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Lay Low

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laylow

It’s been a while crocodile….  Sorry for the delay, the holiday season was quite the busy time indeed.

This week’s review is all about Lay Low.  Lay low is a very charming, sweet musician that I’ve seen play for an intimate crowd while cramped in a shed in Iceland as well as a sold out House of Blues in Boston.  The first thing you notice about a Lay Low show is that no matter the size of audience, you feel as if you’re sitting in a living room listening to your friend play the guitar.  It’s rare to find someone that can emit such natural energy and goodwill from a stage of any size, and she does it well.

I first saw Lay Low at the Taste of Iceland series at the Paradise Lounge in Boston.  She charmed the chatty, drunk room of folks and to me was one of the best performances of the evening.  We were really impressed with her flow, and her ability to address and converse with the crowd with a very natural smile and genuine charm.  I again got to see her open for Of Monsters and Men at the House of Blues.  4 or 5 times the size of crowd, stage, and venue and yet she still had the crowd in full focus, again making us feel right at home.

Lovísa started off doing keys and guitar for Benni Crespo’s Gang, this is also where it’s said she found her voice.   The alter-ego Lay Low emerged around 2006, and her first album, Please don’t hate me, came out shortly after rapidly gaining notoriety and becoming Gold in just a few months.  To me, her sweet blend of blues, country and folk with a sweet but strong voice is what you would expect from the offspring of PJ Harvey and June Carter.

She won the Icelandic people’s vote in 2006 for most popular artist, as well as winning best artist and best album cover at the Icelandic music awards.  2007 was also a busy year, she helped with the Soundtrack and acted in the play Ökutímar by Leikfélag Akureyrar, with her own material as well as some Dolly Parton covers.

in 2008, Farewell Good Night’s sleep was released.  To me this album really highlights the energy and impeccable fluidity Lay low has with her songs.  There are some fantastic tracks on this album, my favorite being By and By.  This song remains on my springtime playlist and while walking down the brick sidewalks in Boston it puts a smile on your face, even if the matter of the song isn’t so happy.

2009 brought Lay low acting roles, and a worldwide tour with Emiliana Torrini, as well as a CD/DVD live show Flatey.  In 2011, Lay low released Brostinn strengur, a collection of Icelandic Poems put to music.  She collected poems from female Icelandic poets going 150 years back, then created wonderful songs out of it.

Her newest release, The Backbone, a two track EP has a little more trippy umph to it than her past work.  Still very bluesy and smooth but with a little more instrumental accompaniment.  I absolutely dig the video from the EP:

you can listen to Lay Low’s Farewell Good Night’s sleep, and The Backbone on Gogoyoko.  You can also find out more, see the tour schedule, listen to tracks and purchase all her albums from her website. And of course, you can find her on Facebook.

Here are Lay Low’s 4 interview questions:

1. What is your favorite off-venue Airwaves joint to jam at?  hmm, many that I like for different reasons. But the most memorable one was when we played in Vesturbæjarlaug, the swimming pool. They put amps in the pool so people where floating around and listening to the music while half naked.

2. If you combine all of your favorite colors (for you, add your band mates if you would), what do you get?  brown, orange, green and red. Autumn colours!

3.  What are 3 of your favorite little known bands of Icelandic origin?  ohh hard to say, most of them are getting well known…but if I mention a few it is Elín Helena, Adda and Benny Crespo’s Gang (just had to mention my own band that has been hibernating for some years, but a pretty nice band)

4. If you could be any creature playing your favorite song, what would the creature be? And what is the song.  A goldfish singing The Backbone

Iceland Airwaves 2012

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On a tiny island bridging two continents a festival occurs every year.  Bands, fans and puffins from all over the globe take over the tiny town of Reykjavik to blast away the cold with beats, guitars and alcohol.  This was my 4th year attending Iceland Airwaves, and even with the hurricane winds making a guest appearance it was another successful year.  I try to see at least 6 bands a day when I go, and while the evenings are dedicated to my favorite bands, day time goes to bands I don’t know, or visiting friends.

Airwaves is unlike most festivals.  The gigs are held in different venues around the city, so while it is a festival, you still get the feeling of pub gigs and concerts.   And with so many bands going on at different times, you get to see some impressive bands up close and personal.  As there were so many bands, I am foregoing the normal link to individual songs and sites, there will be a playlist in Gogoyoko with all the bands if you are interested.

First night of Airwaves landed on Halloween.  This by far is my favorite holiday of the year, in fact one of the few I happily celebrate so of course a costume was in order.  My luggage consisted of a small amount of clothes, Root Beer for my friend Dr. Gunni, and of course, this:

Yes, I was Chewbacca for Halloween.  My wonderful friend Alison was Princess Leia and we attended the FM Belfast gig at KEX, as well as a few bands at Bar 11 before heading to Gabríel.  We stood front and center for Gabríel, and it was entertaining to watch them try to perform while avoiding looking directly at the Wookiee.  To be honest, I thought many times about wearing the Wookiee costume the rest of Airwaves as outside it was heavenly warm.

A college friend of mine and her husband joined me on Thursday, they had to detour to London and back to Iceland due to the hurricane and missed the first night but we started off the day with coffee and more off-venue shows.  My goal was to hit at least 6 shows a day, these guys didn’t slow me down a bit.  And even though they made me break my sacred rule of no food, just Vodka after 6, we were able to stay out until early morning every night, and for the most part still get up early enough to enjoy the day.

I also was able to spend quality time with some of my Iceland friends, coffee’s and house visits abound.  This trip was my favorite so far as I got more of a homey feeling on the island, in fact it wasn’t until I was leaving that I realized I barely had taken any photos.

my favorite gigs of this year had to be Apparat Organ Quartet, and of course the Sigur Ros show at the end of the festival.  I am going to write on Apparat Organ Quartet later, but even with only 4 of the 5 musicians present, they did a fantastic job.  My friend and her husband had never heard of them before, and the look of satisfaction on their faces when it was over made the gig that much better.  They truly do put on an amazing show and I hope they make it stateside sooner than later.

As for Sigur Rós, I have seen them countless times in a lot of different settings, from little bars in Park City to massive arenas here in Boston, they have always played outstanding shows, but this show was the best performance I’ve seen since 2008.  They appeared to really up the ante in their home country.  Part of enjoying Sigur Rós is the uniqueness and new-ness they bring to the table.  The quality of the show made another first for my friend even better, and the new song gave me the chance to experience that new-ness again, I’m really excited with the direction they are taking and looking forward to the 2013 tour


I also was able to spend some time with Dr. Gunni.  He’s kind of a jack-of-all trades in the Icelandic music world.  My first contact with him was years ago when he worked at Smekkleysa.  At that time  he did the job of sending me the Icelandic music my store in Utah sold.  I actually met him face to face 3 years ago at Airwaves, and I stalk him on Facebook as any “normal” person would do.

This year he released a very well put together, cool book on the history of Icelandic music.  For now the book is in Icelandic but I was able to get a copy and I love the way it’s put together.  I’m also very flattered as he used a quote from a Facebook note I had written in a very delayed, very groggy state at an airport a while ago on why I loved Icelandic music and the musicians so much.  Here is a photo of the book:

if you search the archives of the grapevine website, you will find some English translated entries of his from an old History of Icelandic music book he wrote years ago.  If you speak Icelandic, or can deal with horrific google translated text here is his blog.  Again, another Icelander who takes pride in what he does, and has an incredibly humble and strong work ethic.

overall this was a fantastic Iceland Airwaves and I look forward to another fantastic one next year.  I’ve listed below the most notable acts that I saw by the days that I saw them.  You can get to the playlist here at Gogoyoko.  My next artist review will be Lay Low and hopefully it happens a little quicker than the last.

Wed:  Apparat Organ Quartet / Steindór Andersen / Gabríel / Sin Fang /

Thur:  Ólafur Arnalds / Echo Vamper / Sudden Weather Change / Ewert and Two Dragons

Fri: Woodpigeon / Sin Fang / Apparat Organ Quartet (full show) / Nico Muhly / Ben Frost

Sat:  Rico’s Band / Rökkurró / Epic Rain / Ghostigital / Æla / Gus Gus / Sykur

Sun:  Sigur Rós

Sudden Weather Change

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SWC

Sudden Weather Change has been harassing the Icelandic music scene since 2006.   They always put on a good show using both audio and visual nicey-nice-es.  Originally a five piece, their first album, Stop Handgrenade in the name of crib death’nderstand, reminds one of Pavement and other 90’s alternative groups.  “Black Lung” is my favorite track off this album.

In 2010 they won an Iceland music award for best new act with their song “The Whaler”  Now a four piece consisting of Bergur Thomas Anderson (Bass,vocals) Dagur Sævarsson (Guitar) Loji Höskuldsson (Guitar,Vocals) and Oddur Guðmundsson (Drums), they still maintain that alt-90’s feel, but have gotten a lot more heady in their music.

Fast Foward another year and some, and we get my favorite album to date, Sculpture.  Seeming to have evolved into a much more intense, prog-rock gig to me, the Sculpture album is all sorts of good, it reminds me of another great Iceland band called Kimono.  And thus other greats such as Mogwai, Wire, and even a touch of Godspeed you Black Emperor, especially on tracks such as “Proper Flavor” and “Not a line but a circle.”  They are on my list of must-sees this Airwaves go around, and if you’re going to be up there I would suggest making it to their gig as well.

So as I’m still getting used to doing these blogs I thought I would try something new. I have asked the band 4 very important questions that every music fan should ask of the bands they love.  Bergen Anderson, the bass player, was kind enough to reply with the band’s answers:

1. What is your favorite off-venue Airwaves joint to jam at?
–KEX

2. If you combine all of your favorite colors, what do you get?
–Pale green

3. What are 3 of your favorite little known bands of Icelandic origin?
—Skátar, Enkídu and bob  (I have to note, I took artistic license and linked to my favorite Skátar track)

4. If you could be any creature playing your favorite song, what would the creature be? And what is the song.
–I´d be a cat, singing “Summer Wine”, like Nancy Sinatra.
You can find out more about the band here:

Band’s website // Facebook page // Gogoyoko profile
I really look forward to seeing a cat bass player covering Summer Wine in Iceland this year, and methinks you really should check them out, and if you want to follow me on Gogoyoko, my userid is Ragnaarb.