Red Elvises
Surfing In Siberia
Folk n' Roll records

by Brian Parrish

From out of the gulag and into your CD player come the Red Elvises, a rockabilly-surf band with an upbeat, danceable sound. On April 13, the band played San Antonio's DMZ Clubhouse with native bands Soda Pop Spys and The Drones.

The show was the band's return performance to the DMZ after just playing there a few days prior. The Red Elvises are on tour supporting the group's new release Surfing In Siberia, one the best rock n' roll records to come out so far in 1997. Each band member is highly skilled in a not only the instruments they play, but in their knowledge of music. The effect is perfect surfabilly pop.

What better song to start off a surf album than with the classic "Misirlou", coyly re-titled as "Surfing In Siberia". Led by guitarist Zhenya Kolykhanov, the album blends traditional central European sounds with the American influence of surf guitar and touch of funk. In "Don't Stop the Dance"Kolykhanov's guitar is smooth and polished. Singer Igor Yuzov's melancholy vocals add to the band's skilled balladry. In "Siberia", Yuzov croons out lyrics about the subarctic wasteland: "Take me to the land of cosmonauts/where the women do vodka shots...". The Red Elvises take the surf guitar style of classic bands like The Astronauts and The Lively Ones and skew the sad rhythm of "Siberia" with a touch of humor. This is the band's trademark-mixing humor, the awkwardness of a new language, and good music.

The band finishes the album with covers of Chuck Berry's "Rock n' Roll Music" and "Ukrainian Dance #13. The group's East-meets-West combination of music works without sounding absurd.

The Red Evises currently reside in Los Angeles; perhaps this is how the band picked up a "surfier" sound compared to their '96 debut Groovin' to the Moscow Beat which is more rockabilly oriented. In the band's live show, the Red Elvises fuse their rockabilly and surf flawlessly. Besides, just watching bassist Oleg Bernov play the bass-balalaika is well worth the price of admission.