Reykjavik, Iceland may hold the distinction of having had the coolest mayor in history, a comedian and actor named Jón Gnarr who formed a political party called The Best Party as an act of satire and actually ended up winning the election in 2010.  His political platform included promising free towels at all public swimming pools (Icelanders are all about pools) and getting a polar bear for the city’s zoo.  He overcame severe dyslexia and shyness, compounded by the fact that people thought he was intellectually disabled as a child, and built a success life and family for himself.

Plus he was the singer in a punk band called Nefrennsli in the early 1980s, performing under the name Jónsi Punk.

As far as I know Nefrennsli (which translates to “Runny Nose”) never released any songs back in the day, but that oversight was recently corrected with a limited edition, four track 7″ simply called 1982/1983.  The first track is an interview with the band from 1982, which is unfortunately lost on me (and the vast majority of the rest of the world) because it’s in Icelandic, though I think Gnarr writes about it in some detail in his 2009 autobiography The Pirate.  He also appears as the vocalist on the other A side track, “Bad World.”  I believe the two songs on the B side feature a different singer, as Gnarr’s crippling shyness made it almost impossible for him to perform in front of an audience.

All three songs are raw punk rock, thought the two on the B side are a bit better in terms of recording quality.  At least one of the tracks is available online so you can check out Nefrennsli for yourself.  As for the vinyl, it’s limited to 50 copies, so you better get one quick.