Purrkur Pillnikk ('Sleepy Chess-Player') is a 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, 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. They also had a track on the ROIR Records compilation World Class Punk.
The band toured Britain with the Fall in 1982. Some of those dates are listed below:
Monday 3 May - Band on the Wall
Tuesday 4 May - Band on the Wall
Wednesday 5 May - Band on the Wall
Recently, popular Icelandic dance outfit GusGus released a song entitled "If you don't jump" which samples Purrkur Pillnikk's signature song, "Augum úti".
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