I wanted to tell y'all about one of the bands that never gets written about outside of Iceland when Icelandic music is mentioned....
Probably the biggest band in Iceland for most of their 20 year existence...

The band is called Sálin hans jóns míns (translates as : My John's Soul). The name can be interpreted to be a biblical reference, but mainly it's because the original keyboard player was named Jón (John) and they started out as a soul cover band... to be exact in 1988... back then they looked like this:

They released their first album in '88, "Syngjandi sveittir" (Singin' Sweaty) with originals on the A-side and mostly soul covers on the B-side (back then vinyl was still king in the Icelandic music market).... Later that year, most of the band left to pursue other projects, leaving just Guðmundur (the guitarist and main song writer) and Stefán (the singer and main lyricist) who assembled a new band, ditching the soul covers and band suits, and this version made the album that made them superstars in their own country, "Hvar er draumurinn?" (translation: Where's the dream?)
Here's the title track (and one of their all time favorites):


In 1990 their record label decided to make them record this album in English and booked them for gigs in Northern Europe... the band's English name was..... Beaten Bishops.... quite an unfortunate name because "bishop" is in some places slang for penis. Their album, Where's My Destiny (sound samples and legal downloads here: http://www.icelandicmusic...y_destiny/) didn't do them any good so they went back to Iceland and focused on their success here. They released a self-titled album in '91 that was very successful and a year later came a compilation of singles and a documentary on VHS.... the release was promoted with a song they recorded with Icelandic rock legend, the late Pétur W. Kristjánsson, called "Krókurinn" (The Hook)... the lyrics are based on a bunch of phrases that Pétur was famous for using over here... here's the RHCP-aping video for that song (sorry for the distorted sound):
http://www.tonlist.is/Vid...krokurinn/

Later in '92 the band recorded a heavier-sounding album called "Þessi þungu högg" (Those Heavy Hits) which featured contributions from all band members.... the lyrics on the album were very sexual and the democratic songwriting process was not to the liking of the main songwriting duo of Stefán and Guðmundur... the band went on hiatus in '93... but here's a sample of this album's sound (warning: video contains brief nudity):


http://www.tonlist.is/Vid...//likamar/

The band regrouped in '94 and made another album in '95, Sól um nótt, but the band was not very active from 1995 to 1999 when they made a legendary unplugged concert that was later released on DVD, featuring their classic songs in new arrangements, with some new songs added... there's an edited version of the concert streaming legally here:
http://www.tonlist.is/Vid...t_99_live/

In its first 10 years, Sálin hans jóns míns went through many different keyboard players and drummers, but has had a relatively steady line-up since 1999, releasing two concept albums, a musical, one album with the Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra and an album with the Reykjavík Gospel Choir... earlier this year they released two boxsets with all their albums from 1988-2008 plus non-album tracks... this fall came a new compilation in three different editions... one 3CD set with their greatest hits from the past 20 years, one 2DVD set with their videos and a new documentary... the third item features the 3 CDs with their greatest hits, one live CD compilation, one DVD with their videos, one DVD with various live performances and another DVD with an extended version of the documentary.

this is "Sálin" as they're usuallly called, in 2008:


And here are three of their latter-day hits:

1st clip sounds like Duran Duran.

Mars23 said:

That's actually true... I think their early stuff must have been influenced by Duran Duran to some extent.... although Sálin's signature sound features the sax much more prominently.... here's another signature song from ´Sálin that shows what I'm talking about.. P.S. I have no idea what the second half of the slideshow in that clip is about. There wasn't an official video for the song so this is the best I could do.

[Edited 12/26/08 3:02am]