Who's your favorite Russian band?

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Telephone me many answers please. I have underage brides with melons as big as potatoes for cheap cheap cheap.
(713)553-1256

― Dr. Zhivago, Wednesday, 21 December 2005 22:49 (twenty years ago)

Calling Houston.

What a drag. I thought this was a real thread.

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:10 (twenty years ago)

Gorky Park

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:12 (twenty years ago)

Ugh. Idiotic. And offensive. I was hoping for a real thread.

Might as well make it real:

In no particular order, Kino, Auktyon, Nautilus Pompilius, Aquarium, Splean, Chicherina, Zemfira, tATu.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:19 (twenty years ago)

Jazz Group Arkhangelsk.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:23 (twenty years ago)

Gorky Park... I never met a Russian who liked them.

Mumiy Troll, I guess. Lagutenko has that rock star charisma in spades.

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:26 (twenty years ago)

I think "Gorky Park" still reflexively comes up as a gag answer because it's the first (and last) Russian band most people here think of. I doubt anybody actually likes them.

I like Lagutenko - sadly, he is a better rock star than Mumiy Troll are a band. Also, he (and Splean) are responsible for Britpop still being the default rock sound in Russia...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:29 (twenty years ago)

We're lucky there's any kind of rock sound in Russia, IMHO.

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:34 (twenty years ago)

True. By the way, after atrocities like Detsl and Bad Balance, some half-decent regional hip-hop started popping up in 2005 - Yug, Kasta, Krovostok...

Why do I get a feeling this thread will remain a dialogue between me and Mitya?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:40 (twenty years ago)

Although I tried to like Tanok na Maidani Kongo when they first appeared. I totally can't do the hip hop thing, in any language. I'd much rather listen to popsa.

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:47 (twenty years ago)

I thought Aquarium was more of a joke band -- was I wrong?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:48 (twenty years ago)

Another band I never really heard people listen to (or had people try to turn me on to), although you definitely got the sense people revered them. Radio Afrika (or something like that) is one of the ones that I think you're supposed to listen to.

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 21 December 2005 23:53 (twenty years ago)

Aquarium have about 70 albums under their belt and the frontman, Boris Grebenshikov, is now pretty much Russia's poet laureate, so they hardly qualify as a joke. But a couple of their biggest hits are indeed novelty songs. The most bewildering thing about Aquarium is that Grebenshikov used to fall in love with a new Western influence every year from 1980 until about 1987, when he finally found his own sound (a vaguely Celtic folk rock). Before that, he was aping - in chronological order - Dylan ("Blue Album"), Greatful Dead ("Acoustics"), VU ("Electricity"), the Doors ("Taboo") and Bowie/Eno ("December's Chidren"). That plus a token reggae song on every album. So yeah, it's quite a career.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 December 2005 00:39 (twenty years ago)

Messer Chups!

― ng-unit, Thursday, 22 December 2005 00:55 (twenty years ago)

Oh yeah, those guys! Gets a little samey, though (especially considering that the "parent" band, Messer Fur FM, sounds undistinguishable from the offshoot). But I like it, especially since it's something you totally don't expect to come out of Russia.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 December 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

Though someone mocked it on another thread, I really like Boris Grebenshikov's English-language "breakout" single "Radio Silence." Partly for the very Russian way he pronounces the word "million."

My favorite Serbian band is Bijelo Dugme. Any competition?

― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 22 December 2005 01:25 (twenty years ago)

Also: Bering Strait is surprisingly good.

― ng-unit, Thursday, 22 December 2005 01:28 (twenty years ago)

The country band? Really?

"Radio Silence" rocks, Dave Stewart's production notwithstanding. There's also an amazing acoustic version that plays in the credits of Apted's documentary "The Long Way Home." Someone pointed out to me that this song is a conscious rewrite of Iggy Pop's "Real Wild Child" (again, Boris with his borrowings), but I like it better than RWC.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 December 2005 01:32 (twenty years ago)

I have a favourite Russian band?

― Tokyo Ghost Stories (Tokyo Ghost Stories), Thursday, 22 December 2005 02:14 (twenty years ago)

Yes, the country band. Totally solid. They do one of my favorite Fleetwood Mac covers ever, to boot.

― ng-unit, Thursday, 22 December 2005 02:43 (twenty years ago)

Russians in my experience are much more interested in lyrics than the sonics. I find Nautilius Pompilius very difficult to listen to but a lot of people think Butusov is amazing.

Joseph, where do you suggest starting with BG?

― Mitya (mitya), Thursday, 22 December 2005 02:48 (twenty years ago)

Zemfira is terrific. "Znak bezkonechnost" is one of my songs of the year... gorgeous.

― Myke Weiskopf (Myke Weiskopf), Thursday, 22 December 2005 04:56 (twenty years ago)

I don't know too many of them. t.a.t.u are clearly better than Gorky Park. Mumiy Troll had a nice Eurovision entry a few years back, and are apparently generally quite nice.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 22 December 2005 05:23 (twenty years ago)

x-post

The folky BG - "Akustika." The hippie BG - "Ravnodenstvie" ("Equinox"). The New Wave BG (my favorite) - "Deti Dekabrya" ("December's Children").

Also, here's a crazy English-language website kept by American BG fans:
http://www.dharmafish.org

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 December 2005 05:50 (twenty years ago)

is SCSI-9 from Russia? and would they qualify as a band?

― Jack L., Thursday, 22 December 2005 06:22 (twenty years ago)

Mumiy Troll's Eurovision song was terrible. The first three albums are the best. I'll YSI their holiday song tomorrow if i can dig out the CD.

Zemfira lost me after the second album, and I have to say that I'd probably give the new one back to the store if I had the chance. I just don't get it.

― Mitya (mitya), Thursday, 22 December 2005 07:07 (twenty years ago)

yeh scsi 9/anton kubikov ;)

zdob si zdub (ok not russian)
gosti iz budeshchevo
spitfire!
and why not stick down markschneider kunst?

― ambrose (ambrose), Thursday, 22 December 2005 10:06 (twenty years ago)

eu & roricat

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Thursday, 22 December 2005 10:15 (twenty years ago)

The other side of Boris Grebenshikov is that he collaborated with a lot of jazz / improv guys in Russia - Sergei Kuryokhin, Vladimir Chekasin etc. Not sure how that went down in the Soviet era as I think free jazz was somewhat frowned upon by the authorities. He's not quite the mainstream puppet he seems though.

― Matt #2 (Matt #2), Thursday, 22 December 2005 11:08 (twenty years ago)

EU are excellent but I listen to Fizzarum marginally more.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Thursday, 22 December 2005 13:18 (twenty years ago)

"Mainstream puppet"? Very interesting. One of the things I love about immersing yourself in different cultures is getting to slowly decode everything. Despite the big, officially sanctioned 30th anniversary concerts in "Rossia," my sense was always that BG and Akvarium were kind of leftovers from Soviet culture, ie., people may have loved them when they were "dissident" but once the whole socialist structure collapsed, they became not just passe, the way previous era's idols do for US/UK audiences, but almost irrelevant. Not Buddy Holly but Stephen Foster... Not jerry Seinfeld but Milton Berle... A museum piece. I'm not making sense, as usual.

― Mitya (mitya), Thursday, 22 December 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

No, you're pretty OTM there.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 22 December 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

Yat-Kha or Huun-Huur-Tu for me.

― NickB (NickB), Thursday, 22 December 2005 15:25 (twenty years ago)

A De Maar wins by phone-in vote. The bride goes to Ned Raggett. Thanks to everyone who called. I'll see you in Omsk for my next tour.

― Dr. Zhivago, Friday, 23 December 2005 02:37 (twenty years ago)

Who's the Russian folk singer from the 1960s who was also in a production of Hamlet? Very much a dissident, wore a lot of black turtlenecks. I sat through a whole presentation on his work and can't recall his name. Interesting, gritty stuff. Wouldn't mind hearing more.

― patita (patita), Friday, 23 December 2005 17:32 (twenty years ago)

Vladimir Vysotsky!

― patita (patita), Friday, 23 December 2005 17:34 (twenty years ago)

Rainy Season, Ole Lukkoye.

and i even kinda like Zodiac, in spite of feeling like i shouldn't. they appeal to the same synth-pop sweet tooth as YMO, with the added appeal of discoball glitz.

― loxmyth (echoinggrove), Friday, 23 December 2005 18:05 (twenty years ago)

I only put Gorky Park cuz Boris Grebeshikov or whatever is too hard to spell!

nobody really likes Gorky Park.

― M@tt He1geson (Matt Helgeson), Friday, 23 December 2005 18:14 (twenty years ago)

'll add a coupla more:
Zvuki Mu
Strannye Igry
(not exactly my faves, but these were real good groups in their time, each with its own brand of "weirdness")

Yat-Kha or Huun-Huur-Tu
Neiher is, strictly speaking, a "Russian band". I'm rather inclined to think that they'd take offence, possibly, if called Russian ;)

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 23 December 2005 18:59 (twenty years ago)

Vysotsky is The Man. but not, alas, a rock singer. Context-wise, he occupies a weird middle ground between Jacques Brel and Woody Guthrie...

Every couple of years, I dust off Zvuki Mu's Eno-produced Warner Bros. album in hopes I have somehow advanced enough as to be able to listen to it all the way through. Not yet.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Friday, 23 December 2005 22:42 (twenty years ago)

ARIA!

― Hero Of Asphalt, Wednesday, 28 December 2005 01:18 (twenty years ago)

Really now?

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Auktyon is coming to the Pub in NYC in January.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 01:47 (twenty years ago)

Heartily recommended. And not just because I may be opening for them :)

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 05:07 (twenty years ago)

There's an experimental band that put out a Drone Records single called Reutoff. I think that's the only one I have. Also got these amazing gypsy song 7" EPs on Melodiya from a thrift store last summer, but I can't read them.

Isn't Ivan of COH Russian? If so that would be an easy choice.

― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

No more Russian brides. I have much cauliflower from plantvillage of my backyard however. Tell me and biggest prize gets much cauliflower. Thank you for being merry threadmates in forum! The cauliflowers sometimes melt when shipped too far from homebase, so pay extra for priority 1 mail! It's good cauliflowers.

― Dr. Zhivago, Wednesday, 28 December 2005 06:11 (twenty years ago)

Fuck you.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

I am sorry. I think Aria is the biggest load of crap ever obscured by a dry ice machine. I was with them on a flight from Krasnoyarsk or some other god awful place once, and it was straight out of spinal tap. kipelov sitting with asian girlfriend/wife off by himself, looking like he was trying to meditate, the other four gorrilas together in a different part of the plane, making every effort to drink themselves unconscious.

None of this necessarily bearing on their music, but still...

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 16:34 (twenty years ago)

joseph/forksclove - where is this Pub you speak of? when is the show?

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 16:35 (twenty years ago)

It's Joe's Pub in New York. The details are at Auktyon's English site, www.auktyon.com. Scratch my last post -- I just checked and my band has nothing to do with these dates. They're a part of some festival. Spielerfrau will be opening for Splean Feb. 26 at China Club (yes, ugly booking -- I was hoping for Irving Plaza, but oh well).

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 17:01 (twenty years ago)

Species of Fishes! Cisfinitum. Cyclotimia.
there's a lot of excellent post-industrial and dark ambient music coming out of the former USSR.

Reutoff has a huge discog. and a songier offshoot, Das Reut.

― Ghost Bear Junior High Attendance Party (echoinggrove), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 17:54 (twenty years ago)

krasnoyarsk isnt a god awful place! i thought it was rather nice myself. very wide river.

― ambrose (ambrose), Wednesday, 28 December 2005 23:14 (twenty years ago)

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewProfile&friendID=42890588

Grazhdanskaya Oborona (Civil Defense) is a Siberian punk group. Does that still count? Not all their stuff is great, but a handful of jams would sound great alongside Brainbombs, Leather Nun, Discharge, Doom, etc.

― QuantumNoise (Justin Farrar), Thursday, 29 December 2005 00:14 (twenty years ago)

I was at their recent gig at Southpaw in Brooklyn. It ended predictably, with a mass melee and at least two arrests. punksnotdead etc.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 29 December 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

I forgot about Species Of Fishes, they have an excellent record done w/Muslimgauze.

― sleeve (sleeve), Thursday, 29 December 2005 01:23 (twenty years ago)

ok, what was the band in this one video clip i am remembering from internet? there were naked ladies all over the stage, and the metal band is going "RUSS-IAN VOD-KA!!", and a midget chugs a bottle all over himself

anyone?

― autovac (autovac), Thursday, 29 December 2005 03:25 (twenty years ago)

whatever it was, sounds like it's better forgotten.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Thursday, 29 December 2005 05:12 (twenty years ago)

RyaBa Mutant - were an awsome electr.duo once (i.e not too long ago)
Their versh. of "Sleeping Beauty" was very good, at the vrey least.

Species of Fishes - yeh!

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Thursday, 29 December 2005 19:05 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

My favorite russian band is "Kipelov"! The best russian metal! if you interested, visit my site www.kipelov.alfaspace.net

― Vladimir, Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:07 (twenty years ago)

Inna and the Farlanders. Their bassist sounds heavily influenced by Mick Karn.

― Patrick South (Patrick South), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 15:16 (twenty years ago)

omg i was so shoked to read some of this...

everything non-electronic from russia sucks one big time... either it is shite, or it is well dated. not that there's a lot of electronic stuff also.

i wish i could be a music patriot, but alas.

ps: there's a well promoted tatu, though.

― nique (nique), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:07 (twenty years ago)

...And such small portions!

x-post - didn't the Farlanders (sans Inna) used to be a prog-goth thing called Piknik? That may explain some things...

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:19 (twenty years ago)

was piknik prog-goth?

more surprises!

we just called it 'rock' in their better days (and i think they thought of themselves as a rock band, too, were members of the famous petersburg's 'rock club', etc.)

some members of Farlanders were once in the band called 'alliance' (not really famous), and others are like original farlanders members...

― nique (nique), Tuesday, 24 January 2006 22:35 (twenty years ago)

Not Piknik - Alliance! Thank you. My bad. And Alliance were not prog-goth. They were psych-folk.

Yeah, yeah, I know, it's all "rock" if you grew up in Russia. Or "pop." I remember how shocked I was the first time I realized that Nautilus Pompilius were actually going for an r'n'b sound on their early albums (all arrangements on The Prince Of Silence are swiped from "When Doves Cry").

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 02:15 (twenty years ago)

Obereg

Vermicelli Orchestra

Must also second Huun-Huur-Tuu

― Cliftonb, Wednesday, 25 January 2006 03:00 (twenty years ago)

on the basis of the one song that i've heard, zvezdnye voiny ('star wars').

― cb, Wednesday, 25 January 2006 10:35 (twenty years ago)

are stendec russian? i like them

― jim p. irrelevant (electricsound), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 10:39 (twenty years ago)

well joseph, when 'piknik' and others were first around in russia, or, rather, then it was soviet union, there was no sign of 'goths' and anything, like, gothic around at all, that's why, of course, for our old memories, it's all 'rock' ::))

stendec (Paul Merrit and Ben Edwards aka benge - right?) = not russian

― nique (nique), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 17:26 (twenty years ago)

Wait, so does this mean I can't call them goths now? Just because you and I didn't know in 1989 that KINO ripped off the Smiths wholesale, are you going to argue to the contrary in 2006? Time does bring certain judgement adjustments.

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 17:32 (twenty years ago)

are 'kino' goths, too?
well at least they were wearing black clothes! he he

ah yes, now they're like biggest idols of all goths, i see their t-shirts on dirty drunken boys and girls in certain places

i'm not arguing at all dear, i just was a lil one surprised...

― nique (nique), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 17:52 (twenty years ago)

Gee, gosh, I dunno:

― joseph cotten (joseph cotten), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 19:18 (twenty years ago)

and their "at the local culture palace in the middle of nowhere" impression:

http://nneformat.ru/pic2/kino01.JPG

― nique (nique), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 20:45 (twenty years ago)

nique, feel free to educate us on russian electronica...

― Mitya (mitya), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 21:01 (twenty years ago)

apparently st. petersburg has a huge electronic music scene, much if it IDM-y

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 21:38 (twenty years ago)

st. petersburg has a huge everything - rock scene, cheap drugs market... but i wouldn't say electronic scene is huge

there's EU and a label called chebureck records, the band called 'chugunny skorokhod', what else? not too much (i'm talking popular stuff, at least in the 'underground')

mitya, if you ask something, i might know...

― nique (nique), Wednesday, 25 January 2006 22:02 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

Vladimir Ussachevsky begat Russian electronic music.

― gnarly sceptre, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 14:13 (eighteen years ago)

Huh? Waddabout Leo Theremin, then? ;)

― t**t, Wednesday, 8 August 2007 15:12 (eighteen years ago)

three years pass...

i have a bottle of House Wine label chiraz in me and i'm overdrive-researching for my EMP presentation and can we talk about this fucking crushing soviet-era punk song by grazhdanskaya oborona called "everything is going according to plan"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1X2fqBN2G0

oh man the laughing at the end.

here are some lyrics:

Well, when we get communism it'll all be fucking great.
It will come soon, we just have to wait.
Everything will be free there, everything will be an upper.
We'll probably not even have to die.
I woke up in the middle of the night and realized

That everything is going according to plan.
Everything is going according to plan.

― difficult listening hour, Thursday, 10 February 2011 07:18 (fifteen years ago)

my non-rejected screen name to thread

― the mu-ney su-zvuki (get bent), Thursday, 10 February 2011 07:30 (fifteen years ago)

I'm relatively up-to-date with the pop stuff around at the moment but can anyone recommend any good Russian / Ukrainian rock albums from 2010?

― ShariVari, Thursday, 10 February 2011 08:58 (fifteen years ago)

grazhdanskaya oborona are so awesome.

― CharlieS, Thursday, 10 February 2011 20:58 (fifteen years ago)

goddamnit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJuyi4iZ6uc&feature=related

― CharlieS, Thursday, 10 February 2011 20:59 (fifteen years ago)

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