Mighty Vikings ... Sigur Rós in their feature-length DVD Heima
If you've been to the YouTube homepage today, you may have noticed there are quite a lot of obscure Icelandic links. That's because it's Sigur Rós Takeover Day. For 24 hours, the band are choosing what goes on the homepage, Most Viewed, Most Discussed and Top Favourites sections. They've also made their 97-minute documentary Heima available in its entirety - making them the first band to have a feature-length music DVD streamed on the site. There's also a specially recorded message from the band and their pick of the best entries to their Minn Heima ("my Heima") competition, in which fans were encouraged to post their own version of the film using a selection of audio and video clips provided by the band. No smart-arse comments from me today; instead, I recommend you waste a minute (or 97) on YouTube at some point today, courtesy of one of the most interesting bands on the planet.
I'll leave the last word to them: "Like all Icelanders, we are intensely proud of our mighty homeland in the far North Atlantic," says bassist Georg "Goggi" Holm. "It is in our Viking blood to want to conquer nations and peoples, but our longboat was in the repair shop having the barnacles removed, so we just made a film to send out into the world on our behalf instead. It turned out all right in the end, and lots of people have already enjoyed it. And now it's your turn."
