Sex Type Thing: "Southern Dreams from a Northern Reality"

Here's a new - in other words, third - EP from St Petersburg's Sex Type Thing.  If the name sounds vaguely familiar, that's because it comes from the debut single of Stone Temple Pilots in the early 90s.  Written as a statement against sexual violence, the band would subsequently claim that its core themes were "control, violence, and the abuse of power."  Our Russian musicians, although huge fans of STP, also find inspiration in the less socially troubled, southern roots of slacker rock.  Being outraged and indifferent at the same time must take some serious mental effort.

Over and above any audible debt to their San Diego forefathers, Sex Type Thing sometimes express their admiration in visual forms, too.  Take, for example, the two cover designs for the 1992 STP single and compare them to the blue art work for the Russians' second EP, shown lower on the page.

Look similar?

This dual leaning towards things American (in general) and southern (in more specific, laid-back terms) can even be heard in the title of this new EP: "Southern Dreams From The Northern Reality" - it's also subtitled as "Play It Loud!"  The ensemble's choice to sing with fitting volume in English makes these preferences or passions even more evident.

The band's vocalist, Mikhail Chigidin, has justified their choice of language by saying that Russian has too many consonants to be suitable for rock music: "English is a much more melodious language.  All those Russian consonants just complicate matters!  The other thing to bear in mind, of course, is that rock music itself has its roots in the English language.  Consequently, Swedes, Belgians... in fact everyone else who performs rock music does it in the same tongue."

English is a much more melodious language. All those Russian consonants just complicate matters! The other thing to bear in mind, of course, is that rock music itself has its roots in the English language. Consequently, Swedes, Belgians... in fact everyone else who performs rock music does it in the same tongue.

These statements are then extended into some broader, very Russian observations about why the choice of language is even a topic for conversation.  "It's only our country that doesn't accept stuff in English!  The entire world, all the way from Japan to Europe listens to Anglo-materials.  It's nothing more than a rule of the genre... I simply can't imagine singing about these [slacker/grundge] themes in Russian!"

The band appends the image below to these discussions: it's either designed to shore up their street cred or bemoan the general backwardness of a musical culture unwilling to accept an up-to-date, multilingual marketplace for music.  "Sexiness" was never high on the agenda in Soviet industrial design; it was displaced by cubes of translucent plastic and cherry-red LEDs.

The band's position between English and Russian, between classic rock and crossovers, has led to online debates as to what exactly we're dealing with.  Fans often refer to Pearl Jam in the name of useful analogies and therefore lump the group into a (small!) number of Russian outfits with a discernibly Seattle-esque sound.  Our Petersburg musicians rarely disagree; they - as a whole - admit to a shared childhood orchestrated to the sounds of Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Mad Season, Stone Temple Pilots, and Soundgarden.  These influences endure:  "We might have ended up in a slightly different kind of music, but those roots have remained."

They also make occasional nods in the direction of Led Zeppelin, especially through some Page-like riffs, but given that so few (impoverished) bands attempt a similar grandeur on the Russian scene, what to Anglo listeners might seem a conservative (or canonically respectful) style, does - to Russian afficionados - appear instead to be romantically peripheral or even cutting-edge.

One funny quote on a rock forum - attributed to Lenin! - goes so far as to claim that "metal fans are the most developed and forward-looking class!  Nobody can deny the fact that these people constitute the most advanced element of the proletariat!!"

Slackers of the World Unite.  In a living room with a sofa.

If this is indeed a novel sound in the local context, though, could it perhaps become a profitable one?  "No," they say.  "It's unrealistic to expect any profit from music in our country!"  This results in what the musicians call "a hobby... but one on a profound and professional level!  It's a hobby into which we pour our time, money, heart, and soul.  And that's the way it has always been for us.  We slog away in the knowledge that only hard work will feed us or give us the chance to keep playing music.... All the same, though, we understand perfectly what kind of country we live in."

It's unrealistic to expect any profit from music in our country!

The band embodies what we might call a minefield mentality; stubborn progress... but you can never predict the unintended consequences of your next intentional step.  As people say in that country:  a Russian course of events has only two possible outcomes - something worse or something unlikely.

After these fatalistic observations, the general conversation is unlikely to take a happy turn.  "There's no way we'd ever be able to gather enough cash to fund both CD releases and a proper touring schedule."  According to that logic, the longer Sex Type Thing keep playing, the worse off they'll be.  The romance of diminishing returns: expect the band to reach their creative peak in abject poverty.  Hence, no doubt the EP's title.