Merengue for the People!

Shakira is bringing merengue to the masses, and making it sexy… oh so sexy (keep it brown. and short). And where are they having these parties? (Oh, in Barcelona apparently…) As much as I love what the artists in the Dominican have been doing to breathe new life into merengue and mambo, it was sorely lacking sex appeal:

Not exactly arousing enthusiasm…  kind of a rocky start too, but they manage to recover; doing roughly the same dance moves at kinda the right time.

I have to give Shakira, or probably somebody on Shakira’s staff, credit for doing their homework. With a majority of the pop-superstars rehashing the same, tired club sound (ahem, Black Eyed Peas I’m looking at you) it’s nice to see a solid artist sourcing something at least a little different. And rumor has it that Shakira is referencing some pret-ty strange material these days. We can only hope it gets weird. Really weird.

Iceland Airwaves – Saturday

I woke up at the crack of noon (read: early) because there was no way in hell I was missing a free trip to a fucking SPA. The official Airwaves ‘industry’ (read: mostly dudes) party was happening at the Blue Lagoon, the famous Icelandic hot spring. So I rolled out of bed, booked it down to the hotel shuttle, scrambled through Reykjavik to grab my bus ticket and… I wasn’t on the list. Figures; but Iceland promised me a party at a spa damnit! How could they deny me this, the birthright of all Icelanders? I frantically went from desk to desk, asking, pleading, but no luck  Finally, the ticket girl took pity on me, told me she didn’t want me to miss out on the fun, and slipped me a ticket (this, actually, happened a lot. I’m pretty sure the only reason I made it on any bus the entire time I was there was because people were so damn nice). Everyone hopped on the bus, and I drifted off to sleep as we rolled out over the beautiful, moss-blanketed Icelandic countryside.

I have to say, getting out of the bus put a damper on my enthusiasm for an outdoor bath. On top of the viking cold, everything was shrouded in a sort of permamist from the on-again, off-again rain characteristic of Iceland. As soon as I slipped into that water, I didn’t give one. single. damn. By the time I had silica mud smeared on my face and a drink from the swim up bar in my hand (now that’s a spa!) I was feeling like a million bucks. The more-or-less official DJ of the Blue Lagoon, Margeir was  bumping techno, and a dude-heavy group was having a hell of a time out on the dance fl…pool?. I stayed until around 3 (if I had stayed a little longer, I probably would have run into Jaymie, who took all the amazing pictures a couple hours after I left) before heading back to Reykjavik for some lunch. Turning down the bus-driver’s offer to personally drive me back to my hotel (I was the only passenger not staying downtown) I directed myself to the famous Bæjarins beztu pylsur, for what translates to “the best hotdog in town.” I ordered two with the works (onions, fried onions, ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, and some sauce called remolaði) and quickly stuffed them both into my food hole. Satiated, I lumbered back to the hotel to grab a quick nap. No way was I going to squander my last night in Iceland on something useless like sleep.

I knew I had to make my first show of the night Mount Kimbie, an experimental electronic duo from the UK that I have a music nerd crush on thanks to “Maybes”, playing over at the NASA venue (free beer fridge, woo!). As I was hanging out waiting for them to start, I had the luck to chat with James Blake, upstairs in the lounge. He’s a cool dude, and not at all as dark and twisted as his music makes him seem. It was a real treat, and an example of one my favorite things about Airwaves; the artists are all over the city. You practically can’t go anywhere (including the bathroom) without running into someone in a band. Music nerd heaven. We got to discuss the finer points of house music, Icelandic women (they’re fit), and the worlds newly discovered sub-bass fetish. Our conversation ended as Mount Kimbie took the stage, and we both filtered downstairs to the main hall for the show. Turn on a couple smoke machines for atmosphere and wham! You’ve got the perfect setting for Kimbie’s spooky electronica. They put on a fantastic set, and thankfully, since they were early in the night, could be as creepy and dark as they wanted without ruining anyone’s redbull buzz. Once they wrapped up, it was a quick run over to Sódóma to see check out Crocodiles, a San Diego based band who could be described as a noisier incarnation of the Beach Boys (No way am I going to make these comparisons, I’m not a fucking press sheet). Fuzzed out guitars, distorted vocals and wavy synths are their trademarks, lending to a sound that could only be described as partly submerged… like a… crocodile?

Then it was quickly back to NASA for the Apparat Organ Quartet, an Icelandic favorite (apparently?). I originally thought they had something to do with Berlin based techno pioneer Apparat, who perhaps had found some organs (4 to be precise) to play with. Not the case; the Apparat Organ Quartet is Icelandic through-and-through and entirely unrelated. They stick to a brand of synthpop, with distorted vocals slapped on top of hyper-crisp tones. They were a lot of fun, got the crowd involved doing mysterious hand movements that apparently all the fans knew, and put on an all around good show. I wound up staying for Hercules and Love Affair, who did their standard disco revival thing. On the tip from a local girl named Björk (No, not that Björk) I decided to stick around for Retro Stefson, who apparently had some surprises up their sleeves. They’re damn eclectic; hopping between electro to funk. (They even managed to sneak in a quick cover of Pon di Floor, which got everyone going pretty apeshit). Next up was the Amplifetes, a Swedish band fronted by a glittery Jesus impersonator (the drummer was also a half-normal, half glitter hybrid).  They were a lot of fun (memory a little hazy at this point; thanks Heineken for the free beer) and performed some perfectly executed glam pop. Did I mention how much glitter there was?

Then it was back out into the streets again. I ended up going back to Venue with a group of locals, who vouched for the late night crowd there. At around 4 AM, they opened up the doors connecting the adjacent bar Sodoma for a giant dance party. James Blake showed up to play a surprise DJ set (this is starting to sound like a dream now that I’m typing it up ) and I danced my freaking ass off until I was a sweaty, exhausted mess. I got in a taxi, slurred the name of my hotel (probably my best pronunciation yet) one last time, and duly spent the ride pledging that I would do everything I could to make it back to Airwaves next year.

Bæjarins beztu pylsu

Airwaves/CMJ Radio Showcase

You probably haven’t been waiting for it, but here it is anyway! Recorded on October 19th, shortly after I got back from Iceland, this mix features bands that performed at Iceland Airwaves,random personal anecdotes from my trip (Which, even if you don’t care about, there’s still 11 awesome songs to hear) and a quick look at some of the acts that performed at CMJ.

Mediafire

Tracklist after the jump…

Iceland Airwaves – Friday Night

Now that I’ve been back on US soil for about two weeks (Hey, I’ve been busy), it’s about time I shared a brief recap of one of the most unique music festivals I’ve ever attended. First off, unlike most of the festivals stateside, the city of Reykjavik is almost entirely integrated into the festive atmosphere. You can’t pass a store window without seeing a sign advertising an Airwaves showcase (the sheer number of off-venue, “unofficial” shows is awesome). So as I mentioned, I spent most of my Friday just taking in the sights, drinking coffee, and preparing myself for that night.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone my first day at Airwaves. I was fortunate enough to meet up with Jaymie Nima Idowa from New York’s WFIT, so I had an American buddy (who could actually take photos!) to pal around with for the afternoon. We decided to check out 12 Tónar, the legendary Icelandic record store (only Icelandic record store?) that has served as a fertile environment for acts like Björk and Sigur Rós (two of Iceland’s most famous exports!) to see Diamond Rings perform his own particular brand of glammed-out indie pop. Unfortunately we arrived just in time to hear the last couple notes before he thanked the crowd and packed up his things (Oh well, at least we’d get to see him later). Not wanting to have come all the way here for nothing, we took some time to relax downstairs, check out the records, and stage a quick impromptu photo session. Then it was off to the coffee shop, for yet another cappuccino before the first shows of the evening started. This is also about when we discovered the SECRET FREE VIP BEER FRIDGE at the Heineken sponsored lounge at NASA, which made both of us very happy to say the least. Feeling ready enough, we sauntered over to the Reyjavik Art Museum, which had been re-purposed just for the festival as a concert venue (told you the whole city gets in on this). We caught an fun show by the UK’s Everything Everything, a band that incorporates some much needed eclecticism into the standard guitar-rock formula; the end result being an art museum jam-packed with moving bodies.

Next up was a quick walk over to Venue (Seriously, all of the show locations were almost on top of each other. This fact, paired with an apparent lack of open container laws, makes for a very fun city) to hear some chilled out sounds from Toro Y Moi. He played a thoroughly fuzzed out set, backed by live drums and bass to add some extra punch to his sound. In retrospect, it was nice seeing a relaxed, mellow show at this point in the night; it wouldn’t be for another 5 hours or so that I’d find out first hand that the bars in Iceland don’t close until 6am. At this point, I decided it was time for a quick sandwich (It’s called a ‘boat’?) and a drink that wasn’t going to raise my BAC.

Feeling oddly rejuvenated, it was back to Venue to catch a DJ set I was personally very excited for, James Blake. Hailing from the UK, Blake is responsible for putting out some of the most interesting experimental ‘club’-inspired music over the past couple years (Genres? Pfft.) I didn’t quite know what to expect, considering all the hype associated with him at the moment, but he really did himself justice. He drew heavily from American R&B, mixing some choice Aaliyah and TLC acapellas with the weird, but infectious, new wave of bass music coming out of the UK. I even have to say, one of the highlights of my trip was listening to a group of drunken Icelanders belting out “I’m sorry Ms. Jackson. Woooooo!” when Outkast dropped (Okay I’ll admit, I did it too).

Feeling pumped at this point, I’m pretty damn glad to have stumbled into Slagsmålsklubben’s set at NASA. I had just gone back check out the free beer fridge real quick (locked), but ended up bumping into Jaymie again. We went downstairs to the show almost on a whim, and were greeted with a barrage of crazy Swedish synthpop and this guy in leopard print dancing on a table. Awesome. And their name translates to ‘Fight Club’? I’m sold. They played until (really) late, but it was a ton of fun, and a great way to wrap up the first night of shows. We grabbed a taxi back to the hotel we couldn’t pronounce to grab some sleep. After all, we had to wake up in a couple of hours for the day party at the famous Blue Lagoon.

(Stuff about Saturday will be posted…)

Iceland Airwaves – Friday

Arriving at 6 am isn’t the best way to start off an Icelandic adventure, so after a quick power nap I decided to explore the city center of Reykjavik. First off, the architecture is beautiful, ranging from picturesque cottages to chic, modern forms. I spent the morning drinking coffee and just wandering around enjoying the buildings. I’ve had about three cups so far, so suffice to say, I’m wired and ready to see some shows tonight.