KEXP at Iceland Airwaves, Day 3: Kimono

It's gusting something fierce out in the dark Reykjavik night. But it's warm and cozy here in Kex Hostel as our live broadcast continues. Our fourth Iceland Airwaves act of the day was rock trio Kimono, heavy, loud, and a bit dark. They formed in 2001 as an instrumental post-rock band, but have evolved over the years to include different sounds into their mix. They've been called math rock, bummer rock, and a number of other genres. But, like so many Icelandic acts, they're a bit hard to pin down. They're at work on their fourth record and plan to tour extensively in the US and Canada after its release. Over the years they've worked with renowned Icelandic producers and musicians including Aron Þór Arnarsson (Of Monsters and Men's engineer).

The set opened with singer and guitarist Alison MacNeil, in red cat eye-ish glasses, doing a cover of Steven "Jesse" Bernstein's spoken word poem "Come Out Tonight", delivered over a heavy, droning backing track. MacNeil said after that she often uses the track as a sound check before shows, but tonight decided to open with it. It set up the show for a strange fever dream of a journey. The second track was Kimono's latest single, "Specters", a longing song of desire unrequited. It started with an echoey guitar line that broke into a driving rock sound as the full band kicked in. After a couple more songs the band gave a shout out to KEXP and listeners in Seattle. Many of the bands we've had, in fact, have gone out of their way to say how much they appreciate this station and our audience.

For a three pice band, Kimono puts out intricate, interesting, layered sounds. Songs are not content to be remain repetitive or predictable. At turns restrained and brooding, then energetic and overdriven. They were certainly one of our loudest bands so far, and the sting of lights over the stage dimmed rhythmically as bigger bass sounds taxed the hostel's power. The fifth song, "Less Than Zero", had a more upbeat sound musically, but was in fact a bitter breakup song. Clearly its author was in the anger phase of break up grief. They closed with the b-side off their new single, called "Rudolf". It had a faster, poppier drum feel and a fun guitar line. Musically, this one was less dark as well, but lyrics were sung-shouted aggressively. The band ended the set with little ceremony, not announcing their final song but ploughing through and graciously receiving their applause before leaving the stage.

Stay tuned for HAM at 1:30PM PST live on KEXP at 90.3FM in Seattle, and streaming audio and videolive all over the world at KEXP.ORG.