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Buried in the PR materials for Moscow trio Kerosin is a modest claim that no other band in Russia is more imbued with the spirit of rock and roll. In their eyes this means the ensemble consists of three individuals "who really live for the music. They're ready to die for it, even! There's nothing more than power, charisma, and energy." Offering death as proof of one's dedication might not be an advisable tactic in the long run.
En route to self-destruction, Kerosin take particular inspiration from several sources, namely The Ramones, The Clash, Social Distortion, and Rancid. All in all, these Anglo and Slavic templates combine to create a sense of "pure drive... it's an ass-kickin' wall of sound.!"
The last biography that laid claim to a wall of sound didn't end too well.
We've covered a few bands already who take direct inspiration from The Ramones, such as The Lazy Bitches and Rivushchie struny, but in both cases that sense of New York chutzpah is channeled into slightly slower, slacker forms of performance - as the first band's name would suggest! Having recently taken to the Moscow stage for their debut gigs, Kerosin are working instead to embody the faster, more frenetic side of the Ramones' spirit.
It's in their jeans.
A review of the band's very first appearance stresses these same musical directions, together with their desire to build both a decent reputation and fan base from the humblest of origins; as we can see from the color images below, this initial venue didn't even have a stage. The music, however, was both "happy and loud."
"The only minuses, together with there being no stage, was the lack of proper standing-room for the public. Standing out in the backyard of a dimly-lit bar isn't the best way to spend one's time." All the same, the journalist stuck around - through a set that also involved members of The Lazy Bitches - and was pleasantly surprised by Kerosin's music. Summing up the trio's set and their possibilities for the future, he concluded: "There's obviously somewhere for these guys to go musically, there's the real sense of a movement here. Sooner or later there's going to be something worth watching in this area of musical fashion. Hopefully it'll be just as good as the Western equivalent, yet have its own identity, too. All in all, Kerosin's good-natured punk-n-roll is a worthy addition to the Moscow rock scene."
The only minuses, together with there being no stage, was the lack of proper standing-room for the public. Standing out in the backyard of a dimly-lit bar isn't the best way to spend one's time.
Things are looking up.
That positive review does, nonetheless, express slight worry about slavish repetition of an American aesthetic. The first signs of independence from any American idols, so to speak, were indeed tentative; one of Kerosin's tracks that's currently available for download is a version of the Ramones' "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" - with one word changed. Sheena becomes "Tania." The next step, it seems, was to translate the song into Russian; those Slavic lyrics can be found here.
Baby steps... and then big leaps.
As confidence has increased, so it finds expression in the band's other lyrics. They've now penned a song named after themselves that's sung in English and has become something of a calling card. The first verse and chorus read as follows (we leave the original untouched): "Time has come for us today/It doesn't matter what they say/Gonna get you/alive or dead/Just these words burning in my head/It lets me live in dream/Don't you know, I call it, call it.../KEROSIN!"
Once again the brave claims of dedication emerge, the insistence that they'll hang on until the bitter end, "alive or dead." We continue to be concerned. There's a related podcast available from two young Muscovites, who - in less than sober terms - have recorded their enthusiasm for Kerosin. It lasts a little less than twenty minutes. Before these young men get to their enthused appreciation for the ensemble, whom they call "Russia's Social Distortion," they have a long debate about whether Russian poet Sergei Esenin (below) could be considered a rock and roll star...
The obvious answer, for historical reasons alone, is clearly negative, but this tipsy conversation says a lot about local notions of laudable maximalism. Esenin's death - which the boys compare to that of Sid Vicious - remains a mystery to this day. It has, among other causes, been attributed to a series of failed marriages, depression over the Revolution's consequences, suppressed homosexuality, or - in the most radical (and probably mythical) version - to the KGB, in which case a suicide becomes a murder.
In any case, he still managed to pen a brief poem prior to dying, somehow doing so with blood from his bleeding wrist. If you happen to be at a Kerosin gig, somewhere near the front of a stageless, dingy pub, and you see blood on the bassist's fingertips, hand him a bandage.
You wouldn't want things to go any further.
""Scuse me, folks... Any gauze in the house?"
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