It’s the season of end-of-year lists and Danish quartet Iceage find themselves in the conversation for 2014’s best album. Released in October, Plowing into the Field of Love is a stunning statement. The group stretches out musically to incorporate trumpet and viola, while flirting with different genres like rockabilly, all the while maintaining the intensity that led Iggy Pop to praise them as “the only current punk band that sounds really dangerous.”
Recorded in an old house in northern Sweden where the band was “away from distraction and temptation,” drummer Dan Kjær Nielsen beams with pride discussing the band’s third album.
“We are very happy with how it turned out,” he says. “We definitely grew as songwriters and it’s something I hold close to my heart with great pride. The reception has been good, though we would probably be happy with it regardless.”
Being critically revered is nothing new for the group. Formed in 2008 by childhood friends Nielsen, singer/guitarist Elias Bender Rønnenfelt, guitarist Johan Surrballe Wieth and bassist Jakob Tvilling Pless, Iceage quickly became fixtures in Copenhagen’s underage punk scene.
“It’s hard to say what drove us apart from excitement and feeling like trying to play music," Nielsen says.
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Their debut album New Brigade quickly outgrew its initial 500-copy print run and put the group on the map with glowing reviews from the likes of Pitchfork, The Guardian and the Washington Post.
“Copenhagen’s music scene is a wonderful mess of people trying out a million different ideas and concepts, each overlapping the other,” Kjær Nielsen notes, praising contemporaries like Total Control and Femminielli.
Its follow-up You’re Nothing was another acclaimed set of brutal noise punk songs. The group’s wild reputation only grew when they began including Iceage branded knives and locks of each member’s hair in their merchandise table at shows.
As they enter their 20s, the band has matured with Plowing in the Field of Love. At 47-minutes long, it’s nearly twice the length of either of their past discs, with standout tracks the dirge-like ‘Glassy Eyed, Dormant and Vieled’ and the swaggering lead single ‘The Lord’s Favorite.’
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The music video is a swaggering showcase for frontman Rønnenfelt who oozes a sleazy charisma akin to The Strokes' Julian Casablancas and The Libertine’s Pete Doherty, while belting out lines like, “One hundred Euro wine/I do believe in heaven and I do believe it’s time.”
“It was a lot of fun making it,” Nielsen says. “It all felt quite light hearted and befitting to the song. I don’t think it’s ever easy to write a song, but this one seems like one that could begin kind of writing itself once the basic premise was formulate.”
Propelled by both the single and album’s success, Iceage are in the midst of a world tour that stops at Yuyintang on January before moving onto Thailand, Australia and New York. It’ll be their first time in China and Nielsen is excited.
“I’m very much looking forward to seeing some of the world’s biggest cities and all their glories, the remains of thousands of years of culture and civilization, and the newest, biggest, most developed metropolitan extravaganza on ancient soil,” he raves.
In return, the band promises an intense show. Nielsen warns, “the songs are quite different live, as they are presented directly in the flesh from us to the audience with nothing in between.”
// Jan 9, 10pm-late, RMB80. Yuyintang.
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Photo by Isabel Asha Penzlien
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