RUNNING WITH DIONYSUS

Sigur Rós can be excused for joyous nudity because they're Icelandic. Their music is ambient, ethereal, post-rock, dream pop, and not for everyone, and neither is this video which is either from the pagan past when Dionysus ruled, or from some distant utopian future where hang-ups have been discarded like, well, clothes.

Perhaps the point is made too easily that we watch hundreds of murders a day but rarely see someone's bum on TV. Sure, it's trite. Sex is ever present, of course, grabbing our attention and diverting it toward beer and pretzels and deodorant, and flirting meretriciously in so-called "reality TV" shows and all those cheesy double entendres in adult soaps like "Sex and the City." Wink, wink, nudge. Sex is everywhere. Still, you don't see this sort of prancing about. Why not? Sex is as prevalent as plastic, but maybe we haven't come all that far from the Victorian Era when people put pants on piano legs. We're still a bunch of prudes. Maybe if we'd grown up like these Icelanders we'd drop our guns and charge cards once in a while and not be so damn neurotic. Just a thought.

Until then, I give you Sigur Rós.

The life of the party: Dionysus, god of wine and ecstasy, dancing with friends in Ancient Greece

The band: Sigur Rós is jón þor (jónsi) birgisson (vocals, guitars), kjartan (kjarri) sveinsson (keyboards), orri páll dýrason (drums) and georg (goggi) holm (bass). The band were formed by jónsi, georg and original drummer ágúst in 1994.