Mono Town
Reykjavík, Capital Region, Iceland | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | INDIE
Music
The best kept secret in music
Press
http://www.ruv.is/afthreying/mono-town-i-studioi-12 - Ras 2
World Cafe's Sense of Place series takes the show to Iceland, where Ólafur Páll Gunnarsson — known by most as Óli Palli — was voted the most important Icelandic radio personality of the 20th century. He can be heard on the Icelandic public radio station Rás 2, on which he hosts the music programs Poppaland and Rokkland.
Here, he joins World Cafe to play new Icelandic pop from newcomer Grísalappalísa, as well as longtime favorite GusGus. He also tackles the question of why so many Icelandic artists sing in English. - NPR
Monotown: it’s a name you’ll be hearing a lot on KEXP, and hopefully everywhere else, in 2013. Over the past several years, our trips to Iceland have allowed us to discover bands sometimes even before they’ve released any albums (as was the case with Of Monsters and Men in 2010), or at least before they’ve reached the wider audiences they deserve, like Sóley and Sin Fang. One of the most promising groups we saw in 2012 hadn’t yet even mastered their debut, but they blew us away with their impassioned, full-fledged sound. Mash boisterous Britpop with Morricone-esqe spaghetti westerns soundtracks, add a healthy dose of late 60′s Beatles, and you’ll get a hint of what Monotown promises with their upcoming release, In The Eye Of The Storm. During Iceland Airwaves ’12, we met up with Monotown to record three songs with them at Studio-Syrland in downtown Reykjavik. Trust us, you’re going to want to hear this now: - KEXP
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Mono Town consists of multi-instrumentalist brothers – Börkur Hrafn Birgisson & Daði Birgisson, and lead vocalist & guitarist, Bjarki Sigurðsson. Their debut album, 'In The Eye Of The Storm' was self-produced and recorded by the band in Reykjavik and then travelled to New York to be mixed by the Grammy Award Winning mixer, Michael Brauer.
In January 2014, the band took a unique approach and formed a, never-been-done-before, relationship with the International streaming service, Deezer. They released music in the first instance exclusively on Deezer and in under two months had received just over 1,250,000 million streams internationally on the site. To-date, the album has hit #1 on the Deezer Album Charts in Iceland, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, Italy and Turkey & featured in the # Top 5 charts in Columbia, Germany, Mexico, Singapore and the UK. In March 2014 the band released the album on CD & Vinyl in Iceland via the Icelandic label Record Records & had two No. 1 singles on Ras 2's National Airplay Charts.
Mono Town are already gaining international attention, including the support of the influential American radio station KEXP. They have performed at the Iceland Airwaves Festival & at the inaugural All Tomorrow’s Parties in Iceland, which saw them sharing a line-up which included Nick Cave & The Fall. The Pixies invited Mono Town to join them as their special guest on a number of dates in Europe.
More recently Mono Town performed a sold-out show in Paris at the Point Ephémère & have played to sold-out audiences throughout Iceland, a highlight of which was a stellar outdoor performance in Reykjavik to a crowd of over 100,000 people at an event to mark 'Culture Night'.
Band Members
Links
