Sigur Rós A to Z

For the past seven months or so, I have been obsessed with the Icelandic group Sigur Rós. So to educate myself more with this amazing band, I have decided to do a Sigur Rós A to Z. Enjoy!

A is for August 1994, the year Sigur Rós was formed.
A is also for Arni & Kinski, who are responsible for breathtaking Sigur Rós videos such as "Hoppípolla" and "Glósóli".

B is for blindness. Jónsi (Sigur Rós’ lead singer) is blind in one eye since birth.

C is for The Calculation Car (Reiknibíllinn). Sigur Rós did the voices for this Icelandic children’s mathematics video game.

D is for "Dauðlagið" aka Untitled 7 from ( ), which translates to "The Death Song".
[download: Dauðlagið]

E is for Englar Alheimsins, an Icelandic film which featured two songs by Sigur Rós: "Bíum Bíum Bambaló" and "Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir".
[download: Bíum Bíum Bambaló]
[download: Dánarfregnir Og Jarðarfarir]

F is for "Fljúgðu", Sigur Rós’ first recorded song.
F is also for Frakkur, the name of Jónsi’s solo act.

G is for Grammy nominations. Sigur Rós received two Grammy nominations for ( ), best alternative music album and best recording package.

H is for Hopelandic. It is a language invented by Jónsi. All the vocals on ( ) as well as track 7-9 on Takk... are sung in Hopelandic.

I is for Iceland, where the members of Sigur Rós are from.

J is for Jón Þór Birgisson, aka Jónsi, the lead singer of Sigur Rós.

K is for Kjartan Sveinsson, aka Kjarri, who is the only member of Sigur Rós that studied music.

L is for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, a Wes Anderson’s film that featured the song "Starálfur".
[download: Starálfur]

M is for Mosfellsbžr, where Sigur Rós’ converted swimming pool studio is located.

N is for "Njósnavélin" aka "The Spy Machine" aka "Untitled #4". This song is from ( ) and it also appeared in Cameron Crowe’s Vanilla Sky.
[download: Njósnavélin]

O is for "Over The Pond". A song by The Album Leaf in which Jónsi led his vocal on.
[download: Over The Pond]

P is for Natalie Portman, who is a fan of Sigur Rós.

Q is for queer... Jónsi is gay.

R is for Geoff Rickly, lead singer of Thursday, who recorded an amazing cover of "Ný Batterí".
[download: Ný Batterí (Thursday cover)]

S is for Sigurrós, the name of Jónsi’s little sister and where the band’s name came from.

T is for Takk… their forth studio album released in 2005.

U is for unique... Sigur Rós is one of the most unique bands ever!

V is for 'victory rose', the English translation of Sigur Rós.
V is also for Sigur Rós’ first album, Von.

W is for We Are Scientists, who performed a pretty good acoustic cover of "Hoppípolla" live on BBC Radio 1.
[download: Hoppípolla (We Are Scientists cover)]

X is for John X, Sigur Rós’s manager.

Y is for... ummm... y sounds same as icelandic "i" or "í". This is taken straight from the Sigur Rós website, so it is Sigur Rós related.

Z is for "Zephyr", the English translated title for "Andvari" from Takk...
[download: Andvari]

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buy all things Sigur Rós here

i'm standing on the rooftop ready to fall

Rise Against’s new disc The Sufferer & The Witness came out on Tuesday. Who has the album?? Hook me up! Just kidding... I’ll probably go buy a copy soon as I loved the unmastered version of the album. For now, here’s a video for the wicked-cool song "Ready To Fall".



buy The Sufferer & The Witness here

well I don't feel better when I'm fucking around

The Strokes' First Impressions Of Earth came out at the beginning of the year, but due to the abundance of music in my collection, I just started to it about a week ago. To my surprise, it is a pretty damn good record. I am particularly in love with the song "Heart In A Cage" right now. It is a perfect rock and roll song, right from the guitar solo intro and the unforgettable first lines of lyrics... everything about "Heart In A Cage" is just great!!! In my opinion, it is one of the best singles out this year, I just don’t know why it is not getting more airplay!

Heart In A Cage [super-wicked-cool song]
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buy First Impressions Of Earth here
buy Heart In A Cage 7" here

how did I let her inside?

I am bringing Robin to the Head Automatica, Angels & Airwaves, and Taking Back Sunday show for an early birthday celebration tonight. It'll be interesting as this is my first stadium show in a very long time! I am sure that it will be a refreshing change seeing expensive stage props, fireworks, high-tech-lights, and other craziness they have in stadium shows. I will give a review and hopefully have some pictures of the show in a few days.

Head Automatica - Candy Warhol
Angels & Airwaves - Do It For Me Now
TBS - Brooklyn
TBS - Sleep
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planning my invasion

Jesse, can you find out how/where I can get tickets to this show... Here's the show info taken from Valencia's MySpace page: Kick Rock MUSIC presents KICK FAN DEAD vol.25 w/ VALENCIA Shibuya egg-man Open 18:00 / Start 19:00 Adv. 3000YEN Dr.3500YENwith drink 1000YEN Ticket Pia: P-Code: 234-242 Lawson Ticket: L-Code: 37728

Valencia - The Space Between [wicked-cool song]
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buy This Could Be A Possibility here

so wave goodbye to living alone, i think we've found our home

I finally started moving stuffs to my new place on Maitland and Church. Millie and I put today a coffee table, a chair, and a bookshelf yesterday... I love putting furniture together! They are like Lego for adults! Oh, I also saw the new Superman movie, let me just say, it was very long. Anyways, I think that is all for now... I am working on a new 'A to Z list', so look for that very soon; but for now, I leave you with this Patrick Wolf video I found on YouTube:



This video is so cute!!! Patrick Wolf has really short hair in it... and I love the part where he forgot the lyrics and sang "next year, please let me remember the words to my songs..."

to all the american readers:

Happy 4th of July!

can we take the next hour and talk about me?

Dear loyal readers, I am back from the cottage and this blog is now back in business! The Canada Day weekend was fun even though the weather was not all that great: rainy, cloudy, and gloomy for most parts. Nonetheless, I still managed to get a sunburn during those short sunny cloudless hours. The highlight for me was on Saturday when I woke up at around 5:15 am to stroll around the "wild" and sat at the end of the dock alone to watch the sunrise: it was very calming and peaceful! I managed to take a few pictures before my camera ran out of batteries; you can check those out, along with a bunch of random and pointless pictures here.

The soundtrack for my Canada Day long weekend consisted of Sigur Rós, Patrick Wolf, Broken Social Scene, and The Album Leaf. If you are a regular visitor of this blog, you are most likely sick of reading about the first three; on the contrary, I don't think I have ever mentioned The Album Leaf on this blog. I am only familiar with The Album Leaf's 2004 release, In A Safe Place, which was the record I listened to (a lot) over the weekend. Perhaps one of the reasons I listened to In A Safe Place so many times was because it has this nature/earthy feel, making it a perfect soundtrack when one's out in the cottage country. For those of you who have never heard of The Album Leaf, it is essentially an all-instrumental-solo-project by Jimmy LaValle. Despite the all-instrumental part, In A Safe Place actually features three vocal tracks: "On Your Own", "Over The Pond", and "Eastern Glow". In fact, "Over The Pond" features the voice of Jónsi from Sigur Rós! Other highlights include "Thule", "Twentytwofourteen", "The Outer Banks", and "Streamside". Unlike many instrumental albums which sound forced and self-centered, Jimmy LaValle does not try to showoff how fast and complex he can play different musical instrumentals, nor does he feature long improvise guitar solos in his songs. In A Safe Place simply contains beautiful natural music.

Thule
On Your Way [super-wicked-cool song]
Twentytwofourteen
The Outer Banks [wicked-cool song]
Over The Pond [wicked-cool song]
Streamside
Eastern Glow
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buy In A Safe Place here

they said boys are messy, but you know girls just made the mess

Alright... because I love you all so much, here's one more update before I take a break for the long weekend.
Men Women & Children’s self-titled release could easily be the funniest and catchiest album of the year. It is a post punk dance pop record done perfectly. Men Women & Children is better known to many as the ex-GlassJaw guitarist - Todd Weinstock’s band. To me, it is a much superior project than the other GlassJaw related dance/pop record (sorry Mr. Palumbo). It combines limitless genres such as soul, r & b, disco, punk, rock, 80s pop… Men Women & Children is like an old Michael Jackson record meets The Rapture/The Faint, it is a hyper poppy dance-o-matic machine. If you want something fun to listen to during this long weekend, be should to check out Men Women & Children, it is the only record you need to start a sexy dance party! Damn... I don't know why I am not in bed yet... I have to be up in like less than five hours... ew!

Dance In My Blood [wicked-cool song]
Photosynthesis (We're Losing O2)
Who Found Mr. Fabulous?
Messy
Celebracion
Vowels
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buy Men Women & Children here

every canadian needs to go see souvenir of canada... like now!

Alright, there will not be any updates for a few days because I am going up to my friend’s cottage for the long weekend... so, have a fun and safe holiday and don’t drink too much! Oh, and go see The Devil Wears Prada!