Leningrad (band)

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Sergei Schnurow 2007

Leningrad ( Russian Ленинград , named after the former name of the city of Saint Petersburg ) is a Russian skacore band. They were the first underground band to regularly make it into the Russian charts and are best known in Germany for the “ Russendisko ” events and CD by Vladimir Kaminer .

The eleven-member band was founded in 1997 by Sergei Schnurow , who worked, among other things, as a PR consultant for a radio station and as an art forger before his performances . The band's first album, Pulja , made a lasting impression. Critics compared the success and reactions to that of the Sex Pistols album Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in the UK in the 1970s. Unlike the Sex Pistols, the text content is less destructive. The band itself says: "Our songs are only about the positive side of life, that is, about vodka and women".

On December 25, 2008, the band was dissolved by Sergei Schnurow, Schnurow justified the dissolution with the work on his new project Rubl .

At the end of 2010 the band re-formed. Julija Kogan , who had previously worked as a background singer for the band, joined as a permanent member. She also did most of the vocals on the new album Chna . Schnurow is still the driving force on stage.

style

The group's music is characterized by a mixture of diverse influences from rock , Russian folklore , Russian crook chansons and hip-hop to metal , which varies from album to album, and is built into catchy and (harmoniously and rhythmically) simple ska . A hallmark of the band is, in addition to the polyphonic brass section, which has been retained over the years, the distinctive vocals of frontman Sergei Schnurow, who, especially since the album Piraty XXI weka, reminds of the eroded nature of Tom Waits and repeatedly changes into roars, screeches or moans. Occasionally, influences of the singer Vladimir Semjonowitsch Vysotsky are attested, which can be noted in the compositions of the album Wtoroj Magadanski (which is not officially an album of the Leningrad group, but is sold under the artist's title "Sergei Schnurow").

The style of the band had changed a lot since the first album was released. While the albums Mat bes Elektritschestwa , Datschniki and Made in Schopa were still quite similar stylistically and exhibited little variety, since 2001 a slightly different musical path has been taken with each new album. Piraty XXI Weka greatly broadened the musical spectrum. For the first time you can find Latin rhythms in the band's music, but at the same time also aggressive songs (for example resinowy muschik ). Since Piraty XXI Weka , the members of the band Spitfire have been a permanent fixture in Leningrad. The follow-up album Totschka , on the other hand, showed very rough dissonant and noisy sides and had features of a concept album (drug consumption). Dlja Millionow, on the other hand, brought a return to more catchy melodies, but also a hitherto remained commitment to spoken chanting that dispenses with some of the extravagances of earlier years. This was followed by the concept album Babarobot with a revue-like structure and very different compositions. With Chleb an album was then released, which had unprecedented hard influences, especially in the percussion, and similar to Totschka and Dlja Millionow showed slight stylistic deviations between the individual songs. The album Babje leto continued this tradition. On the album Awrora , the band went back in the style of Datschniki , that is, rock music with slight Ska influences.

In 2005, the split album Chuinja, recorded in 2003 together with the London trio The Tiger Lillies , was released (14 tracks, at least eleven of which are compositions by the English, who themselves only contributed to two songs).

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Controversy

Leningrad was and is a “red rag” in the eyes of many people in Russia, which may be largely due to the extensive use of vulgar language ( Russian Mat ). The band's compositions are rarely played outside of MTV in the country's mass media, and vulgar text components in the latter case are regularly cut out. The reputation of the band and of Sergei Schnurow as the enfant terrible of Russian pop music also contributed to a large number of scandals (including a nude appearance, fights at concerts, awards lost or thrown away in alcoholism), as well as the unobtrusive appearance in videos and on stage (smoking, consuming schnapps, etc.). In Moscow, the band had been banned from performing for a few years by the mayor Yuri Luschkow .

Indeed, the texts of Leningrad are marked by profanity. Often, apparently doing nothing is propagated ( Raspisdjaj ), crime is played down ( Swoboda , Malenki Maltschik , Krasny Moskvich ), alcoholism is presented as a normal state or sexist elements are used. Schnurow regularly appears on stage in a drunk state. When the singer Zemfira had produced a hit called Gesucht , which was about a desperate love, Leningrad quickly published the title Found , in which healthy group sex was celebrated as a cure for heartache. According to Wladimir Kaminer , by and large all of Schnurov's texts are about "how excessively drunk, badly dressed men with thick cocks suffer from unwilling hookers and a constant lack of money".

In addition to understanding the texts in the sense of pure provocation, they can sometimes also be assigned a satirical character, which exaggerate the supposedly typical attitudes of young men or life in Russia in general, as in particular in the albums Dlja Millionow , Babarobot and Chleb . The seriousness with which these attitudes towards life are exemplified and articulated may explain the popularity of the group, as well as the aversions to it.

Political satire is seldom interwoven in a cheeky way. For example, Vladimir Putin - at the time of publication, President of the country - became the antagonist of Schnurov in the video www , which wants to transform St. Petersburg into Moscow, and also decides a football game by decree.

various

Often from Leningrad the fragments of other musical pieces and songs are woven into their songs. The song Gruppa krowi refers to the song of the same name by the cult band Kino . The theme of the orange song of the group Blestjashchie can be found in the song kredit on the album Chleb . Part of the swoboda chorus is a theme from the heavy metal group Arija . As a greeting to Jimi Hendrix , the Russian national anthem is played in free interpretation on the electric guitar. Leningrad continues to be known as fans of the Petersburg football club Zenit St. Petersburg and has released songs with corresponding confessions on many albums.

occupation

Discography

  • 1999: Pulja ( Пуля 'Kugel, Geschoss' ), OGI Records
  • 1999: Mat bes elektritschestea ( Мат без электричества ‚Cursing unplugged ' ), Gala Records
  • 2000: Datschniki ( Дачники ‚Kleingärtner ' ), Gala Records
  • 2001: Pulja + ( Пуля + 'Kugel, Geschoss +' ) (2 CDs), OGI Records
  • 2001: Made in Schopa ( Made in Жопа , where Made in Engl., So dt. 'Made in the ass') Gala Records
  • 2002: Piraty XXI weka ( Пираты XXI века 'Pirates of the 21st Century' ), Gala Records
  • 2002: Totschka ( Точка 'point' ), Gala Records
  • 2003: Leningrad udelywajet Ameriku (Disk 1) ( Ленинград уделывает Америку (Диск 1) 'Leningrad Makes America Down (CD1)' ); Live album
  • 2003: Leningrad udelywajet Ameriku (Disk 2) ( Ленинград уделывает Америку (Диск 2) 'Leningrad Makes America Down (CD2)' ); Live album
  • 2003: Dlja Millionow ( Для Миллионов ‚For Millions' ), Мистерия Звука
  • 2004: Babarobot ( Бабаробот 'The Robot Woman ' ), Мистерия Звука & Шнур'ОК Records
  • 2005: Chleb ( Хлеб 'bread' ), Мегалайнер рекордз
  • 2005: Huinya (from Хуйня ' Scheißdreck ' , together with The Tiger Lillies ), Мистерия Звука
  • 2006: Babje leto ( Бабье лето ‚(Old) Woman's Summer ' ), Гранд Рекордз & Шнур'ОК
  • 2007: Avrora ( Аврора 'Aurora' ), Гранд Рекордз & Шнур'ОК
  • 2011: Chna ( Хна 'Henna' )
  • 2011: Wetschny Ogon ( Вечный огонь 'Eternal Fire' )
  • 2012: Ryba ( Рыба 'fish' )
  • 2012: Wetscherny Leningrad ( Вечерний Ленинград 'Evening Leningrad' )
  • 2014: Farsch ( Фарш 'minced meat' )
  • 2014: Pljasch nasch ( Пляж наш 'The beach is ours' )

filming

In 2010, a documentary about the band called Leningrad - The Man Who Sings was released . Peter Rippl directed and camera .

Web links

Commons : Leningrad (band)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ GEO Special: Russia (2006)
  2. ↑ Wladimir Kaminer, on ZEIT online from June 8, 2006: “When the birthday party got out of hand” , accessed on May 15, 2008