Psychobilly Behind The Iron Curtain

Not that the iron curtain still exists but Russia is still some kind of mystery. You still need a Visa to go there and there is no way in hell or on earth to figure out what their writing means. Of course some things have changed significantly since the USSR collapsed. Nowadays you see quite a lot of Russians on festivals in the West and more West bands play Russia and the other way round. But how big Psychobilly is in the East we can only guess (and my guess is that it's not very big) but in 2007 they published a book about it in Russia. As I mentioned, there is no way to figure out what anything written with Russian letters means, but judging by the photos and flyers published the book definitely covers the Russian bands Meantraitors, Swindlers, Scary B.O.O.M, Bombers and some others I have never heard of before. There are also special chapters on the Quakes, Reverend Horton Heat and the Horror Pops. Okay, I get why the Quakes are in the book, but the other two? The only other pictures by West bands are from Batmobile and Klingonz so I guess that the history of Psychobilly isn't covered. Fair enough. For that we have the incredible bad 'Hell's Bent On Rockin' book from Cherry Red Books, hahaha.

In case you can read Russian and want to know more about Russian Psychobilly or if you are a die hard collector of everything that says Psychobilly, go to www.amphora.ru. They published the book.