Artist description Pop Indie Rock (3 piece) from Albuquerque, NM.

Music Style Pop Rock

Artist History Icelandic has been DIY from day one. Everything is handmade. In the world of cooking, the ultimate is to say it is "from scratch" yet in music it's simply a label attached to bands who are persistent but neglected. Regardless, doing it ourselves has been incredibly satisfying and oh, so fun. Really! And now, we know how to do it ourselves! Since Dandee's out of town and Mike is at a show, I'll write the story. Icelandic is myself (Chuck Jurich), Mike Rupert, and Dandee Fleming. We are from Albuquerque, New Mexico - the Land of Enchantment and yes, it's gorgeous here. This city is an incredible secret but the down side is there aren't great hoards of folks going out to see live music. We have learned to recognize our crowds as a miracle or, at least, a product of hard work. Mike and Dandee are from Albuquerque, born and raised; neither of them are looking to move elsewhere. I am from Florida, went to school at the University of Texas at Austin, and at last chose Albuquerque as my final home. We don't have a spectacularly interesting band history full of political intrigue ("we were taken hostage at the rally for the statements we made") or touched-by-fame band history ("David Byrne was our original guitarist"). We do have a history, though. I was a college kid at the University of Florida and a friend of mine gave me a bass. It was a beat up Fender copy with a midrangy tone that I couldn't recognize as bad since I didn't have an ear or an amp. A few musical friends of mine tuned the thing for me every now and then (I didn't notice). One day I got the strange urge to put a band together so I went out and bought an amp. That week I wrote my first song and by the end of the semester I had formed a band, got a practice space at a self-storage place, and scheduled a show at a house party. I know this isn't unusual because there were three other bands at the same self-storage place. It was a lot of fun and we just wrote songs and played our house parties. I transferred to the University of Texas at Austin because I wanted to be closer to my recently un-closeted big brother-- it had nothing to do with music-- and immediately started out to find musicians to play with. You can imagined how this green boy from Florida was chewed up fast. I met some sincere folks and we practiced five days a week in an apartment West of the campus. We made our boombox demo and brought them around to the clubs and they literally laughed at our naivete;. Debbie from The Hole in the Wall at least had the courtesy to say nothing at all-- zilch. She looked at us for a long time probably wondering which one of us colored the cassette cover. The kind folks at (the now defunct) Chances were the only ones to give us a show. Even though the crowd didn't look terribly big, Gretchen Phillips was resurrecting that night and all sorts of notable Austin folk have recalled seeing us that night. Over and over again it's always the same description: "you guys were so-- exposed". Exposed, endearing, vulnerable, sincere, innocent. I never really liked to be described like that but, if that's what people saw then that's what they saw. I certainly wasn't going to go around trying to appear "cocky". But oddly, the next band I played in WAS cocky, the pop-punk horn-infested Stretford. (I wouldn't be surprised if Carl and Company were still plugging away). I played bass in Stretford eight short months which equates to about 35 shows. I learned, real quick, about how to make things work with absolutely nothing. Eight months with Stretford and I wanted to write songs again. Boy was I lucky when I just so happened to meet Tom Hudson and Scott Garred, recent Austin arrivals from the Northwest. They were in the midst of forming Silver Scooter and Tom was looking for a side project. These two wonderful changed my life, my musical direction, taught me how to write a better song and because of Scott, I started singing. He even helped me pick out my first guitar. Meanwhile, back in Albuquerque, Mike and Dandee were just graduating from High School!Mike was a bass and guitar player and began learning drums because his political-punk band (ok, I guess we do have political history), Mob Lobby, couldn't find a drummer. Dandee (who has only played bass) went to college in Las Cruces, New Mexico and formed the very noisy, very arty, very loud Electric. When I moved to Albuquerque, I met Mike and Mob Lobby bassist Liam Kimballat one of their shows. After becoming friends we talked about forming our own band which we called The Ponies! Aside from the name change and different bassists, we've pursued the same musical ideas for the last three years. The first time we met Dandee, he was wearing a gigantic space suit attempting to decapitate people with CDs that he threw like frisbees. My friends were enthusiastically booing him-- this, my future bandmate-- because he was insisting they all worship him. I bought a pair of Electric boxers that night. After Liam moved, Mike and I put out a recording called Mating Birds Have Bright Plumage in the Summer of 1999. Playing as a two piece was difficult but we learned a great deal about how we wanted things to sound. We also started playing better live. About six months later, we asked Dandee to join the band, I made sure I was wearing the Electric boxers. He said, "Yes." Our latest recording, The Young Mr. Palomar, was released on September 28, 2000 and while reviews are not in just yet, we have heard lots of kind words so far. We've been lucky to play with just about every great Albuquerque band (many of them last a mere six months or so) and have played some wonderful road shows. We've played shows with famous bands -- Superchunk, getting famous bands -- And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, and absolutely un-famous bands that were simply amazing! -- JP5. I'd have to say that the best part about putting a group together has been being able to play with other bands.

Group Members Chuck Jurich - Guitar & Vocals, Mike Rupert - Drums, Dandee Fleming - Bass

Instruments Guitar, Bass, Drums

Albums The Young Mr. Palomar & Mating Birds Have Bright Plumage

Press Reviews "Icelandic sincere, quirky" ....... "Icelandic's first album, The Young Mr. Palomar, on Heard in the Dark Records, is a collection of sincere tunes that possess an endearing quirkiness that reminds listeners of the human side of the musicians."-------------Matt Rana of the Daily Lobo (10/28/00)..................................................................................................................... "Icelandic has picked up their pace somewhat over the last year and is all the better for it. You can't really dance to it but they make you wanna hop around and bob your head alot. Even the slower songs seems agitated as well. Lots of musical changes within tunes that, if you're not listening carefully, make you wonder if you missed the interval between tracks." --WIG WAM BAM - #19 November 2000..................................................................................................."3 1/2 Stars"...."Local Indie Pop group Icelandic isn't from Iceland. It's not even as unusual as Iceland's Bjrok, but they can write a pretty mean hook, which is what makes so much of the group's debut CD, "The Young Mr. Palomar" (Heard in the Dark), so tasty. This Trio knows how to make their songs catchy and punky with out becoming another Green Day clone. Like former locals the Young Adults and the Rondelles, Icelandic has a solid grasp on making its music sound effortless and fun. And its sound takes elements of pop from the '60's to the '80's without surrendering an iota of originality. Who knows, this may be the next local indie group to gain some notoriety." ------- Kenn Rodriguez, The Venue (2/16/01)

Location Albuquerque, New Mexico - USA

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