Tim Pogo, Tim Burgess and me
By the time you read this, I will be…
in Iceland. I’m going back for the third year to the Iceland Airwaves music festival in ReykjavÃk. “My previous visits are chronicled at my other site, Jostled by Vikings.” I went in 2001 and created that site when I got back. My friends at Icelandair, the festival organizers, liked it and invited me to come last year to write a daily online diary. It was a sort of, oh, I don’t know, “weblog” of the festival. “If you’d like to read them, go to the Airwaves site and click on Airwaves Insider. I wrote a lot of the other stuff in there, too.” They’re bringing me back to do it again, so in essence, Fistful of Plooble has moved to Iceland for the coming week. Maybe I should call it Fistful of Putrefied Shark Meat for the time being. Or Fistful of Funny Letters. “You use the character map a lot when you’re writing about Iceland.” I’ll start posting to the diary on Thursday. I might post here, too, if I’m not too drunk busy.
I would write more about Iceland and the festival, but I already did that, on the Jostled by Vikings site. Suffice it to say that it’s an amazing country and an amazing festival. There are dozens of great Icelandic bands playing all kinds of different music, as well as acts from the US and Europe. Last year I met a bunch of really cool Icelandic musicians including Siggi from The Sugarcubes and the guys from Jagúar, as well as visitors like The Hives, Remy Zero and Blackalicious, and narrowly avoided seeing Norman Cook “a.k.a. Fatboy Slim” in a bathing suit. I also got to hang out with Tim Burgess of The Charlatans and his wife Michelle. We went to see a geyser together, and later he played me rough mixes of his solo album, which was just released last month. It’s that kind of festival.
This year there are a bunch of Icelandic bands on my must-see list “SKE, Jagúar, MÃnus, Trabant, Úlpa, Vinyl and 200.000 NaglbÃtar, which means “200,000 nail clippers””. The Airwaves site has mp3s of most of the bands, and I highly recommend checking them out, especially SKE. I’m also eagerly awaiting the shows by US acts The Album Leaf and TV On The Radio. And I really want to see Bent & 7Berg. You haven’t heard rap until you’ve heard it in Icelandic. But I’m most excited about seeing SKE. They were one of last year’s buzz bands, and of course I missed the show. I bought their album “Life, Death, Happiness & Stuff,” and I couldn’t get it out of my CD player for weeks. This year they’re playing on Thursday at Þjóðleikhúskjallarinn. Right. Sure. I hope I don’t have to ask for directions.
I’m also looking forward to hanging out with Adda Snackfish Egbertsdóttir, and meeting Taavi. It’s nice to know I won’t be the only one in danger of peeing on the floor.
Okay, y’all be good while I’m gone. Oh, and please don’t rob my house. Thanks.