KOOLARROW ARTIST

Naïve

NAIVE
POST ALCOHOLIC ANXIETIES

"Post Alcoholic Anxieties" was made during the height of the Russian winter, in a old studio on the outskirts of Moscow, involving a 1 1/2 hour commute each way, during a four week period. Ever day for that month the routine was the same: we recorded between 5pm and 5am, and survived on a diet of bread, sardines, donuts, Red Bull and, of course, vodka.

The alcoholic allusions on the cd come from personal experience. Guitars were recorded every day from 7pm to 9pm - by 7 Ruslan was at his optimum blood/alcohol level; by 9 he would be too drunk to play. There were fistfights, and toasts around the clock, and god forbid anyone insult them by refusing to take part. Yet in spite of all this, we all worked very hard together, and most importantly, the music always came first.

Surprisingly, in spite of the excess that this recording involved, currently the band lives as healthily as one could expect. We now find singer Sasha, after being hit by a car last year while drunk, and after survival several brawls with Russian police, sober and lucid, his determination unshaken.

In my experience, it's very rare to find a band that actually walks the walk. Our country is full of half baked rebels and spoiled," sensitive" artists, more skilled at working cameras and recording contracts than writing music from the heart, or living the lives they are supposed to represent. One might not like what Naïve says, but no one can deny that they're calling things as they see them. Furthermore, there is no reward for being in Naïve, other than the gratification that they rock hard and tell the truth; a combination which, ironically enough, is getting harder and harder to find in our "freedom-loving" US these days. Let's hope that it is at least appreciated, however.

- Billy Gould

BIOGRAPHY

What would the Ramones have sounded like if the US had an inflation rate of 4000%? What would Johnny Thunders have sounded like had he lived in a country where the average male had a life span of only 58 years, due to chronic alcoholism? Or the Cockney Rejects, if the average wage in the UK was only $120 per month? Ask these questions and you're only beginning to scratch the surface of the world's most interesting bands, Naïve.

Formed in 1988, NAÏVE began in the Russian army with two recruits Max Kotchetkov (bass) and Sasha Ivanov (vocals). Both trained to be soldiers, they traded their patriotism for punk rock, moved to Moscow and started a band. There they were joined by Ruslan Stoopid (guitars) and Mike (drums) who was years later replaced by another fellow Moscow crony Dima Snake.

In 1991 NAÏVE released their first single "Tanks-Punks" and a debut album "Switchblade Knaive" in the then USSR. When Tim Yohannon of MaximumRockand Roll saw their video to "Tanks-Punks", he realized that he HAD to release "Switchblade Knaive" in the States on the MRR label, making it the first punk record out of Russia to be released in the US.

Meanwhile back home, the band had no problems attracting attention. In addition to numerous fanzines and magazines, some of the big Communist papers like "Moskovsky Komsomolets" and "Komsomolskaya Pravda" published articles on NAÏVE. They were declared "most disgusting band of the year" on national TV.

Possibly their most controversial move, however, was when they performed one-and-a-half songs in front of the Russian parliament building (and more than a few tank barrels) during the so-called "coup" of 1991. Despite their anti-communist position, they had to run for their lives from a virtual lynch mob, because they also chanted "Boris (Yeltsin) is an asshole!" from the stage. Initially, infamy like this prevented the band from playing abroad, as Soviet authorities decided that they demonstrated poor examples of Soviet youth. Nevertheless, "Switchblade Knaive" was listed in the national radio charts for months.

In 1993, inspired by a personal account of buying LSD from the police officers, the band released their second LP "Militia on Acid"(which was banned shortly) and which was later released under a different name "Beer for NAÏVE". As the political climate in Russia had changed, NAIVE were finally able to obtain exit visas and completed a full European tour (Though not everything went smoothly. Stoopid was discovered in France by immigration police with an expired Egyptian passport, and after several days in a French prison - which he now recalls wistfully-- he was deported back to Moscow).

After the tour Max quit the band and moved to US. The band reacted to this with a release in 1995 of their third album"Dehumanized States of America". "Gradually, step by step, our world is turning into one enormous corporate empire of dehumanized states", says Sasha, "We should resist this." Max was replaced by "Pete" on bass, a devoted fan since the release of their debut album, foregoing a formal audition. The album firmly established NAIuml;VE as one of Russia's premier punk bands. Yet even with relative success they still encountered it's ups and downs, with the literal loss of a drummer Mike (as heroin became priority number one) and the deaths of several close friends due to drugs and alcohol.

In 1997, they recorded the album "Post Alcoholic Anxieties" in Moscow, and the album was released in Russia that summer. "Post Alcoholic Anxieties " is a natural continuation of a topic first praised by "Beer for NAÏVE / Militia on Acid" with the main theme proposing the following thesis: self destruction through vodka is better than self destruction through heroin. This period marked the height of their alcohol abuse; not necessarily to glorify it, but definitely to come to terms with it.

www.naive.ru

PRESS
"I've said it before and I will say it again that I like it when non-English speaking bands sing in their native tongue and so NAIVE score big on that front with me. NAIVE are quite a bit more heavy handed in their delivery than a lot of punk outfits and it allows their songs to pack more of a punch and allow them to not be burdened with too much of an oi! flavor."
www.inmusicwetrust.com

"The record is a magnificent document of the absurdity and the pain and the pathos of living in a place like post-Cold War Russia, where the inflation rate is a hundred percent and there's nothing to keep you warm through the long cold winters except vodka and punk rock."
Epitonic.com

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