Deaf jam Spook-niks

>> The petrochemical piracy of Les Georges Leningrad

by RUPERT BOTTENBERG

Two married couples and ghost. Sonic Youth meet Suicide at a kindergarten Christmas pageant. Cookie-tin beats, angular strangulation of the six-strings, polyglot glossolalia from the psych ward. Happy, sad, scary, fun--"petrochemical rock," "très iconoclastes." Look, kids, it's local lunatics Les Georges Leningrad, and in a collective style that would make ol' Vlad smile, they've explained themselves to the Mirror. Are you as confused as we are?



Mirror: Tell me about the ghost, Georges. What does he do?

Les Georges Leningrad: We were playing with a Ouija board and then something really strange happened. A ghost called Georges from Leningrad appeared. But it could have been a band called Rupert New Delhi. He is the beginning of this musical investigation--a sort of master.

M: Is one of your singers really deaf?

LGL: The deaf person answers: "Oh, yeah! When I was 14 years old, I saw Def Leppard!"

M: I'm worried about this arrangement of two married couples in the band. That's what ABBA had, and look what happened to ABBA.

LGL: What happened to ABBA? Are they suicided? Are they crazy? Are they Swedish? What? It is interesting--A, B, B, A. We are more an A-B-C-D (E) type of association. Yeah... definitely, we will do a cover of a song from this mysterious band.

M: I notice that you sing songs in English, French, German and invented languages. Given your name, Leningrad, I'm surprised you don't sing in Russian. Or Uzbeki, or whatever.

LGL: We sing in every language in the world. That is not a problem. It is all cinema made of cardboard décor, with fake plastic trees and false money. It is "pacotille art," with, for actors, postmodern geisha singers and shrimp gentleman musicians. Let's clap for these boys. They know how to play music!

M: Hey, wait a second. Are you people Communists?!

LGL: We are not political. We are kids. Politics are for deaf people. We are pirates.

M: You describe your live show as "a big laugh at the everyday apocalypse." Give me more details. What can we expect? Will that damn ghost be hanging around, scaring people and making milk go sour?

LGL: You should expect nothing but a frenetic, primitive (a lot of cold turkey dancing) act of petrochemical rock with, of course (maybe), the presence of our dear, sexaphonic ghost Georges and his deadly ass. The opening song is assured by his ghost grandmother, Ma Rebbob. Every time we hear it, we cry--it is very poignant. You'll have thrill without any frills! You'll shit in your frock and have big fun.

With De la Caucase at Casa del Popolo tonight, Thursday, Oct. 4, 9pm, $5