Rokk I Reykjavik

Published April 13, 2009 By Hubbs
Categories Video of the Week

This is your correspondent with another report from the YouTube front…

Here we’ve got some footage from “Rokk Á ReykjavÁk,” the 1982 documentary on the Icelandic punk/post-punk/wave/etc. scene of the early ’80s. The band that plays after the Santa Claus dude in the sauna is VonbrigÁ°i (“Disappointment”) with a jam reminiscent of Peter and the Test Tube Babies but more raw and garagy. I love the bass player’s weird hunched-over style and the front-row VonbrigÁ°i superfan rocking out in a tie and a vest. If you keep watching the following videos, I’m pretty sure you can eventually see the whole rest of the documentary — it’s pretty long though, and covers a wide variety of musical styles. Most of the “well-known” Icelandic punk bands of era are featured, including the Björk-fronted Tappi TÁkarrass. The soundtrack was released as a double LP and later on CD.