Lyapis Trubetskoi - Battleship (You Have Nothing To Do With It?)
Remember Battleship Potemkin!* Spit out the rotten meat! How long can you chew the scraps From the table of your pederast-lords?! Thousands of our brothers Are dying in the name of freedom Police is jerking off the organ of power For a packet of socialized vomit! Glamorous prison vans Wood carvings covered with goldleaf Chained dogs ready for fighting - Is murder really man's work?! The baby-carriage is already rolling down The black-browed cossack is swinging his sable* On the Patriarchs', the oil is spilled - Woland is coming, everything's ready!** YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT? INDIFFERENCE KILLS NO WORSE THAN A BULLET! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT? THE WORLD IS DYING - WELL, SCREW IT?
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Across the world, a wave of demonstrations Is making the tyrants shudder On the barricades, a royal piano is burning Dancing upon it - Spartacus and Gavroche Gasoline cans are burning - Torches of a new dawn Yachts and limos are being blown up, The bell-ringers are tolling alarm The dignity of a person - Freedom, honour and pride! Now is no time for any of us to laugh - Victory is decided here And if we don't fight right now, Tomorrow we're all just fucked Nobody will see the sun again - A shameful, cowardly end! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT? INDIFFERENCE KILLS NO WORSE THAN A BULLET! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH IT? THE WORLD IS DYING - WELL, SCREW IT? ***
*Battleship Potemkin - referring to the famed (though failed) mutiny aboard the battleship Potemkin of the Black Sea Fleet in 1905, and the classic film by Sergei Eisenstein that immortalized it in 1925 (and redefined the art of film montage in the process). The scene involving the soldiers' march down the staircase, along with a runaway baby carriage and cossacks cutting down bystanders of the revolt, have become an iconic symbol of state repression. **Patriarch's ponds, spilled oil and Woland - references to Mikhail Bulgakov's masterpiece novel "The Master and Margarita", written in the 1930s and satirizing state repression. The first scene of the novel takes place at the Patriarch's ponds, a well-known park in Moscow, where Satan appears in the guise of a certain Professor Woland and accurately predicts the death of a character, brought forth by a seeminly accidental oil spill.
Lyapis Trubetskoi (named after a character in classic Russian comedy novel "12 Chairs") are perhaps the most talked-about band in the Russian-speaking world today. Active in Belarus and neighbouring countries (including Russia) since 1990, it was not until the late 2000s that they struck musical gold - when they settled on their trademark combination of traditional ska-punk with influences from rapcore/nu-metal music and traditional Belorussian folk sounds. Ever since then, they've been a huge hit, with their repertoire mixing Belorussian- and Russian-language lyrics. Unsurprisingly for a ska-punk band, but especially with their own experience of repression, Lyapis Trubetskoi actively promote what one could call an anarcho-socialist standpoint through their music and activism. Needless to say, in an increasingly conservative post-Soviet space where they perform, this has attracted plenty of controversy. They are banned from performing altogether in their native Belarus (home to Europe's most repressive government regime) - and after the band appeared on stage at the Maidan protests in the Ukraine (seen by some as anti-Russian), a number of Russian cities refused to allow the band to perform their scheduled concerts over the last few weeks. Nevertheless, the band's active and loyal fanbase - called "Lyapis Crew" - continues to grow bigger and bigger, and the band is due to headline many of Russia's biggest festivals this summer. Pouring more fuel on the fire, so to speak, the band's leader Sergei Mikhalok also recently announced that the band will "cease to exist" this September, prompting much speculation about their fate. One thing is certain, however - Lyapis Trubetskoi are a tightly-knit band with an easily-recognizable sound, riding the peak of their popularity, and will no doubt remain an important part of the music scene throughout the former USSR. This particular song comes from their 2012 album "Rabkor" (a play on "rapcore" and "rab", Russian for "slave"), considered by many to be their defining release. (archive)
