Note: Some of the videos in this article
contain explicit violence and/or nudity. Viewer discretion is adviced.
While
the whole of Europe was being tormented last week by the cold weather caused by
the 'Siberian Bear' I happened to stumble upon another Russian phenomena,
Leningrad.
Leningrad
is a ska punk band formed by Sergey Shnurov back in 1997 in Saint Petersburg, formerly
known as Leningrad, hence the name. The band consists of sixteen members who
play a whole range of instruments including brass and violin. At first the band
struggled to gain any real traction. Due to their use of vulgar language,
celebration of alcoholism and political satire many radio stations refused to
play their songs. The former mayor of Moscow, Yuriy Luzhkov, hated the group so
much that he forbid all their shows and events in Moscow. Nevertheless Leningrad's
popularity rose and in 2016 Shnurov became the highest paid singer in Russia.
Although
the band started out playing ska punk over the years they've adopted many other
genres and styles. The first song I heard of them for instance, Voyage, is a catchy house track. The
music video itself is filmed like an action movie, complete with shootout. Actually
most of the band's recent music videos are 5 to 10 minute long short stories. There's
Exhibit, in which we see a girl's
struggles while preparing herself for a date. In Monkey & Eagle a couple fights each other on a TV show because
they've got different zodiac signs. But my favourite video is Kolsky in which we see a circus in absolute
chaos. The video plays backwards, ending with the cause of all these problems.
Besides
the great videos the arrangements of all these songs is really catchy and well
composed. Leningrad's last album dates back to 2014 so I hope they'll release a
new album soon, because it's been a while since I've been so enthusiastic about
a newly discovered band. Meanwhile I'll continue watching more Real St. Peter Bullshit :)
Other favourites: Healthy Life Style, Tits and Shades like Sobchak's
Watch
more videos on Leningrad's official YouTube channel
