Three Tune Tuesday #179 .:. Leningrad (pt.1)

I first learned about this band back in 1997, reading a review of their first album in FUZZ magazine; there was a strange photo of a small crowd of men in T-shirts; I read that these were cool musicians from St. Petersburg with a large brass section, who played something between Russian chanson. The start of the band was strongly supported by the musicians of another great modern rock band, Auktion, who took part in recording albums and invited Leningrad to warm up their concerts.

Many years have passed since then, the musicians have held more than one thousand concerts and drunk more than one ton of vodka; a bunch of publications have appeared dedicated to them, including two very interesting books. The first of them, "Music for a Man" by Maxim Semelyak, is on my shelf and pleases me not only with its existence, but I am ready to reread it endlessly; it covers the early period of the band's history up to 2007. The second one - "Leningrad. An incredible and true story" - was published in 2017 and marks the 20th anniversary of the group. I haven't read this book yet, but it's on my wish list.

Many times during its more than 25 years career, vocalists and musicians in the band has changed; the band was put on a pause and went on to the tops again; the sound and style have changed radically; a few times the band took side-steps towards alternative side projects (like "Three Morons", "Ruble", "Zoya"...) - just one thing always has remained unchanged: the topical essence of the songs, "nerve", and the unflagging love of the people. Worth mentioning that its songs can even be heard performed by busking singers in various overseas countries! This is a distinctive sign of recognition, an evidence that this band indeed has left its mark in musical history.

Also notable to mention, that by the end of 2010s the band's leader - Sergey Shnurov - topped the compiled by Forbes magazine rating of Russian show business stars with the highest incomes. Shnurov's annual income fluctuates between 10-15 million dollars, and the band's fees for a private corporate concert may range up to $150-300 thousand dollars and more. Sergey Shnurov is a calculating music businessman and simply an intelligent person; with the onset of the post-Millennium, he quickly realized the new opportunities that the Internet and social networks provide for promotion and earnings, and even began to abandon the album format of music in favor of "video releases".

The band's expensive (no question) video clips are real short films and works of art, the release of each of them is an event with a long aftertaste... many of them you want to return to again and again, they age in the best possible way, like fine wines. The list of my favorite songs of this band does not coincide at all with the list of video clips, which is of course not surprising... And today I present to you the first selection of my favorite videos. The first of many! Enjoy.

The action rolls here around a "lady with the balls", modern businesswoman, who fights with her accountant, an army general, a mafia boss and some criminals, secret service agents also looms in the background; and only in the last frames of this elegant video novella does it become clear - all of this was a dream she had during a boring production meeting! "The pipes have bursted at the facility and Manokhin is to blame for that!" - who of my readers has read to this point and will be able to recognize the quote? Guess no one to appreciate this post-moderne joke.

The video mocks the concept of "patriotism" - or rather, its interpretation by many of her contemporaries, and the ugly forms this phenomenon takes. The video stars blogger Nika Belotserkovskaya. Her character wears a fur hat with earflaps, then a kokoshnik; she is always accompanied by a stuffed bear (a symbol that has been used to represent Russia since the 17th century caricatures). The video features pickles, pelmeni, lard, rye bread, birch trees - all elements that are usually associated with Russia. At the same time, the girl demonstratively does not reject all the joys of Western consumer society (expensive fur coats, a car, foreign boutiques).

The highlight of the song is the joke that the character loves military parades and the Olympics and would gladly sleep with President Putin. At this point, the right channel can be heard as the group's leader Shnurov chimes in - "Me too!" [would sleep with him], i.e. hinting that Putin is a faggot. The joke was a success!

In his Instagram, Shnurov commented on this video release: "Right at my eyes, in a very short period of time, a terrible and unfortunately inevitable devaluation of patriotism concept itself has occurred. Patriotism, like a tracksuit, has turned into an item of mass culture, which same way pretty often is misused. Its symbolism has turned into hollow shell and lost original meaning, the shell now prevails the inner content. "Russia forward!!!!" thick shouting are everywhere. Whoever shouts louder is a greater patriot."

A live clip; here Shnurov gave up his vocalist role to the band's bassist Vsevolod. Also, you see in the clip the band's second and third female vocalists doing back-up. (Many fans consider both ladies to be the "golden period" in the band's more than 25 years history). Well, as for the song itself... it's a sketch of an existential life state, when there's only enough money to rent a cheap apartment at a poor suburb, when your girlfriend is an alcoholic, "you're broke and... all you are left to do is to drink and jerk off". 🙃 Amazing expression and drive, isn't it? Now you understand what is the Leningrad music is about.