I ♥ Icelandic Music: 200.000 naglbítar: Blog post & Videos Update

miðvikudagur, desember 19, 2007

200.000 naglbítar: Blog post & Videos Update

On the blog by Atli Thor Fanndal, an Icelander living in Denmark, I found this post about 200.000 Naglbítar, a band from Akureyri. The town where I worked in the hospital "FSA" back in 1998/99.
Finally I get to blog about a rock band, and even a band from my home country. Almost every Icelander will know about the band 200.000 Naglbítar, usually just called Naglbítarnir (and that is what I am going to call'em from now on ). Naglbítarnir are from what I like to call the cultural capital of Iceland. It is the second largest town of Iceland with only about 15.000 inhabitants and lie's in a fjord called Eyjafjordur. In 1993 three guys from Akureyri founded the band, it was originally called "Gleðitríóið Ásar" later on the band's name was changed to "Askur Yggdrasil". In 1995 the band participaded in Músiktilraunir (Icelandic version of the Battle of the bands) under the name 200.000 Naglbítar.
Naglbítarnir is made up with 3 members Vilhelm Anton Jónsson (guitar/lead vocal ), Kári Jónsson ( base/vocal ) and Benedikt Brynleifsson (drums ). The band has published three albums all of which have made a decent sale. Naglbitarnir although they cant be described as an underground band they have never made it as an mainstream band. Their status in the Icelandic music scene cant be described as anything else than a weird limbo between a mainstream and a cult band.
Vilhelm Anton Jónsson (Villi) became a TV superstar in Iceland after he got selected as one of two hosts for an Icelandic show on Rúv (The Icelandic state broadcast corporation) named Atið (The @), the show was an instant hit and Villi became an household favorite. He later on hosted an Icelandic travel show where he traveled to almost every "hickswile" in Iceland also for the state television. Again Villi was noticed for his calm and cool TV appearance which led to him having a show called "Út að grilla með Kára og Villa" (BBQ with Kári and Villi a show were Villi and his brother a fellow member of Naglbítar, Kári meet up with icelands upperclass and known people for a barbecue and some chat with beer. Yet again Villi had a popular show even though most people would not believe a cooking show to hit it with Villi's young audience. His last show on TV was a psychedelic Bingo show aired live with Villi as the host and Bingo manager, most people did not expect much from a "lame" Bingo show but again Villi came through as a hip, cool and trendy Bingo manager, pulling of the miracle of making even Bingo seem cool.
Naglbitarnir have an excellent website, http://www.naglbitar.is/, where you can download some of their music in mp3-format for free www.naglbitar.is/?goto=frettir/tonlist.htm