Part III of the Soviet rock underground: AlisA & Kino

Kino - Gruppa Krovi, 1988

Kino - Blood Type

Part III continues with two of the biggest bands who got their start at the Leningrad Rock Club, Kino and AlisA:


Play List for Part III:

Кино (Cinema) - "Ночь" ("Night")

Кино - "Мама анархия" ("Mom is Anarachy")

Кино - "Место для шага вперёд" ("Place for a Step Forward")

У меня есть дом, только нет ключей,
У меня есть солнце, но оно среди туч,
Есть голова, только нет плечей,
Но я вижу, как тучи режет солнечный луч.
У меня есть слово, но в нем нет букв,
У меня есть лес, но нет топоров,
У меня есть время, но нет сил ждать,
И есть еще ночь, но в ней нет снов.

И есть еще белые, белые дни,
Белые горы и белый лед.
Но все, что мне нужно
Это несколько слов
И место для шага вперед.

I have a home, only I've got no keys,
I have the sun, but it's between the storm clouds,
I've got a head, but I've got no shoulders,
But I see how the rays of sun slice through the clouds.
I've got words, but they've got no letters,
I've got a forest, but have no axes,
I've got time, but not will to wait,
And I've also got the night, but no dreams

I've also got white, white days
White mountains and white ice,
But all I need
Are a few words
And a place for steps forward

Кино - "Троллейбус" ("Trolleybus")

АлисА (Alisa) - "Спокойная ночь" (В. Цой) ("Good Night") (words by Viktor Tsoy)

АлисА - "Экспериментатор" ("Experimenter") [Video directed by Joanna Stingray - who has a cameo appearance at the beginning and end. I would also wager that she supplied the "Cats" t-shirt worn by Kinchev]

АлисА - "Мое поколение" ("My Generation") [NOTE - not a cover of the Who song by the same name]

Since putting together the radio show, I found the first AlisA record officially released on Melodiya - the only Soviet record label - in 1988. Titled Энергия (Energy - cover featured above) - the record features some of AlisA's early hits, including "Мы вместе" - the video of which is included below:

The initial impulse - the ball's in play
A search for contact, searching of hands
I've begun to sing in my own language
I'm certain that didn't happen suddenly
I write verses for those who
Don't wait for answers to today's questions
I sing for those who follow their own way
I'm glad if soneone understands me
We're together! We're together!

[On a personal note, this has become my two year old son's favorite song. His dance moves are eerily similar to those of the band in the video (though Cyrus adds more twirling in circles). He loves yelling "My vmeste!" ("We're together!") along to Kostya Kinchev and has had trouble accepting that any other song could be considered rock and roll.]

Kostya Kinchev continues to perform. Though from Moscow, he did not break onto to the scene until he hooked up with the Leningrad Rock Club band AlisA (as in Alice from "Alice in Wonderland"). Artemy Troitsky, a pioneering rock critic in the Soviet Union, describes him as follows: "Kostya has fluid and expressive gestures, a large mouth and bulging eyes....He spooked and sanke-charmed the audience, stetched his black-gloved hands to the crowd, moaned, whispered and parodied in rap style. But above all, he was sexy." And yet Kinchev's songs were not sexy, instead rife with social commentary.

And speaking of sexy, check out the man himself in the short shorts, boots and no shirt, telling the police to back off his fans:

There is much to write about Kino. Troitsky writes that "the dominant mood of [Tsoy's songs] was solitude and an incessant thirst for contact and love....Tsoy was still a teenager only yesterday and at heart remained one still." According to Troitsky, Grebinshikov became Tsoy's main benefactor in the Leningrad Rock Club, noting that "no one's songs had so much tenderness and purity." The first song in this week's segment of the radio show exemplifies that spirit. Tsoy sings of his love affair with the night, his love for the kitchen, "because it guards secrets," and wonders "how he can make it through the next day" before night falls again. Tsoy, even in death, remains the greatest legend of the Soviet rock scene.

By the time of this cameo appearance in the last scene of the movie Assa, Tsoy's band Kino had already recorded five full-length records:

Tsoy disputed that this song "Хочу перемен" ("I Want Change") had any political overtones, but the refrain, "Our hearts demand change, our eyes demand change/ In our laughter and our tears, pulsing through our veins/ Change! We are waiting for change" is a perfect compliment to the USSR in 1986, then on the cusp of what would turn out to be irreversible change.

August 15 marked the 19th year since Tsoy's death in a traffic accident. And yet, "Tsoy Lives!"

Viktor Tsoy's last resting place