Jakobínarína

Iceland's third-most popular musical export, after Björk and Sigur Rós, Jakobínarína formed in Iceland's third biggest town of Hafnarfjörður in 2004, originally as a joke Christmas cover band formed from the collapsed punk group Lufthansa that half of the six-piece made when they were just 14. After succeeding at Iceland's national Battle Of The Bands contest, Músíktilraunir, in 2005, and also performing at Iceland's national music festival Iceland Airwaves in 2005 and 2006, the group were picked up by legendary independent label Rough Trade, where the band recorded their first single, His Lyrics Are Disastrous, which was released in July 2006 and received positive press. The group then went quiet for a bit, but this was possibly so they could write new material for the future, although they did do a few UK tours, once supporting The Cribs and the other supporting To My Boy (which I am personally pissed off about as I forgot to go to the Newcastle show). In early 2007, Parlophone picked up the band and placed them on the label's Regal imprint, with the group's first single from the album sessions, Jesus, released in May. Anti-establishment anthem This Is An Advertisement followed in July, with the last single by the band, a release of the new version of His Lyrics Are Disastrous, coming out a week before the album, The First Crusade, dropped on 1st October. The group's European tour the next month was then cancelled by the band as they were to focus on writing new material. Nothing happened until February 2008, when the band announced that they had split, owing to lead singer Gunnar Ragnarsson (Bergmann) being tired of band life, and so the reasoning seemed to be that if Gunnar didn't want to be involved in the music industry, then the rest of the band couldn't be, which is a pretty selfish reason to break a band up. The remaining five members of the group were supposedly going to reform, but nothing has been announced since. The original video of His Lyrics Are Disastrous is below, as are the downloads.