Slavic

Konets Filma (Конец фильма; “end of the film”) is a Russian rock band. Active since 1998, when it was founded by Russian natives of Estonia, it currently includes Evgeny Feklistov (Евгений Феклистов; vocals, acoustic guitar, songwriter), Pyotr Mikov (Пётр Миков; guitar), Aleksey Pleshchunov (Алексей Плещунов; bass guitar), Aleksey Denisov (Алексей Денисов; drums) and Stepan Tokaryan (Степан Токарьян; keyboards, backing […]

Dżem is a Polish band that plays at the border of rock and blues music. It’s considered one of the best-known and most important blues–rock bands, with a prolific history spanning more than thirty different albums. While the band currently has six members, only two of those members, brothers Adam (vocals and guitar) and Benedykt “Beno” (bass […]

Katyn (Katyń) is a Polish historical drama released on September 17, 2007, that depicts the Katyn Massacre of 1940. The story views the events of the massacre through the eyes of the mothers, wives, and daughters of those executed by the NKVD. At the time of the story, it was unclear to the general population of Poland […]

Geegun (Джиган) is the stage name for Ukrainian born hip-hop artist and DJ Denis Aleksandrovich Ustimenko-Weinstein (Денис Александрович Устименко-Вайнштейн). The artist has remarked upon his adopted name as a combination of the second half of the American hip-hop abbreviation for “original gangster”—O.G.—and a transliteration of the English “gun,” due to his fondness for firearms. Besides being […]

Maanam is a Polish rock band that was active from 1975 to 2008. The name of the band is based on a combination of the names of its two founders, Marek Jackowski and Milo Kurtis, who initially played together as a guitar duo called MaM. At the end of Maanam’s life, the band included Olga Jackowska, otherwise […]

Rezerwat (“reserve”) is a Polish rock band that was founded in Łódź, Poland, in 1982. The band is led by Andrzej Adamiak, a composer, songwriter, producer, singer, and bass player. Most of Rezerwat’s music has been and continues to be written by Adamiak. The current lineup of the band includes Adamiak (bass and vocals), Krzysztof […]

IOWA is an indie-pop group from Mogilev, Belarus, who sing in Russian. A relatively young band, they have only released one album since their inception in 2009, Export (2014; no Russian or Belarusian title). The band’s moniker contains several references, namely the US state, an American acronym—Idiots Out Wandering About—and an album by the metal […]

Gogol Bordello is a self-styled “gypsy punk” band that formed in Manhattan, NY, in 1999. The band’s unique fusion of influences is largely the brainchild of frontman Eugene Hütz’s own unconventional history. Hütz, born Yevgeny Aleksandrovich Nikolayev-Simonov (Евгений Александрович Николаев-Симонов), is a Ukrainian-born expat whose Romani heritage (his mother is partially of Servitka ancestry) inspired […]