C/D: The Leningrad Cowboys

I had never seen any of their 3 feature films (directed by king of Finnish deadpan Aki Kaurismaki) until the new Eclipse DVD set -- basically, Spinal Tapping the death throes of the USSR. Most astonishing sequence in their concert movie (performed in front of 70,000 in Helsinki):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2x75Gxd5IDE

Saw the first movie, loved it. Saw them live in NYC in about 1990-91, loved that even more. Used to have a T-shirt (Lenin w/Leningrad Cowboy-style pompadour) but it's long gone.

I bought the box and viewed the first one last week, I'm saving the others. Shit was pretty fun although the joke got kind of stale after a while. Definitely super looking forward to the concert film. It's great to know there is a band like that out there in the world!

its just fantastic stuff.
i lvoe the way some of the blokes in the russian choir are clearly having the time of their lives.
wish i had bought loads of leningrad cowboys merch/albums when i lived there back in 89/90, but hey ..

also, how is this new boxset different to the boxset that i have ?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Aki-Kaurismaki-Collection-Leningrad-Cowboys/dp/B000UZPM6M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321347542&sr=8-1

have only seen the first Leningrad Cowboys movie but I love Kaurismaki. Watched Hamlet Goes Business the other week, and the dividing line between comedy and serious business is even vaguer

I too have that boxset, I too have only seen the first movie (which I love). Been waiting to do a scandiwegian black comedy filmfest.

I have only seen go to America and heard some of he music and rather like it. I recall talkng with Tuomas in Helsinki about them and he was deeply embarrassed about them.

They own a bar in Helsinki which is like a Soviet TGI Fridays, which is with a visit.

Only seen Go America, which I enjoyed, and a few later bits here and there via occasional youtubing.

Agree that the joke may (or may not, I wouldn't really know, but it looks that way) have been run into the ground a bit by the subsequent multitude of sequels, tours, etc, but I made a good friend when we ran into each other in lectures the day after being 2 of the 3 people in attendance at the screening of said film, so for that alone, classic in my book

in eastern europe leningrad cowboys is clearly a classic... (same category as no smoking orchestra from black cat, white cat.)

mark e, this is the US debut of the box, apparently. Same?

http://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/review/eclipse-series-29-aki-kaurismakis-leningrad-cowboys/2142

Second film is MORE dour and less musical than the first, tho I like Matti Pelonpaa stealing the Statue of Liberty's nose.

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure the american release is a port of the uk box with a new translation for the subtitled bits.

ahh .. gotcha.
fair enough, i dont need to worry.
not seen the second of the films yet.
but some of the shorts are mad ..
i'm going to have to watch the concert again soon.

seems like the kind of stuff that wouldn't really hold up at all, save for some residual nostalgia for late soviet crossover culture of the era. as i recall teh first movie isn't really that good once you get past the shtick.

seems like the kind of stuff that wouldn't really hold up at all, save for some residual nostalgia for late soviet crossover culture of the era. as i recall teh first movie isn't really that good once you get past the shtick.

but the shtick is what it's about. At least as funny as fish-in-a-barrel Spinal Tap.

wrong again, good doctor

the first movie's pretty cool & funny

"They beat him savagely" made me laugh very hard

also Jim Jarmusch is an excellent used-car salesman

indie-film in-jokery

well if you've ever seen Aki Kaurismaki's other films, it's pretty obvious that Jarmusch has plenty in common w/ him.

Is Nicky Tesco (from The Members) something to do with the LC's?

i have, and to be fair i havent seen this one basically since it came out, but i remember not being too impressed beyond the general funny vibe/shtick. he's gotten a lot better.

Nicky Tesco plays their "American cousin" they encounter pumping gas in Texas in Go America, and he does lead voc on "Born to Be Wild" and a couple others. He doesn't seem to be in the concert-film incarnation, though.

I have only seen go to America and heard some of he music and rather like it. I recall talkng with Tuomas in Helsinki about them and he was deeply embarrassed about them.

They own a bar in Helsinki which is like a Soviet TGI Fridays, which is with a visit.

I don't recall discussing them, but the restaurant doesn't exist anymore, and I don't think the band does either...? They did try to make some kind of a comeback in the 00s, but it's been a while since that too. I'm not embarassed by LC, but they're not just my kind of music. LC evolved from a local rock band called Sleepy Sleepers that's been around since the mid-70s, whose main specialty was toilet humour, dressing up as women, and other "taboos" like that. There's a funny book written on their history which includes, among other things, a complete list of various "poop gags" the band members did to each other (pooping inside the drummers drum set, inside someone's shoes or hat, etc); it's more entertaining to read about them than to listen to their music. LC Cowboys was just SS's (rather successful) attempt to go international. Once LC's initial success faded, Mato Valtonen, one of the two lead guys for both SS and LC, had an information technology firm, but he lost it and most of his money when the dot-com bubble burst. After that he used to work as a roller coaster cart driver at a amusement park in Helsinki, don't know where he is now.

they're back.
album on SPV.
http://www.leningradcowboys.fi/albums.html

Once LC's initial success faded, Mato Valtonen, one of the two lead guys for both SS and LC, had an information technology firm, but he lost it and most of his money when the dot-com bubble burst. After that he used to work as a roller coaster cart driver at a amusement park in Helsinki, don't know where he is now.

Make a movie about that guy!

The second LC movie has them in Coney Island for about 5 minutes -- which is now almost unrecognizable from '93. :p

Aki Kaurismaki is my favorite director ever.

Match Factory girl is probably my favorite film from the latter half of the twentieth century! It's incredibly simple but it says so much. I consider it a comedy but it's so incredibly pitch black I think most people would not classify it as comedy!

My favorite, from what I can remember, is Ariel, but the new one is splendid too.