Purrkur Pillnikk

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Purrkur Pillnikk is a legendary rock band from late punk era in Iceland. The band existed for 18 months (1981-1982) and were very active as they released at least two LPs' worth of songs, along with one live-album and two EPs. The distinguishable character of the band were Einar Örn's howling and off-key singing and his lyrics that most often described very day-to-day things but with a lot of interwoven angst. Members of the band later found themselves in KUKL, or in 1986 in The Sugarcubes. The members were: Ásgeir R. Bragason, Bragi Ólafsson, Einar Örn Benediktsson and Friðrik Erlingsson. The three latter ones formed Smekkleysa/Bad Taste publishing house in Reykjavík with friends and were also members of The Sugarcubes.

Their records were: Tilf, a 7" EP containing 10 songs and lasting about 12 minutes in total; Ehgji En, an LP containing 17 songs; Googooplex, a double 45RPM album containing 13 songs; No Time to Think, a 7" EP containing 4 songs; and the posthumous live LP Maskínan, containing 17 songs including several not on the other records, most notably a 5-song suite entitled Orð fyrir dauða (Words before death) specifically written for their swansong concert at the Melarokk festival in August 1982.

The Band toured Britain with The Fall in 1982. Some of those dates are listed below:

Monday 3rd May - Band on the Wall Tuesday 4th May - Band on the Wall Wednesday 5th May - Band on the Wall

Recently, popular Icelandic dance outfit Gus Gus released a song entitled "If you don't jump" which samples Purrkur Pillnikk's signature song, "Augun úti".