I still remember the first time that I heard about  Sigur Ros. I had read an article about them in NME and was immediately intrigued by this new Icelandic band that looked sort of like Radiohead. I decided then that they would be one of my new favorite bands. I put a picture of them on my wall at work before I had even ever heard them.  I had no idea what an affect they would actually end up having on my life. They were described as a little bit experimental and a little bit classical. They were maybe a mix of a band like Radiohead and a band like Slowdive. Ethereal and dreamy and shoegazey. Exactly the kind of band that I could easily fall in love with. The first thing I picked up from them was the single for Svefn-g-englar in 1999. I couldn't really pronounce the name of the band or the single. But Sigur Ros easily and quickly became my new favorite band. They are even to this day sort of hard to explain. I often try and explain them to people and find it easier to just make them listen to it. Much like an artist like Bjork, you quickly will discover if you hate them or love them. There is really no in between. Jonsi Birgisson really has a  magical voice. There is really nothing that I have ever heard before that sounds anything like it. Sort of like Elizabeth Frasier from the Cocteau Twins. You just hear it and can't help but be impacted by the power of the voice. The music of Sigur Ros is also really fantastic. With the combination of the music and that magical voice, these Sigur Ros albums are easily some of my favorites.

Agaetis Byrjun came out right after the single and was really hard to find in stores for a while. The album went through a couple labels and distributors but I think anyone who found it also soon fell in love. I later found their real first album "Von" which was also reissued years later. "()" came out in 2002 followed by "Takk" in 2005. Both these albums are fantastic. The band can really do no wrong. I have seen them about 4 times. Each of these show I hold up as some of my favorite shows. I might sound like I am giving them a bit too much praise. But I really do love this band and just can't stop saying it. I saw them at the Fillmore in San Francisco. Gillian Anderson from the X-Files was up in the private balcony reserved for celebrities and friends of the Fillmore. I sort of remember yelling out "Scully" in the middle of the show. I was of course much younger back then. I then saw them at some fancy auditorium on Wilshire in L.A. after I had just moved down there. Both these shows were amazing. But for the Takk tour I saw them in Oakland at the Paramount Theater. I can't really think of a more beautiful place to see them. I had heard wonderful things about the Paramount but had never been there until a week or so before the Sigur Ros show. I had actually just seen an amazing Dead Can Dance show there. Which is sort of weird since a "best of" Lisa Gerrard CD is finally coming out domestically today as well. But this show was the best of the Sigur Ros shows that I had seen. They played some of the songs behind a screen and had amazing visuals during the whole show.