Number Four: Mills and Boon

Picture, if you will, the archetypal rock family tree. You know the one, based on those incestuous sixties bands, on that program your Dad watched religiously on BBC2 ten years ago. Now, on said tree imagine a new bough extending: out of the hedgerow that is Fairport Convention and into The Who at the height of their powers (a relative twiglet by comparison). Somewhere upon this new shoot lies Mills and Boon, not by insemination or betrothal, but in the obscurest aural manner. Got that? Good. Finally then, to complete the tapestry, you must regard Mills and Boon as the family member with the deep-seated psychological problems, the cousin who was touched as a child.

Now, before those of you who are easily led get carried away, I must point out that you shouldn't expect to hear sweet sounds akin to Sandy Denny here; what you will find in Mills and Boon is a lot closer to a live rendition of "A Quick One While He's Away" than, say, a digitally remastered "Pinball Wizard"...but...even that doesn't do them justice. There are found sounds and effects, seemingly found or improvised spoken phrases and psychedelic breakdowns aplenty. In the nicest possible way, Mills and Boon are a ramshackle folk mess. And I love them.

Their debut album got a release on Bearos in 2007, but subsequent offerings slip into the hard-to-find category...unless you find your way onto their Myspace account, where they offer to send you out their recording history in exchange for a mere address. If Barrett and Beefheart or, more latterly, the guitar stylings of the likes of Women are your cup of tea, you could do a lot worse than drop this lot a line.

Can I interest you in a club sandwich?

Myspace.

"Extinct Meat" music video:

Number Three: Who Knew

In this edition I'm compelled to return to Iceland by a band who eschew the stereotypical sentiment of contemporary Icelandic music. There are no visions of glaciers and lava plains here, just a whole-hearted band giving it their all to make joyously melodic indie music.

Who Knew have been a fixture on my iPod the last couple of days, and worthily so. My listening habits tend to revolve around albums. I can easily listen to one album repeatedly for a period of time, to the extent where I may hear nothing else for well over a week. Since returning from Iceland last month, Who Knew have slowly ingrained themselves in me, and I now find myself turning the jog wheel to W at least a couple of times a day.

These are seven Reykjavik lads plugged straight into the heart of Apologies To The Queen Mary Wolf Parade. At times it's almost as if frontman Ármann Ingvi Ármannson was taught to sing by Spencer Krug himself, and there are even echoes of Krug's more progressive works in their subdued numbers.
Delve a little deeper, however, and you unearth subtle hints at the kind of Afro beat rhythms you would usually associate with Yeasayer; the opening to the first single from debut album Bits and Pieces of a Major Spectacle, "We Do", being a case in point. "We Do" is an immense track, backed by an immensely brutal video. This is where any thoughts of mid Atlantic rift landscapes are truly put to bed, bloodied and desperate.

With shows in Germany already under their belts, perhaps Who Knew are about ready to bring their show - including immaculately synchronised headbanging - to a town near you...

Myspace.

"We Do" music video:

Number Two: Yuni In Taxco

Next up, I bring to you Yuni In Taxco, a psych surf pop band hailing from that bastion of grunge, Seattle. Yuni in Taxco formed at the climax of a trip to Puerto Vallarta in Mexico, on a blustery night when, as legend has it, boats spilt oil into the bay and fires broke out in the streets. A dramatic birth indeed, although my experience of Yuni In Taxco to date holes them as rather more winsome than destructive. 

There is a slightly ramshackle aesthetic to their sound that you may have come across in the likes of Akron/Family or Cold War Kids, and they possess the range of backing vocals that's to be expected from a band who claims "Beach Boys era psychedelia" as an influence. From the deep tones of theremin maestro Isaiah Washington to sometimes strained falsetto and the shared lead vocals of Ross Beamish and Sean Beszhak, the mix of choral melodies is far from conventional and lends their songs that distinctive West coast freshness, especially when delivered live. Unsurprisingly, influential Seattle radio staion KEXP is a fan and invited them to Concerts at the Mural this summer - a showcase of the Seattle area's independent music scene.

A small taste of their material, in the shape of their self-titled debut EP, can be found on their website for stream or free download, and there is the promise of a full length during 2011, preceded by a series of singles at the back end of this year. Something to look forward to.

Myspace.
Website.

"Pain of an Education" live at Faktory, Reykjavík, Oct 2010:

Number One: Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán

Having just returned to the UK from Iceland, my soft-spot for the pop music of the northern Atlantic country is only recently massaged, so I'm going to kick off this blog by bringing to your attention Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán.

Of course, the astute amongst you will readily point out that Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán have appeared at multiple editions of the Airwaves festival already and headlined one of the small venues only this year. Indeed, they appeared on Icelandic TV as far back as 2006 so can't possibly be classified as 'new'.
However, the likes of Hjaltalín (featured in the Guardian Airwaves 2010 preview) have headlined shows in the UK and Europe extensively, whilst For A Minor Reflection (likewise) toured the world as the main support for Sigur Rós towards the end of 2008. Owing to their relative obscurity outside of their homeland, therefore, I deem Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán worthy of introduction via these pages. That, and the fact they're outrageously entertaining.

In Sigurður Ásgeir Árnason, they have a front man who fits somewhere in between Guy McKnight of Eighties Matchbox at his least Iggy-sounding and Ricky Wilson of Kaiser Chiefs at his most athletic, who lends the act the franticness that music of a danceable techno persuasion requires. This is a sound built of lead synth lines and racing rhythms, square waves aplenty. But the European techno club reliance on the drop-out and (here it comes) subsequent kick-in is exchanged for traditional pop arrangements building to gloriously upbeat choruses. You can't help but get caught up in the desire to move about and jump up and down.

Naturally then, it is in the live environment where Ultra Mega Technobandið Stefán come into their own. Should you ever find yourself in the greater Reykjavík area when a UMTBS show is scheduled, I implore you to go along because, despite their own assertion that they are "too weird to live, too weird to die", this is a band with fantastic potential. Here, I hope, is what the commercial success of the likes of Kids by MGMT has foretold. The next crossover: indie techno.

"3D Love" live at NASA, Reykjavík, Oct 2009:
Myspace.
UMTBS on Gogoyoko - stream & buy mp3's.

Number Zero

It dawned on me when retrospectively reviewing The Guardian preview of the 2010 edition of the Iceland Airwaves festival. And that despite it being the wrong time of year for an epiphany. A joke there, borne of a Methodist upbringing.

Each of the five bands profiled in the preview were artists I had seen at Airwaves the two previous years. Had the journalist mistakenly submitted his 2008 festival preview to the Editor? Or the Editor mistakenly published the 2008 festival preview? Surely not. A respected publication, the Consumer publisher of the year, no less, couldn't be capable of such a glaringly obvious oversight.

How, then, are people to find out about the great Icelandic bands filling the smaller venues and footing the bills at Airwaves 2010, I thought?

So I take it upon myself to introduce to you a new band or artist every week, or every month, or as I feel like it, or as I get around to it. I expect there are a whole heap of these things online these days, so well done for finding this particular one. I hope you enjoy it.