Dýrðin profile picture

Dýrðin

Relentlessly jolly, jangling japes

About Me


"Only three of these eleven songs are in English. But guess what, it doesn’t make much difference cos this Icelandic powerpop band make the sweetest noise! And at under 30 minutes, before you know it, it’s all over and you have to start the CD all over again. And you will, cos Dýrdin churn out really cool & bright pop music that it is almost irresistible.
- powerofpop.blogspot.com
"Only a couple of the songs pass the three minute mark, and each of them is a sheer delight, making this a sure candidate for many top ten lists this year!"
- indiepages.com
"The group's songs on this album .. are also steeped in worlds of fantasy ... each is more fairy-tale-like than the one before it. That suits their music well: the way they charge through their light, playful pop songs in a forceful way echoes with the same darkness/light combination inherent in all fairy tales, filled as they are with both dreams and nightmares."
- erasingclouds.com
"Relentlessly jolly, jangling japes ... These folks rock, albeit in quite a cute, loveable and almost outrageously fun way."
- vanityproject fanzine
"jangly guitars, smooth female vocals, harmonies with drums bass and keyboards that just hop and bop along like it's a sunny happy day from start to finish. Dyrdin are fast, bobby and sugar-sweet and will appeal to fans of any and all twee bands – Sarah Records, Harriet Records, Tender Trap, Talulah Gosh, Heavenly, Tullycraft, all the Matinee bands, etc. Recommended for indie pop fans."
- lefthip.com
"All but two of the songs are sung in Icelandic and the melodic indie pop tunes don't take long to overcome the language barrier. The songs are about Jón Sigurðsson who is Iceland's independence hero, love affairs with aliens including Star Trek's Mr Spock, ruined romances and kissing frogs amongst other occurrences that can somehow be applied to daily tales of life. Indeed the songs, which posses a certain charm when sung in their native tongue, and their bizarre subjects could easily be Norse sagas for the 21st century ... Dyrdin have put together a collection of well crafted and infectious pop tunes that you will want to play time and time again. Buy it and get bopping!"
- Indie-mp3.co.uk
"Sitting somewhere comfortably between the cute-girl-vocal-harmonics of Dizzy Joghurt and the treble-laden-cute-subject-matter of All Girl Summer Fun Band on the as-yet-to-be-invented pop meter, the boys and gals of Dyrdin reel you in with tales of statues that crave hot dogs, ubercute love affairs with space aliens and snowmen/women melting together as one on Christmas morning… all of which are set to bouncy twee melodies and lyrics sung in the band’s native Icelandic language ... you’re a total jackass if you don’t give the group a shot. This record guarantees love at first spin"
- retrolowfi.com
"the sheer exuberance and joy of the sounds cross language barriers with sweetness and light."
- tangents.co.uk
"Dyrdin is reminiscent of bands like Go Sailor, Cub, and numerous other female-fronted bubble gum pop punk bands with endless amounts of melodic two-minute songs. I don’t care if it’s not in English (mostly), it’s so darn catchy!"
- 75orless.com
"From one song to the next, the guitars jangle, the keyboards chirp n’ chime , the drums slap and the vocalist sounds like the happiest person in the world. Listening to tunes like “Mr Spock”, “Popp and Co”, “Bubble Girl” and “Hunangsdropar” you’ll realize it ain’t rocket science but it’s just infectious music played by 5 folks who are doing it cos’ they love it and those kinds of bands have always been they best kind for me."
- www.indiepages.com/dagger
"I literally knew nothing about them, but as soon as the music started, I was tapping my toes. By song two, there was head bobbing and involuntary clapping; before I knew it, I had abandoned my Rousseau and was dancing around my tiny, tiny bedroom .. The listener is transported to other magical places, such as lands where grandpas can orbit into outer space after jumping on a trampoline, and a cold, cold winter far, far away as two snowpeople fall in love and melt together with the rising of the sun ... If that doesn't make you want to put aside your lack of knowledge of Icelandic and jump around in your living room for awhile, I'm just not sure what will."
- athensexchange.com
"This debut album of theirs is so chipper it could run up a tree and eat nuts ... if Dýrðin hadn’t been picked up by Skipping Stones, then Shelflife would have been a natural home for them. Both labels enjoy this kind of adorable jangle-pop, this happy naiveté. It’s the sort of music that doesn’t stoop to denying real-world trauma—it jumps straight to ignoring it completely."
- popmatters.com
"Dýrðin, playing upstairs at the tiny Grand Rokk to about 30 people, are the discovery of the festival for me - a gloriously pithy, pogo-worthy sha-la-la band in the Pipettes/Heavenly vein."
- pitchforkmedia.com

Order our debut album here!

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 8/8/2005
Band Website: mmedia.is/dyrdin
Band Members: Hafdis Hreiðarsdóttir - Vocals
Einar Hreiðarsson - Guitar
Magnús Hákon Axelsson - Bass
Þórarinn Kristjánsson - Drums
Kolbrún Karlsdóttir - Keyboard
Sigrún Eiríksdóttir - Guitar and backing vocals
Influences: A list of stuff we like, which probably all to some extent influences us:
Jesus and Mary Chain
ABBA
The Carpenters
The Cardigans
The Icicles
All Girl Summer Fun Band
The Sugarcubes
Bag of Joys
Nick Cave
Buzzcocks
Ramones
My Bloody Valentine
Blonde Redhead
The Raveonettes
Ham
Bacon
Serge Gainsbourg
Motorhead

Sounds Like: your mother
Record Label: Skipping Stones Records
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

London pics

Boy are we lazy. We went to London in February... or January possibly.. hmm.. we played in London on February 1st and 2nd and had a whale of a time. And we have some pics over on flickr. Check'em out:...
Posted by Dýrðin on Wed, 11 Jun 2008 04:12:00 PST

pitchfork and pics

Iceland Airwaves got quite an article on pitchforkmedia.com, and amazingly we were singled out as the "discovery of the festival". Not bad huh? Here's what they said about us: "I feel a little odd cut...
Posted by Dýrðin on Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:32:00 PST

Yet another baby!

Last year our singer Hafdis presented to the world a little baby which is now quickly growing to be a man. On August 24th however, bass player Magnus had a brand spanking new baby, his third actually!...
Posted by Dýrðin on Thu, 27 Sep 2007 04:26:00 PST

New keyboardist

All hail our new keyboardist, Kolla Karlsdottir. Here's a photo of her posing for the Reykjavik to Rotterdam festival which will take place this november. She has a very imposing beak. Sigrun left for...
Posted by Dýrðin on Tue, 24 Jul 2007 10:38:00 PST

Album reviews update march 9th

Our debut album has made it from manufacturing, and advance copies have been sent to reviewers. We'll be posting links to those reviews here, and whatever mention we find of the album. Reviews: 1.http...
Posted by Dýrðin on Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:30:00 PST

Buy album

Buy directly from Skipping Stones Records. ...
Posted by Dýrðin on Sun, 17 Sep 2006 06:04:00 PST

Iceland Airwaves 2006

We're confirmed to be performing at the Iceland Airwaves festival this year. Date and place are yet to be confirmed. We hope to see you there!...
Posted by Dýrðin on Wed, 16 Aug 2006 10:56:00 PST

A Baby!

We are very happy to announce to the world, the birth of a little baby boy. The happy mother, our singer Hafdís, and her spouse Gísli have named him "Kári", which means "Wind". He was born on 26th ju...
Posted by Dýrðin on Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:21:00 PST

Album release

We are happy to announce we have finally finished recording and mixing our first full-length album, which will be released by Skipping Stones Records in the fall. This we finally accomplished with the...
Posted by Dýrðin on Sun, 16 Jul 2006 08:07:00 PST

http://amusicalkiss.blogspot.com/

Some nice words about us here: http://amusicalkiss.blogspot.com/ More precisely: http://amusicalkiss.blogspot.com/2006/05/drin-this-is-starti ng-to-look-like.html Thanks a bunch! :o) ...
Posted by Dýrðin on Sun, 21 May 2006 06:04:00 PST