Messer Chups (rus)

The trashy sci-fi horror sound of Messer Chups is not very common within the context of Russian rock music. The reason for this is the good old cold-war/iron curtain commie agenda. The majority of Messer Chups' musical and visual aesthetics come from trashy western pop-culture of the past century. This includes horror/sci-fi b-movies from 1930's through 1970's, as well as music such as surf (The Ventures, Dick Dale, Trashmen), big-band lounge (Henry Mancini, Les Baxter, Martin Denny) and rock n' roll of the 60's. Since the Ipecac release, Messer Chups has slowly developed a cult following around the world as one of the most unique and genre-defiant bands. Gitarkin formed Messer Chups in 1998 during an extended stay in Hamburg. The original lineup was Gitarkin on bass and Annette Schneider, a German music promoter, on synths. Though amicable enough, this lineup did not work as Gitarkin and Schneider lived in different countries, leading to hellish logistics. In 1999, Gitarkin returned to St. Petersburg and found a keyboard player in Igor Vdovin, former vocalist for the band Leningrad. They toured as a duo in Russia and the United States in 2000-02. In 2003 a world-famous theremin player Lydia Kavina joined the band. She is the grandniece of Leon Theremin, the Russian inventor of the theremin, an instrument whose ghostly waw was a fixture in horror movies of the 1940s and '50s. Oleg and Lydia released together CD's – Black Black Magic , Vamp Babes Upgrade Version. Lydia participated on few tracks of most famous through licensed to Mike Patton's IPECAC Recordings album "Crazy Price". Zombie Girl came to the band in 2004. The founder of the project Oleg Gitarkin, is one of the most talented modern Russian composers, who became famous with his ex-project MESSER FUR FRAU MULLER in Russia and abroad. He is also making music for movies, theater, and adverts. MESSER CHUPS toured in many countries - Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Monaco, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Serbia, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Slovakia, Czech Republic, USA . MESSER CHUPS was a participant of international festivals, such as Donau festival (Austria), Crossing Europe Film Festival (Linz, Austria), Transmusicales 2005 (France), I.D.E.A.L. (France), Eurosonic (the Netherlands), Fusion (Germany), Bavarian Open (Germany), Les Nuits Sonores" Lyon (France), Grimaldi Forum (Monaco), Musiques Volantes (France),Trollofon 06 (Bergen, Norway), Les Invites Villeurbanne (France), Furia Sound (France), Dour festival (Belgium), ArezzoWave (Italy), European Film Festival Palic (Serbia), Jours de Fêtes Festival (France), Rockomotives Festival (France), ZXZW (Netherlands), Pohoda (Slovakia), Freek fest (Spain), Italia Wave Love (Italy), Poulpaphone festival (France) and others.