Messer Chups: rockabilly, surf, and sputnik

A veritable icon of Russian counterculture, Messer Chups is an improbable project that first saw the light of day in St Petersburg, where it was launched by Oleg Gitarkin, a multi-instrumentalist fan of the Cramps and Z movies.

Messer Chups, which has been on the road since 1998, takes an aesthetic approach largely inspired by the cream of the 1950s rockabilly scene. Pedal pushers and chiffon dresses for the ladies, quiffs and black jackets for the gentlemen. Oleg Gitarkin and his sidekick (the heroine Zombie Girl) overcome a multitude of clichés to produce some extraordinary music: instrumental rock studded with caustically witty samples. Somewhere between surf rock, punk, and rockabilly, their tracks are like an imaginary soundtrack to an imaginary film – a kind of Pulp Fiction as reworked by Ed Wood, with Bela Lugosi replacing Bruce Willis.

With a considerable number of recordings under its belt (fifteen discs in ten years), the group is now setting out on a world tour to present material from its latest album, the earthy Church of Reverb. Punctuated by offbeat interventions and little female moans, the tracks are sexy, but belong to a world of the living dead: fun in the kingdom of the bloodsuckers. At once strange and thrilling. You can see Messer Chups doing their stuff at the Bar du Matin. Frissons guaranteed.

Messer Chups • 20/6, 21.00, gratis/gratuit/free, BAR DU MATIN, chaussée d’Alsembergsesteenweg 172, Vorst/Forest, 02-537.71.59, www.bardumatin.blogspot.be