The Thunderbeats: Bringing Old School Vibe to Moscow

Yes, Virginia, there is garage rock in Russia.

One of the things we love about the music we write about here at Garagerocktopia is that it is truly international. Garage rock is thought of as an American, perhaps Anglo-American thing, but if you peruse the stories we have posted, nothing could be further from the truth, as we have –very proudly – profiled bands from nine countries around the world.

But we are very excited to bring you a feature about one of Moscow’s top garage rock bands, the Thunderbeats. But we hasten to make one thing very clear – we’re not writing this story because it’s cool to have a Russian band – even though it is. We’re writing this story because the Thunderbeats make world-class garage rock.

The group’s sound is very much in the classic garage-rock mold – the requisite infectious guitar hooks propelled by keyboards. Think the Seeds or Music Machine with a generous dash of the Troggs and that gives you some idea, albeit not entirely complete.

Really, if you’re wondering about their sound, the names of their albums will easily clue you in. Last year, they released Primitive Sound, but perhaps their 2012 album says it all: it’s simply titled ’66. We wouldn’t say the sound is exactly primitive, but it is a mostly upbeat and no-frills brand of rock and roll, big on hooks and beats and almost devoid of studio trickery. It’s tough to get enough of songs like “All Your Love,” “Rumble of the Tides” and “Wyld”

“I was affected by the British R&B groups, especially bands like the Troggs, the Animals, the Yardbirds, the Rolling Stones and the Kinks,” explained guitarist and lead singer Aleksey Cherniaev, who talked to Garagerocktopia via e-mail. “Amongst the American bands we like are the Seeds, the Doors, and of course the Sonics. But I have to tell you the list of who we like is very long.”

The other band members are Vadim Markov on bass guitar and vocals; Oleg Peskov on drums; and new keyboard player  Ilyia Hesin.

But Cherniaev pointed to the blues as the group’s main musical inspiration. As we’ve pointed out many times here, when it comes to garage rock, you’re never more, in the words of Bobby “Blue” Bland, than two steps from the blues. For Cherniaev, though,  he wants to be right on the spot.

“The blues is the most important and main influence to our music,” Cherniaev confessed. “For us, it’s the starting point where all rock and roll begins. Artists like Jimmy Reed, Elmore James, Slim Harpo, Little Walter are some of our favorite bluesmen.”

“We have our own studio called “the Magnetone Studios,”’ said Cherniaev, alluding to the fabled solid-body guitars favored by many bluesmen and early rock and rollers. “This is where we record all our material. Except for our own songs, we have recorded a lot of  old blues songs, which have been released on our CD, The Blues Masters. Unfortunately, because of copyright issues, it was created only for our friends for private listening.”

Top-notch rock and roll from Russia is nothing new, though the country’s most notable bands thus far have been a little more of the mainstream variety. By the late ‘80s, hair metal bands like Autograph and Gorky Park gained airplay on U.S. stations.

Other Russian performers like Boris Grebenshchikov – considered the grandfather of modern Russian rock as the founder of the band Aquarium  – gained small followings in western Europe and North America and the appreciation of the likes of Dave Stewart and Chrissie Hynde. Russia still has no shortage of quality rock and roll, ranging from ultra-thrashy metal and punk to music more rooted in folk.

The conventional view of Russian rock is that it places more emphasis on lyrics than on music. But with garage rock, whether it’s from Stockholm, or Chappell Hill, or Osaka, the hook always comes first, and this is no exception for the Thunderbeats.

“We don't give so much importance to lyrics,” Cherniaev revealed. “We just try to come up with a catchy riff, or a refrain, or some interesting style of playing or singing. Sometimes I just use phrases I like phonetically.”

“When it works, the sound of words just fall to the rhythm, even if those words don't always make perfect sense. Think of songs like " Be-Bop-A-Lula" or "Razzle Dazzle." And there are many examples of this in both blues and rock'n'roll.”

We’d love to tell you that Russia is garage-rock crazy and that Moscow is the next Detroit of garage rock, and to be sure, the Thunderbeats are far from Russia’s only cool garage rock band. Fellow Muscovites the Cavestompers also perform a straight-up form of garage rock. And, if you can find it, definitely check out an excellent band from the last decade, the Crushers. There are also garage rock bands in St. Petersburg, amongst other places.

But sadly, according to Cherniaev, Moscow does not sport the kind of garage rock scene one would hope for from such a major world hub.

“There is not much of garage scene here,” laments Cherniaev. “There are only 10 to 15 bands can be found in all of Russia. We have the Karovas Milkshake from Ekaterinburg, the Jibes from here in Moscow and the Original Shitmakers and the Mystic Train from St.Petersburg.”

“Each of these groups have something to hook me. It may be their songwriting, maybe their arrangements, perhaps the sound of some of their instruments or maybe the whole sound. Most important of all, it may just be the feel or the energy.” 

“In the last few years there have been some very popular Lo-Fi groups that have called themselves garage bands, but in fact it just remains low grade ‘80s-style Russian rock. We called some of them ‘one-gig-bands’ because they split up after their first gig.”

The Moscow garage rock scene, such as it is, is a small, fairly cooperative community.

“There is no competition between groups,” Cherniaev said. “This genre is unknown and obscure and so it’s really only enthusiasts who are promoting it. We do a two to three gigs per month, but that’s enough.”

As is often the case with bands we’ve talked to, the Thunderbeats, deserving of wider audiences though they are, sadly aren’t able to venture far beyond their hometown. With less mainstream genres such as garage rock, the dinero just isn’t often there for bands to take their music to confines beyond.

“Sometimes we play gigs in other cities,” said Cherniaev, “but unfortunately, due to financial difficulty, it’s infrequent. For that reason, we have not yet reached Europe and America. I hope we will have any gigs in other countries, too.”

Here at Garagerocktopia, we're always looking for cool bands and awesome garage rock related stuff to report on. We have reason to believe that a fair number of regular readers here are musicians themselves. Please feel free to send us your music and information. We won't guarantee a write-up, but so far we've had some very awesome artists step up. Email us or you can visit our Facebook page.

Rock on!