Leningrad (band)

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Leningrad

Background information
Origin	Saint Petersburg, Russia
Genre(s)	Punk rock Ska Chanson
Years active	1997–present
Label(s)	Gala Records O.G.I. Records
Website	Official website
Members
Sergey Shnurov Vyacheslav Antonov Aleksandr Popov Andrey Antonenko Denis Mozhin Grigoriy Zontov Roman Parygin Denis Kuptsov Andrey Kurayev Ilya Rogachevskiy Konstantin Limonov Vladislav Aleksandrov Aleksey Kanev "Lekha"

Leningrad (Ленинград in Russian) is a Russian ska punk band from Saint Petersburg (formerly Leningrad).

Composed of 14 members, the band appeared in the late 1990s around singer Sergey "Shnur" Shnurov. It soon became famous for its vulgar lyrics (see Russian mat), the main reason it was avoided by most radio stations at first. But this did not stop its growing popularity. As Shnurov said himself: "Our songs are just about the good sides of life, vodka and girls that is." The band is known to be disliked by Moscow mayor Yuri Mikhailovich Luzhkov, who cancelled many of their concerts in the city. But since then, the band has made its way to radio and TV (filler noises covering the rude words, certain songs containing many of these filler noises), with Shnurov even presenting some New Year's Eve TV shows.

Leningrad has gained some popularity in other parts of the world. Partially due to a well known Adobe Flash animation, created by Toondra, set to their song "Menya Zovut Shnur" (Russian: «Меня зовут Шнур») or "My Name is Shnur" in English.

Three songs by Leningrad appeared prominently on the soundtrack to the 2005 movie Everything Is Illuminated.

The Leningrad song "Nikogo ne zhalko" is one of the songs used in the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, appearing on the set list for a mock Russian-themed radio station in the game called Vladivostok FM.

[edit] Current line-up

Sergey Shnurov "Shnur" (Сергей Шнуров "Шнур") - vocals, arrangement, lyrics
Vyacheslav Antonov "Sevych" (Вячеслав Антонов "Севыч") - backing vocals, maracas
Aleksandr Popov "Puzo" (Александр Попов "Пузо") - big drum (a marching bass drum), percussion, vocals
Andrey Antonenko "Antonenych" (Андрей Антоненко "Антоненыч") - tuba, arrangement
Denis Mozhin (Денис Можин) - sound director
Grigoriy Zontov "Zontik" (Григорий Зонтов "Зонтик") - tenor saxophone
Roman Parygin "Shukher" (Роман Парыгин "Шухер") - trumpet
Denis Kuptsov "Kashchey" (Денис Купцов "Кащей") - drums
Andrey Kurayev "Ded" (Андрей Кураев "Дед") - bass
Ilya Rogachevskiy "Pianist" (Илья Рогачевский "Пианист") - keyboard
Konstantin Limonov "Limon" (Константин Лимонов "Лимон") - guitar
Vladislav Aleksandrov "Valdik" (Владислав Александров "Валдик") - trombone
Aleksey Kanev "Lekha" (Алексей Канев "Леха") - baritone saxophone, alto saxophone