Petition against imprisonment of Pussy Riot collective

Usually I try to leave politics out of Drug Punk, but this one is unavoidable-as The Clash sang in 1977, "you have to deal with it/it is the currency."

Three members of the Russian feminist group Pussy Riot are facing three years in prison for performing a song in the cathedral of Kazan. Basic human rights issues aside, this is pretty important in terms of identity/protest politics in Russia-as I understand it, Pussy Riot's one of the first riot grrl-style groups over there.

Given how indebted this blog, in spirit and style, is to Soviet dissidents like Yanka and Igor Letov, it would be criminal for me not to demand that you sign this petition immediately:

AMNESTY FOR PUSSY RIOT!

Please also attend any benefit/solidarity shows in your area.

Aliosha Give me a chance!-s/t EP (2012)

Even for a blog that specializes in weirdo, left-field eccentricities, Aliosha, give me a chance! is pretty fucking bizarro. These Belorussian punks burble out seven tracks of longform, clanging, relentless glum rock, and in the process manage to turn a Bob Dylan song into something approximating the Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray." Which they also cover, incidentally.

I'm usually pretty down on bands that record covers, especially if the covers constitute most of a release. How hard is it to scrape together original material? Apparently Aliosha began as a Sex Pistols cover group(?!?), and morphed into a real band when they started playing real drums instead of books (?).

Anyway, I will say that this thing is a partial exception to the anti-covers stance. The only one remotely close to the original is the "Sister Ray" version, and, as noted, they morph the other covers into droning, humming, bass-driven torment closer to Throbbing Gristle-style industrial misery than good-times rock.

"All I gotta do" scratches out an almost-danceable beat in the midst of xylophone- and bass-driven torment. Forlorn words float in and out under the din, and the end result is the sort of dance music that PiL specialized in ca. 1982: yes, one could dance to this stuff...if the Black Death was the only other gig in town, y'dig?

I have no information on this group beyond their facebook page. I really am at a loss on this stuff, but it's interesting enough to keep me coming back to it, again and again. With no firm conclusions.

DIG IT...or not.