Brigadniy Podryad ("Brigade Contact") were of the best-known underground punk rock bands in Leningrad in the late 80's. They were combined powerful '77 style punk with biting social and political commentary - one of the few early bands to do so. They are still around, and still playing old-fashioned punk rock.
Brigadniy Podryad formed June 1986 in the South Leningrad district of Kupchino. The initial lineup was: Kolya Mihailov - vocals, Alexandr "Santyor" Lukianov - guitar, Maxim Vasiliev - guitar, Dmitriy Babich - bass, Igor "Said" Saikin - drums. The band recorded a self-titled album in the home studio of Fyodor "Begemot" Lavrov, guitarist of another pioneering punk band Narodnoe Opolchenie. Then Santyor got drafted and the band went on a hiatus. In 1987 a new guitarist, Yura Sobolev, joined and became the primary songwriter. The band joined the Leningrad Rock Club and made a noisy appearance at the 6th annual L.R.K. festival in 1988. Then Babich and Said quit the band (Said died in 1998) and Brigadniy Podryad split up again.
Yura Sobolev formed his own band Dohliy Nomer with bassist Sasha "Kon'yak" Muraviov and drummer Valera Trushin. When Kolya Mihailov joined, it became the new Brigadniy Podryad lineup. In 1988 an album was recorded at "NCH/VCH" squat (not released until 1998 on tape), in 1989 - another one called Chlenskiy Vznos ("Membership Dues"), with a saxophone player they'd found on the street. All in all, until 1990 Brigadniy Podryad had played just a dozen gigs in Russia and Ukraine but their influence was still quite large. In the summer of 1990 another hiatus started. The band were no longer playing gigs, just recording home albums with stuff that could be called lo-fi pop with anti-social lyrics. Besides the old Brigadniy Podryad folks, a schoolboy named Sasha Konviser was taking part. Songs from this period were eventually compiled and released by Caravan Records on the Rozovaya Voda ("Pink Water") tape in 1998.
In 1996 an old friend Anton "Tosya" Soya got Santyor, Konviser and Mihailov together again to record a few of his own songs, which eventually led to Brigadniy Podryad reunion. The band was joined by Igor Mosin (ex-Durnoe Vliyanie, now Jugendstil, Bondzinskiy) on drums and Dima Petrov (ex-Durnoe Vluyanie, now Bondsinskiy, Grnad Shuttle Banda) on bass. It was around this time that Kolya Mihailov suffered a fall and got brain damage. Konviser has become Brigadniy Podryad's sole frontman. Santyor was evenually replaced by Yura Sobolev who was for a while playing in the pop band Pangeya. Mosin and later Petrov quit, but the band was joined by Igor "Motya" Motovilov from Narodnoe Opolchenie (Sobolev switched to bass). The band are recording actively, largely old songs.
Releases
BRIGADNIY PODRYAD (1986 - not released officially)
BRIGADNIY PODRYAD (1988 - released in 1998)
CHLENSKIY VZNOS (1989 - not released)
HUDSHEYE tape (Tosya I Ko. Bros, 1997)
SINE-BELO-GOLUBOI tape (Caravan Records, 1999)
REANIMATORY CD/tape (Kap-Kan Records, 1999)
IDIOT CD/tape (SOS Records, 2001)
NASILIYE I SEX CD/tape (Sparc, 2003)
Reissues
BRIGADNIY PODRYAD tape (KDK Records, 1998 - has their '88 album)
ROZOVAYA VODA tape (Caravan Records, 1998 - recordings from '92-'93)
VSYO - PANK-ROK! tape (Caravan Records - has their '88 album)
ZAEBEST CD/tape (Sparc, 2003 - "Best of" collection)
INFO
Interview Pank-virus v Rossii
An interview with guitarist Yura Sobolev from 1998 - thanks to Szarapow for the translation.