espen gustavsen - lead vocals/guitar
pål gustavsen - vocals/banjo/guitar
jon iver helgaker - vocals/hammond/rhodes/synth
nils ulset brodersen - drums
eirik iversen - vocals/bass
Influences
captain beefheart, gillian welch, black sabbath, led zeppelin, grateful dead, frank zappa, wilco, etc
Booking:
Europe
henning@proton-team.com
henning beste
fon + 49 (0)561-2889126
fax + 49 (0)561-22891
Norway
thomas@atomicagency.no
Atomic Agency AS
t (+47) 24 14 55 02
f: (+47) 24 14 55 01
Sounds Like
Wish It Was Summer Always - directed by Lars Einar Skageberg
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Fountain - directed by Petter Sørnæs, 2007
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Us Annexed - directed by Aksel Hennie, 2006
Us Annexed
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Check out this live video recorded by Mr Lars Einar Skageberg performed at Blå, Oslo.
The Inbetween is the everything - September 2006. Good job, Lars!
Two brothers have spent the most of their lifetime plucking strings and hammering pianos and beatup drums in the ways of mountain music and deltablues. As Grand Island sprouted three more musicians after the brothers returned from overseas, they grew tired of the limitations in the Appalachian music legacy. And so more and more of the deliciously eccentric sides of music appeared as the bands sound grew from straight ahead amerigrass to a tight, energetic and dirty hybrid in the mesh made from hardsoul-bluegrass-disco, hardcore and rocknroll; southern indie. Sulphur vocals, heavy organs, banjo fingers from 76, desert bass and big city drums. Its a joyous, uncompromising melodic rhythm-galore, with two brothers on skins and bass and two brothers in front on strings and wails, with one fifth of keys on the side. The band has one foot in west coast glamorama and the other in Georgia, with its head pushed down in the sand of 29 Palms, one arm from Motor City, Appalachian revival-folk and gospel. Sin songs and sin-alongs.
Grand Island released their debut-album ’Say no to
sin’ in 2006, and the album was nothing less than a
summer storm of a record, or a
mountain dam cracking open perhaps.
’Amiss are norms, order and respect for expectations.
Loath of narrative logic, temperance and a structure
of recognition, Grand Island’s dual pair of brothers
-with an unrelated fifth member constituting the
genetic freak- pour into the cauldron of their music
frantic banjos, jungle beats and primal veils,
blood-line precision, crystal-meth energy and general
hysteria.
The songs are not symmetrical and rounded entities,
nay, they are more reminiscent of the path of a
drugged, or inbred, mind, leaping ever-on never back.
They are complex, fragmented and most of all frantic
sequences of music. Like caustic soda and milk, the
true mountain dew, Grand Island is not something to
hold on to: you must go along and pick up the speed as
it gathers, and then, when the chorus sets in,
everything lifts like a vast flock of birds.
The choruses tend to be catchy beyond imagination
(“sin-song, sin-along” as they aptly put it
themselves) and constitute some kind of recurring
comment on the madness, or a promise: “there is always
a party near for those who dare!” (mic.no)’
After three European tours, performances at larger
festivals on the continent as well as invitations to
South by Southwest and Eurosonic, nominations for
Spellemann- (Norwegian Grammy) and Alarmawards, Grand
Island is finally back.
With the critically acclaimed debut-album ’Say no to
sin’ in the trunk, the band has spent the last year on
the road and in studio to record their second album.
Sweet and tears has been left behind, and blood has
been spilt. Cars crashed and bridges burned. All so
that the band with pride and humility can present
“Boys & Brutes”, an album for those that wish to cry,
dance or fight.
The album is recorded and mixed in the famous
Propeller studios with Mike Hartung (A-ha, Shining,
Satyricon, JR Ewing and more) as producer. The album
is mastered in Los Angeles by Dave Collins (Queens of
the stone age, Madonna, Black Sabbath, Sting, and
more.)
The music of Grand Island can be described as an
unrelenting mix of pumping string-handling, subtle yet
insanely shifts in tempo, mood and intensity. The band
has on the new album worked hard to keep their
originality and trademarks, but at the same time
sought to expand their musical expression in a more
melodic, manifoldly and dynamic direction. In short,
it is very much Grand Island, but with a further
dimension.
Grand Island is planning a Norwegian tour in April
followed by a European tour in May as well as selected
festivals through-out northern Europe.
“There are two choices; you either love them to pieces
or you want to bust their heads from confusion”
... Er det mulig å gjøre en request til konserten i Volda?
vet ikke om dere bare spiller fra nye albummet (som ROCKER) på konsertene nå for tiden, men hadde vert RÅTT om dere spilte "Us Annexed". Den swinger som en matthafakka!
Etter MYE leting har jeg endelig skaffet meg albummet deres! Ingen steder i nærområdet som hadde den! En ren GLEDE å endelig få nyte det!
Så tilfeldigvis at dere skulle spille på Rokken scene i Volda, min hjem"by"! Og ikke bare det, på min BURSDAG! Dette lyste virkelig opp arbeidsdagen min!
hey pal! remember driving the rollercoaster hills of WI near my parents house so many years ago? you had a mixed tape w van morrison on it and i thought you were the shit. i mustve been only 13.
anyway.. how the hell do i get a copy of your cd for me and nate?
Huba. I’m giving my song ‘Sunday’ away for free. Just click ‘download’ on my page, and it’s yours. Please pass it on to your brothers & sisters, anyone you love!
Det var en helt sjukt fet kveld, stappfullt og vannvittig bra stemning! Skjønner selvfølgelig at dere ikke kunne, vi får heller ta det igjen en annen gang. Grattis med petre-listinga forresten, vel fortjent, det er en veldig bra låt!
Hei! I dag våkna jeg av en fantastisk låt på radioen, og istedet for å slå på slumre som jeg pleier, måtte jeg høre låten ferdig. Det var deres Love in Decay som ble spilt. Dere har herved fått enda en fan! Stå på :)
