Messer Chups new surf effort to hang ten in April

Surf's up: Messer Chups to release "Hyena Safari" on AeroCCCP Recordings

Artist: MESSER CHUPS
Title: Hyena Safari
Genre: Alternative/Surf
Label: AeroCCCP Recordings
Release date: April 24, 2007
RIYL: Ennio Morricone, Dick Dale, The Ventures, Quentin Tarantino’s Soundtracks

Horror romantics, vampiresque twist, sci-fi western with zombies instead of cowboys surfing from song to song on coffin lids - Sinister optimism. A comic book for music enthusiasts-this perfectly describes Messer Chups' second U.S. album "Hyena Safari" (Released on April 24 via Brooklyn's own AeroCCCP Recordings.)

Messer Chups is a duo from St. Petersburg, Russia - a city built on a swamp. Oleg Gitarkin and his loyal assistant Zombie Girl are inviting you on a safari to hunt hyenas or conversely to turn into hyenas and hunt somebody else instead. Everything depends on your personal choice.Track titles are filled with genuine poeticism: "Night Of Open Coffins," "First Love of Szandor Diabolikoff," "Cat's Mummy," "Fender Satanic Limited Edition," "Skeleton Topless," and "Devil Out Of Fashion." If you don't have time to read Shakespeare or Byron then read track titles of Messer Chups.

The trashy sci-fi horror sound of Messer Chups is not very common within the context of Russian rock music. Critics and music fans seem to not get the concept of the band at all and therefore disregard it. The reason for this is the good old cold-war/iron curtain commie agenda. The majority of Messer Chups' musical and visual esthetics comes from trashy western pop-culture of the past century, which never received any exposure in the Soviet Union. This includes horror/sci-fi b-movies from 1930s through 1970s, as well as music such as surf (The Ventures, Dick Dale, Trashmen), big-band lounge (Henry Mancini, Les Baxter, Martin Denny) and rock n' roll of the '60s.

Since the Ipecac release, Messer Chups slowly developed a cult following around the world as one of the most unique and genre-defiant bands. Originally Messer Chups was a sampledelic project similar to Messer fur Frau Muller, done entirely on the computer by pasting sample collages from obscure lounge, surf and soundtrack records combined dialog from retro Soviet and horror movies. Gradually Messer Chups started exploring the territory of live music combining samples with live organs, analog synthesizers, guitars, and recording several albums with Theremin virtuoso Lydia Kavina, the grand-niece of Leon Theremin. "Hyena Safari" takes Messer Chups into a virtually live territory, with the album being driven by the classic surf sound played entirely by Oleg Gitarkin on guitars and Zombie Girl on bass. To sum up the sound of "Hyena Safari" for someone who has never heard of Messer Chups before would be to imagine the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" in a setting of a horror movie.

Messer Chups' live show is usually accompanied by the elaborate video projections, compiled and edited by Gitarkin himself- a collage of vintage cult classics, sci-fi, horror, zombie, and vampire flicks by directors like Mario Bava, Russ Meyer, and Ed Wood.

"Hyena Safari" follows 2005's acclaimed "Crazy Price" which was released on Mike Patton's Ipecac Recordings. This also marks AeroCCCP's second release in conjunction with Oleg Gitarkin. The label';s first release was Messer fur Frau Muller's critically acclaimed "Triangle, Dot & Devil" (Gitarkin's side project and the less sinister version of Messer Chups). Besides his involvement with Messer Chups, Oleg Gitarkin is known in Russia for his scores to TV criminal dramas, commercials, and circus performances.


Track listing:
1. Night of Open Coffins
2. Cat's Mummy
3. Inferno Image
4. Charade
5. Dark Dealer
6. Popcorno
7. Skeleton Topless
8. Last Last Inch
9. Little Blood Sucker
10. Devil out of Fashion
11. Music to Watch Zombie Girl by
12. Sex Change
13. Fender Satanic Limited Edition
14. Hexe Chips
15. Coffin Dolls
16. First Love of Szandor Diabolikoff
17. Hyena Club
18. Jamaica

VIDEO
1. Night of Open Coffins
2. Inferno Image
3. Hexe Chips
4. First Love of Szandor Diabolikoff
5. Difficult Love


Here's what the press said about Messer Chups' previous release, "Crazy Price":

"Blurring the line between surf rock and gun in hand spy movie soundtracks, these Russians indulge in the spooky, the quirky, and the kitschy for a darkly thrilling ride through the sexy world of espionage circa 1967." - Outburn

"Better than the best stuff you've heard all year, this surprise release embodies everything that's hurdy-gurdy, slasher-classic awesome..." - Devil in the Woods

"...sound as if Man or Astroman? came down from the stratosphere long enough to down some vodka and hit the Russian surf." (4/5) - Chord Magazine

"A really odd surf-rock band with a dark sense of humor." - Decibel


ABOUT AEROCCCP RECORDINGS

AeroCCCP Recordings began when Maxim Nazarov realized that it was his destiny to promote his most favorite Russian band, Messer fur Frau Muller, here in the U.S. In their music, MFFM devoted obsessive amounts of attention to things nobody ever cared about, especially in the Russian electronica scene. The band used samples from various long-forgotten Soviet, sci-fi and horror films from the 60s and created songs in genres such as surf, twist and mondo filtered through the their infinite knowledge of the past century's electronica. Also, what set them apart from other music collage-based musicians is that they also played live instruments such as guitars, bass, organs, Theremins, and obscure Soviet synthesizers. In the summer of 2004 Nazarov obsessively tracked down MFFM's other releases in Moscow, where he also discovered solo projects of band members Oleg Kostrow (Supersonic Future) and Oleg Gitarkin (Messer Chups) - both projects are now signed to AeroCCCP. After finishing a certain New England college and relocating back to NYC in May 2005, the idea of the label and its resources became more solidified, especially when Nazarov and his college friends Heather Sutton and Aleksey Paramonov realized that it's possible to fund it by maxing out a bunch of credit cards. Oleg Kostrow agreed to sign several of his projects with AeroCCCP after several long stalker-like e-mails sent to him by Nazarov, who later tracked him down in Moscow. During a visit with Kostrow, Nazarov was introduced to two Moscow-based DJs called Les Specialistes. The DJs handed Nazarov Punk TV's demo CD and he was immediately blown away by Punk TV's sound; especially considering that the band was from (of all places) Siberia and their music sounded like the coolest new thing to come out of the U.S. or U.K. indie scenes.

For more information on Messer Chups and AeroCCCP Recordings please visit:

www.messerchups.net
www.aerocccp.com
www.myspace.com/messerchups
www.myspace.com/aerocccprecordings