend is in. the family that plays together stays together!