VulgarGrad

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VulgarGrad
General information
Genre (s) Folk-punk , criminal songs
founding 2004
Website www.vulgargrad.com
Current occupation
Jacek Koman
Andrew Tanner
Nara Demasson
Renato Vacirca
Ros Jones
Adam Pierzchalski
Phil McLeod

VulgarGrad (sometimes spelled Vulgargrad ) are an Australian folk punk and ethnic rock band. Founded in Melbourne in 2004 , it became known on the one hand through continuous appearances at various Australian festivals and on the other hand through its repertoire consisting of Russian crime songs - a style adaptation that the band additionally strengthens through its external appearance.

history

The band VulgarGrad was formed in 2004 in the South Australian metropolis of Melbourne. The band members had already gained musical experience in other formations - including the Spaghetti Western Orchestra , Blue Grassy Knoll , Zulya and the Children of the Underground, Croque Monsieur, Bombay Royale and the Puta Madre Brothers. The group's singer was Jacek Koman - an actor from Poland who immigrated to Australia in 1994 and had already starred in some of the more well-known productions such as the musical - film drama Moulin Rouge (2001). Stylistically, the band was versed in the songs of the Ukrainian and Russian Blatnye Pesni - a style of music that was very popular in the Soviet Union in the 1920s , but was pushed into the semi-legal area in the following decades. The first CD was released in 2005. The title Popular Street Songs of the Russian Underclass placed the musical reference of the band in the foreground. With Murka , the debut contained a well-known classic of this special musical genre. Most of the remaining titles were based on newer compositions - mainly pieces by the well-known Russian chanson singer Vladimir Vysotsky .

VulgarGrad showed a strong presence especially through live performances at the relevant Australian festivals - in particular the Adelaide Fringe Festival , the Great Escape Festival in Sydney and as part of the WOMAD festival series co-initiated by Peter Gabriel . In March 2008 the band had a TV guest appearance on ABC Television in the broadcast format Spicks and Specks . With Giraffe they also contributed a title for the soundtrack to Underbelly - a controversial Australian drama miniseries, which was based on the gang war in Melbourne from 1995 to 2005. In 2009 the band released the second long player - King of Crooks . Musically, this was also firmly anchored in the style and songs of the Russian Blat songs. With Cigaretta it contained another traditional. The melody of Stop the Train !, another track, was based heavily on that of Murka - the Blat classic already interpreted on the pre-CD. True to the stylistic model, the songs of the second song also strongly focused on the experiences of the outcasts, prisoners and petty criminals. The third release was the single Limonchiki in 2012 . At the same time, the group went on a European tour with gigs in Germany , the Netherlands , Denmark and Poland. In January and February 2012, the group performed in the cities of Hamburg , Lübeck , Cologne , Wilhelmshaven , Berlin , Nuremberg , Frankfurt , Jena and Hanover .

The permanent line-up of VulgarGrad currently includes singer Jacek Koman, Andrew Tanner on double bass balalaika, Renato Vacirca on drums , Ros Jones on trombone , trumpet player Adam Pierzchalski, Nara Demasson on guitar and piano and accordion player Phil McLeod. The live composition of the group varies and is occasionally supplemented by guest musicians . The reason is the limited time budget of the group members, so that the tour line-up depends, among other things, on availability. One of the most important unique selling points of the band are the uniform white and blue striped shirts at performances. Reason: The performance should also convey the mood of Russian camp, prison and criminal songs visually and atmospherically.

Style and response

Similar to the Russian street folk and punk rock bands La Minor and Leningrad , the group itself follows the tradition of Russian blatnye pesni, criminal , camp and gulag songs. This musical reference is also underlined by optical elements during performances. The group's main musical points of reference are the songs recorded underground from the 1970s , in particular the two chanson singers Vladimir Vysotsky and Arkady Severny . The second role model is the jazz musician and entertainment star Leonid Utesow , who was very popular in the 1930s and was considered the favorite singer of party chairman Stalin . VulgarGrad does not see itself as a retro band. Rather, she interprets the songs of the Criminal Songs in a contemporary way. Musically, her style is enriched with elements of perestroika rock , punk, ska and swing . The music trail blog blogcritics.com explicitly set the style of the group apart from classical folk. Rather, according to the blog author, the band's music is a mixture of Klezmer , Dixieland , Roma music , tango and beat polka . The artist guide on the Adelaide Fringe Festival website compares the group with the Finnish formation Leningrad Cowboys . The group itself sometimes characterizes their style as "vodka-soaked Oohmpa-Swing-Ska-Folk-Punk".

As a live band, which brings the atmosphere and spirit of Russian crime songs across as authentic as it is enthusiastic, VulgarGrad received good reviews both internationally and in Germany. According to the general level of awareness and the location as a band, which mainly appears in smaller clubs , so far mainly smaller media and scene publications have reported. The event announcement page allevents.in particularly praised the live quality. Likewise the Wilhelmshavener Allgemeine: “(…) Either way: Koman is not a Tom Waits copy, the native Pole simply sings hoarse drunken songs that deal with strange, mostly dark things. There are also rich trumpet and trombone movements, crisp drums and a squeaky clean guitar, an oversized 'brain-drain' double bass balalaika - and 'Dr. Bajan ', the barefoot accordion player who, throwing in one or the other German announcement, grimaced through the program in a highly entertaining way. "

The group's musical roots are also regularly highlighted in reports. The music path log Capones World, for example, found the credibility of the implementation of the musical references remarkable: “VulgarGrad work on a musical genre that should not only be unusual for an Australian band: Blat music. This musical genre, which originated in the Ukrainian city of Odessa at the turn of the last century from a mixture of klezmer and gypsy music as well as then modern dances such as foxtrot , charleston and polka, had its heyday in the countries of the former Soviet Union in the 1920s when it was more solid Was part of the popular music. Musicians as well as audience initially came from the criminal milieu, which is why the term 'crook chanson' or 'criminal songs' has become natural for this music. "

Discography

Regular publications

  • Popular Street Songs of the Russian Underclass (2005; no longer available)
  • King of Crooks (2009; Unstable Ape Records)
  • Limonchiki (Single; 2012; Off Label Records)

Compilation Contributions

  • Underbelly (2008: Soundtrack for the TV miniseries of the same name; Title: Giraffe)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c VulgarGrad - Band , biography on the band's official website, accessed May 29, 2013
  2. ↑ a b c d VulgarGrad / Bio  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Band biography on reverbnation.com, accessed May 29, 2013@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.reverbnation.com  
  3. ↑ a b Music Review: VulgarGrad - King Of Crooks , Richard Marcus, blogcritics.org, October 19, 2012 (Eng.)
  4. ↑ VulgarGrad , text on the band in the artist index for the annual Adelaide Festival, accessed on May 29, 2013
  5. ↑ a b February 8, 8:00 p.m. - VulgarGrad (Aus) Russian-Swing-Ska-Folk-Punk , concert announcement on allevents.in, accessed on May 29, 2013
  6. ^ "VulgarGrad": An entertaining night with sad gunslingers , Wilhelmshavener Zeitung, February 4, 2012
  7. ↑ VulgarGrad - Limonchiki , djcapone, music weblog Caponesworld, January 22, 2012

Web links