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Watch a Sigur Ros interview trainwreck
Submitted by imaginary liz on October 29, 2007.We're friends right? I have to admit something... I HATE Sigur Ros's music. I've tried to "get it" so that I could connect with all those really smart people I know who love the Ros, and even for the sake of a (now ex) boyfriend.
And YES, to the lovers -- I have seen them live. I even sat in the front row. The lights were pretty and for about five minutes I did get caught up in the "trapped under water with the dolphins" croons. But then, sadly, I snapped out of it and went back to my usual state of just not lovin' the SR.
SO, imagine my surprise to discover that a recent NPR interview with Sigur Ros went all wrong. Between you and me, this is exactly how exciting I thought it would be to be trapped in a room with them.
The NPR folks intro it with:
Awhile back, Luke sat down with the brilliant Icelandic band Sigur Ros, and things didn't go very well. We posted it as "possibly the worst interview in the history of electronic media," and got flooded with colorful comments. Although everyone seemed to agree that the interview was painful to watch, some commenters blamed Luke's questions and some blamed the band.
In an effort to dig a little deeper into exactly what went wrong, we called longtime music journalist and author of "But Enough About Me," Jancee Dunn to walk us through the wreckage.
If you want to read all about it, which is quite enjoyable, click over to the NPR site.
Watch it and squirm:
Huge thanks to Renata for forwarding this my way!
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cosby said on October 29, 2007:
they may want to consider conducting interviews in their made up language from now on.
has sigur ros done anything that the cocteau twins haven't done twenty times better twenty years ago?
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Tim Hanken said on October 29, 2007:
I know that it would be tough going to interview after interview and having to answer the same questions over and over, especially when most of those questions will undoubtedly be some derivative of “How/Why do you create a sound that is similar to the worlds largest mammal?”, but just buck up and give half assed canned answers every time. Don’t just look at each other and act pompous. I’m sure that at the fist band practice the lead singer started moaning like that and the rest of the band went “A-ha! That’s exactly what we want to sound like!” You’re cool and all, but you aint that cool.
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imaginary dana said on October 29, 2007:
Liz, looks like you're in good company with the dislike of Sigur Ros (count me in. Sigur Ros STRESSES ME OUT). I can't believe Joe hasn't chimed in to defend the Ros though.
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Shane Curry said on October 29, 2007:
That's awesome. I sorta can't stand this band.
I mean. Never got into it.
No I take that back. I've heard instrumental bands with far more substance.
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Erik Gonzalez said on October 29, 2007:
I do love Sigur Ros.
I also love being able to horrify one of my friends when I mentioned that the lead singer is a guy. He stared at me, stunned and stammered "that's a guy?! I've been thinking it was some sort of hot Bjork-like Icelandic goddess!"
Good times!
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ALLALOMusic said on October 29, 2007:
I seriously think Sigur Ros are the most pretentious band ever, annoyingly so.
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Joseph Riippi said on October 29, 2007:
Okay. It took me awhile to get here but now i'm here.
I think about SIgur Ros sort of the same way i assume a lot of born-again Christian evangelicals feel about God. For me, it's one of the highest highs to listen to them and see them live and so on and whatever. Up there with Radiohead and Verdi's operas and all that. (those that know me know I serve a three-headed musical deity of SIgur Ros, Philip Glass, and Aloha).
Like any good evangelical, I want everyone to experience the high I get too, so I recommend Sigur Ros like all hell and simply don't understand that people don't love it or think it's pretentious or whatever. I don't understand it, but hey, I respect it. If we all liked the same thing this site wouldn't be here and yadadadada.
I would like to point out, though, that I'm a band musical evangelical in that I don't care the slightest about seeing y'all non-believers to an eternity of music hellfire...(well, actually that just makes me more of a Republican brand of Christian than standard born-again).
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The Grim said on October 29, 2007:
I really, realy hate Sigur Ros. Like tons.
But, cripes, this dude asks the STUPIDEST questions ever. Like, these seem like they were emailed to him from a remedial high-school journalism class about 10 minutes before this starts.
I'm generally of the mind that NPR has no business talking about rock music. Anyone else hear that interview with Sleater-Kinney a couple years ago that was full of almost as stupid questions? The one that culminated in the interviewer asking (in 2004 or something like that) "So you are riot grrrls. Can you tell me about that?" Only to be immediately answered by the BIGGEST sigh to ever be broadcast on the radio.
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imaginary dana said on October 30, 2007:
I agree that the questions are really, really stupid... but I think their attitude -- especially by the end when he's asking about that crazy non-language he sings in -- are way worse than the questions even were.
Have you ever listened to Tom Moon's music features on NPR? I'm a big fan -- it was because of him that I discovered one of my favorite bands of last year, the Heartless Bastards. {listen}
That said, while we're admitting what we don't like, I think Terry Gross is a bad interviewer. So there's that.
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imaginary chona said on October 30, 2007:
"regular sounding band"?
huuuuh?
jesus christ...
"how do you create a song?"
"...
...
...
just uh...sit down and create a song."
hahahahaha oh man this is baaaaad...
but i do very much enjoy sigur ros!
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randy said on October 30, 2007:
I can't stand Sigur Ros. But that interviewer was a total fool, and also pretty insulting. If I were being 'interviewed' by this moron, I would have just gotten up and left shortly after he started making stupid comments and asking lame questions. It should have been obvious right off that this interview was not going to go well.
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Markus Welbey said on November 10, 2007:
You guys! Anything that's different is a threat. Next you'll be posting fag messages.
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elle said on November 10, 2007:
OMG!!! I can't believe I missed this blog, where was I last week?
It's too bad Joseph and I are the only ones who seem to love Sigur Ros around here. I think they are absolutely AMAZING. But apparently none of the raving I could go on about would sway your minds.
Now on to watch this video...
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elle said on November 10, 2007:
ARRGH.
What terrible questions!
"How did you guys just end up in a room, playing music together?"
Uhh..I'm sorry, I know I just started interviewing bands myself, but bleh.
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Reviews
Kyle Johnson said on October 29, 2007:
yikes! haha i had a good laugh.