sunnudagur, ágúst 12, 2007

The Way Down on Dead Records Label & The Videos

In Iceland there's an artist chap named Jón Sæmundur Audarson. About 12 years ago he contracted the HIV virus, and this experience has since dominated his artwork, and he opened a store (now @ Laugavegur 12, 101 Reykjavik) selling fashionable clothes with death related designs in downtown Reykjavik. Today marks the beginning of another of his projects, the record label Dead Records, which claims that "dead records are permanent records".
MySpace of Dead Records Label (aka Nonni Dead): www.myspace.com/nonnidead
The first release hits the streets today, the 3" cd "See you in Hell" by the band The Way Down.
Formerly known as California Cheeseburger, the band consists of bass player Ari Eldon, his finnish-born spouse Riina on guitar, and drummer Maggi "Thunder". Both Ari and Magnus Thorsteinsson (Maggi) have been playing in Icelandic alternative bands for about 20 years (Ari Eldon in Bless, band of Dr. Gunni and Sogblettir; Maggi in Inri and Bleiku Bastarnir - note by Wim Van Hooste) most of them more angry and aggressive than the current project, and some of them were released on the label Bad Taste.
"See you in Hell", despite being a small cd, has no less than 9 tracks to boast of. "It's pop in it's simplest form" says Ari, who is tired of pompous multi-layered prog rock songs. Here's my current favorite song from the album (Leee Black Childers), plus a demo which sadly didn't make the cut but is an excellent song nevertheless. More songs can be streamed or downloaded from the band's MySpace page: www.myspace.com/thewaydownspace
The Videos
"Blind Willie the Fruit"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ippd_Wdl3c

"Bring me the sun"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNTW9PCn-AQ

"The Lonesome Death of YourNameHere"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6evDzMsIsE

Source: http://www.indie-mp3.co.uk/

1 ummæli:

laurent gauthier sagði...

The Way Down was one of the very good surprises of the last airwaves festival. I was wandering in the center of Reykjavik after leaving the live show of Lada Sport in the Skifan records shop (actually I found that their music was so boring), then my steps leaded me to a small clothes shop / factory, dead records. The room was quite empty but there was a trio of musician tuning their instruments, after a short time they began playing music, the sound was just fine. There was no doubt that they spent hours in listening the fantastic album "Loaded" of the Velvet Underground, 'cause the sound was quite the same. A short, nice and intimate show (the audience didn't grew up to 10 peoples).
Unfortunatly I left the dead records shop without their album, it is quite impossible to get it now :(