Islands (band)

Iceland
Islands in Omaha, Nebraska on May 15, 2006
General information
origin	Montreal , Canada
Genre (s)	Indie rock , indie pop
founding	2005
Website	islandsareforever.com
Founding members
Vocals , guitar	Nicholas "Nick Diamond" Thurburn
Drums	Jamie "J'aime" Thompson (until 2006, 2009)
Current occupation
Vocals, guitar, synth , piano, bass, harmonica	Nicholas Thorburn
E-bass , synth	Evan Gordon (since 2009)
Guitar, synth, piano, vocals	Georgie Gordon (since 2009)
Drums, percussion, vocals	Adam Halferty (since 2013)
former members
Drums	Aaron Haris (2006-2009, 2010)
Guitar, clarinet	Patrick Gregoire (2008)
Violin, piano, vocals	Sebastian Chow
Violin, viola, synthesizer	Alex Chow
Drums	Luc Laurent
rap	Bus driver
rap	Subtitle
guitar	Jim Guthrie

Islands (dt. Islands ) is a Canadian band that in 2005 by Nicholas Thorburn (former stage name Nick Diamonds ) and Jamie Thompson (former. Stage name J'aime Tambeur ) in Montreal was founded. Jamie Thompson left the band in 2006. The line-up changes frequently depending on the needs of recordings or live performances.

Band history

In 2004 the indie rock band The Unicorns broke up abruptly. Singer Nicholas Thorburn (pseudonym: "Nick Diamond") and drummer Jamie Thompson (stage name "J'aime Tambeur") founded the band Islands and the hip-hop group Th 'Corn Gangg in 2005 . A stable lineup was not found until 2009, however. Before that, the band experimented with different members who were put together as needed. This included the brothers Alex and Sebastian Chow (both World Super NES Fest Champions), Jim Guthrie (grandson of Woodie Guthrie and nephew of Arlo Guthrie ), as well as the two rappers Subtitle and Busdriver . In 2006 her debut album Return to the Sea was released on Equator Records. It's a mix of different styles, from rock to pop to hip-hop. Much of the song material came from the final stages of The Unicorns and was actually planned for this band. The album garnered mostly positive reviews as well as an award as "Best New Music" from the Pitchfork website .

Jamie Thompson left the group in May 2006, shortly before the planned European tour, so Thorburn had to put together a new line-up on the fly. The tour took place as planned. The band signed a new lineup with ANTI-Records and released their most successful album to date, Arm's Way , which was the only album to make it onto the Billboard 200 , albeit only 200.

Vapors was released in 2009 . Meanwhile, with a fixed line-up, there was only one guest on this album: Jamie Thompson returned to the group for a short time, but left it a year later.

In 2012 the album A Sleep and a Forgetting was released , an album that was mainly dominated by Thorburn's divorce.

followed by Ski Mask a year later. The brothers Evan and Geordie Gordon, who are active at The Magic , and drummer Adam Halferty completed the lineup this time.

From 2014 to 2016 the band took a break because Nick Thorburn reunited his old band The Unicorns and released the solo album City of Quartz during this time .

In 2016, the group released two albums: the more electronically oriented dance album Taste and Should I Remain Here at Sea? a quasi-successor to the debut album. In the same year, on the tenth anniversary of the debut album, the band performed the album in its entirety at two concerts in Los Angeles and New York. At the same time the album was re-released on vinyl.

Music genre

At the beginning, Islands was a continuation of the previous band from Thompson and Thurburn, but with a much more catchy style of music. While The Unicorns were more LoFi and experimental, the debut was more oriented towards the typical indie rock of the 1990s, but with influences from hip hop. They returned to this approach in 2016 on the album Should I Remain Here at Sea? back, while the rest was much more experimental. The Taste album , which was released at the same time, is heavily based on electronic dance music. The album A Sleep and a Forgetting and its successor Ski Mask play a special role. Previously known primarily for mellow indie rock, Thorburn's emotional life dominated on A Sleep and a Forgetting , his annoyance and anger, which was, however, embedded in a calm, introspective, musical concept. These stylistic elements have been refined on the successor Ski Mask .

Discography

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

Arm's way   US 200 07/06/2008 (1 week)

Albums

year	title	Label
2006	Return to the Sea	Equator Records
2008	Arm's way	ANTI-
2009	Vapors	ANTI-
2012	A Sleep & A Forgetting	ANTI-
2013	Ski mask	Manqué Music
2016	button	Manqué Music
	Should I Remain Here at Sea?	Manqué Music

Singles

year	title	album
2006	Rough Gem	Return to the Sea
2006	Don't call me Whitney, Bobby	Return to the Sea
2007	Dnttakemy Wingzz Away	Tomlab Alphabet Series -S-
2008	The Arm	Arm's way
2013	Becoming the gunship	No search party

more publishments

• 2007: Live Session EP (ANTI-, iTunes Exclusive)
• 2008: Daytrotter Session 5/19/2008 (download publication, Daytrotter )
• 2016: Bonus Mini EP ( PledgeMusic , Manqué Music)

Web links

• Official website
• Islands in Discogs (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d} Islands at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 11, 2018.
2. ↑ Ron Hart: ISLANDS, "Return to the Sea" . In: Billboard . ( billboard.com [accessed March 11, 2018]).
3. ^ ^{A b} Islands' Nick Thorburn Is No Longer Embarrassed By Return to the Sea . In: pastemagazine.com . ( pastemagazine.com [accessed March 12, 2018]).
4. ↑ ^{a b} US . Retrieved March 11, 2018
5. ^ Josiah Hughes: Islands Return with Two New Albums. In: Exclaim! January 28, 2016, accessed March 12, 2018 . 
6. ^ Return to the Sea. Album Review by Tim Sendra on Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 11, 2018.
7. ↑ Shuld I Remain Here at Sea. Album review by Neil Z. Yeung on Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 11, 2018.
8. ↑ A Sleep & A Forgetting at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 12, 2018.
9. ↑ Ski Mask at Allmusic (English). Retrieved March 12, 2018.