When people think of Iceland the only things that usually come to mind are Björk and cold weather. But I guess it's true: nobody knows anything about Iceland. The country is largely unpopulated, and going there seems about as far out as going to Atlantis. But we did go to the land of Vikings and volcanic energy, and we did have a good time.

        Being Canadian, the cold weather didn't freak me out. Even though Montreal hasn't gotten that cold yet I was prepared to be thrown into winter a little early this year. If I were to draw a quick, largely unfounded, music journalist-type parallel between Reykjavik and any other cities I've been to, I'd say that it's a cross between Basel, Switzerland and Banff, Alberta. Basel, in the sense that it looks very European, it's quaint, and there are no exceedingly tall buildings.

        The Banff vibe I got was because it had that drunken ski town thing going for it that Basel really doesn't. I like drunken ski towns, though; people huddle up indoors after a long, physically draining day on the slopes and get totally s**t-faced with all their good-looking, healthy-bodied friends. So we got completely blitzkrieged (me, [bassist] Oliver [Crowe], [keyboardist] Liam [O'Neil], Gus [Van Go], some guys from the Shins too) the two or three nights we spent there. And bar culture is really all the same. I mean, it's young, uppity twenty-somethings talking about music and relationships and art and how the US has bad foreign policy, etcetera... That's what's really boring about most westernized countries you go to is that everybody is not different from you or your friends.

        Who wants to go to a foreign country and spend their time in bars? I don't know... we don't, that's just the lifestyle offered up to travelling musicians. I guess its fun, but you become a total alcoholic and you smell like 50 packs of Marlboro when you go to bed. It's really bad for your skin, and we in The Stills have to stay looking twelve-years-old for as long as we can. One of the best things for your skin is heading down to the Blue Lagoon for a session of Zen bathing. So we took a bus down to the Blue Lagoon just before our gig and soaked in the most popular Icelandic tourist attraction.

        It was pretty f**king cool. Really, the water was boiling, it was dark, it was cold outside, and we wore rented bathing suits. We swam around and put magic sludge on our faces for about two hours. There are tons more hot springs in Iceland besides the Blue Lagoon but you have to be a local or go there in the daytime to find them and know what's up. Western Canada has tons of hot springs, too, and I've been to those a couple times.