The Sugarcubes News

TRIBUTES have been paid to a popular musician who died suddenly at the weekend. Phil Powell, 44, collapsed at his Prestatyn home on Sunday.

Iceland's climate and terrain is so otherworldly - glaciers, geysers, and lava deserts dot this island in the Arctic Circle - that NASA astronauts come here to train.

After its economy and government collapsed, Iceland, the Albania of Scandinvia, is suffering a major currency crisis.

Well, our blog about the best lyricists around today certainly generated a bit of a kerfuffle.

I'm thrilled to be relaying the happenings of Iceland Airwaves '09 to the readers of UR Chicago! The festival, held in the capital city of Reykjavk, opened itself up to the world in 2000.

They may hail from the land of fire and ice, but the quirky Icelandic pop band mAom sure play a decidedly touchy-feely, warm brand of shoegazing electronica.

Krist Novoselic is a regular contributor to Reverb. His column on music and politics runs every Tuesday on the Daily Weekly.

That's what Craig Wedren, of the seminal D.C. hard-core band Shudder to Think, learned one night backintheday, when his band was playing with the Sugarcubes at New York's late CBGB.

Forming in London in 2003, the Duke Spirit has evolved a sound that brings together elements of garage rock, soul, the blues and swirly, noisy atmospheric rock.

Norwegian pop-punk damsel Ida Maria is making a serious run at American stardom, and that's awesome.

That's former KDGE jock Wendy Naylor at left, with the Sugarcubes and some oddly familiar young man backstage at the first Edgefest in 1992.