Mugison

Tangier - November 11, 2005

Live Review by Daniel Brody

Upon hearing that a band is from Iceland, there are certain expectations.  With Bjork and Sigur Ros in mind, one prepares for a totally blown mind, a richly innovative and musical and emotional experience.  It makes sense then, with all the sacred cow rock coming out of that tiny, ethnically homogenous, and frigid island, that somebody would eventually come along and piss all over the whole process.  Meet Mugison, Iceland’s answer for Andy Kaufman.

Mugison arrived onstage himself armed only with a guitar, laptop, and skinny microphone/mixing board.  He had some technical issues – the guitars never seemed to be the right volume or distortion and the laptop took several minutes to load his songs.  Once he launched into the music, the effect was puzzling.  The first song featured Mugison’s belching, screaming, and sighing looped repeatedly into a cacophony of noise.  Then he proceeded to attempt a song over the racket with vocals and guitar, and the result was a shapelessly ear-splitting mess.  He repeated that template several times throughout the show, filling the gaps in between with mostly unspectacular acoustic ditties.

The real action came when there was no music involved whatsoever.  Waiting for glitches to be resolved, with a drunk and loose tongue, Mugison regaled the audience with rambling non sequiturs about his bowel movements and getting his girlfriend pregnant.  He talked more than he played, which is just as well; he is still figuring out his sound and seems unsure of his playing ability onstage.  But he captivated the audience with his bawdy stories and uncertain grasp of English.  Attend a Mugison show drunk, and it is not that different than sharing a fifth of vodka with a buddy and playing with his bedroom recording equipment.  Tangier was not the proper venue for this guy; its polite and well-dressed dinner and show crowd seemed like they would rather be getting eight hours of sleep and getting all their chores done the next day.  Definitely wait to see Mugison in a venue where you can get sloppy drunk and shout nonsense.