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Biography
Use mdy dates|date=October 2011Refimprove|date=August 2008Infobox musical artist| name = Leningrad Cowboys| background = group_or_band| image = Leningrad Cowboys in Berlin 2nd of September 2011.jpg| origin = Finland | genre = Rock and Roll Hard Rock Heavy metal music|Heavy Metal | years_active = 1986–present| label = Megamania Plutonium Johanna Kustannus Roadrunner Records Sony BMG SPV Recordings | associated_acts = Sleepy Sleepers | current_members = Ville Tuomi Sakke Järvenpää Tume Uusitalo Varre Vartiainen Pauli Hauta-Aho Sami Järvinen Timo Tolonen Okke Komulainen Pemo Ojala Pope Puolitaival Jay Kortehisto Anna Sainila Hanna Moisala | past_members = #Band Members|See below | website = http://www.leningradcowboys.fi http://www.leningradcowboys.fiThe Leningrad Cowboys is a Finland|Finnish rock musical band|band famous for humorously making rock and roll covers of popular songs, exaggerated Pompadour (hairstyle)|pompadour hairstyles, long, pointy shoes, often featuring a Russia n military band, the Alexandrov Ensemble .
Beginnings
The band was an invention of the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki , Sakke Jarvenpää and Mato Valtonen , members of the Finnish pop-punk band Sleepy Sleepers . The band was conceived in a bar in 1986 as a joke on the waning power of the Soviet Union . Jarvenpää and Valtonen expressed their wishes that Kaurismäki would direct their first music video, which resulted in the short film " Rocky VI (1986 film)|Rocky VI " (1986). After two further short films, "Thru the Wire" (1987) and "L.A. Woman" (1988), Kaurismäki decided to direct a feature film about them, Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989).cite DVD-notes |title=Eclipse Series 29: Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys - Leningrad Cowboys Go America |titlelink=Leningrad Cowboys Go America |titleyear=1989 |director= Aki Kaurismäki |format=Liner notes |publisher= The Criterion Collection |location= |publisherid=ECL136 |year=2011 |language= cite web|url= http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/2024-eclipse-29-aki-kaurismaki-s-leningrad-cowboys |title=Eclipse 29: Aki Kaurismäki’s Leningrad Cowboys - From the Current - The Criterion Collection |publisher=Criterion.com |date= |accessdate=2012-05-08 In these films they are joined by Nicky Tesco, founding member of the UK punk rock band The Members .
After the film, the band took on a life of its own, recording music, making videos and giving concerts. The band appeared in two other Aki Kaurismäki films, the Leningrad Cowboys Meet Moses (1994) and the Total Balalaika Show (1994), which is a film of a concert performed by the band and the full 160-member Alexandrov ensemble in Helsinki, Finland in June 1993. Kaurismäki also wrote and directed two videos featuring the band: their cover of the 60's folk standard " Those Were the Days (song)|Those Were The Days " (1992) and "These Boots" (1993).
In 1994, the band appeared together with 70 members of the Alexandrov ensemble at the 11th annual MTV Music Awards, at the Radio City Music Hall in New York, where they sang the Lynyrd Skynyrd classic Sweet Home Alabama (song)|Sweet Home Alabama . The show was seen by an estimated 250 million people worldwide. That same year, the band and ensemble again joined forces for the " Nokia Balalaika Show", a concert held in Berlin. In 1998 they featured in the film L.A. Without a Map .
In 1996 the Leningrad Cowboys granted the Swiss-Italian singer-songwriter David Buzzi permission to write lyrics for the instrumental "Ten Lost Gringos" from the Go America soundtrack. This song was released in Italy and Switzerland in 1998 on the album "Il Diavolo Rosso: Romaneschi" with the title "Gringo".
Currently, the band has 11 Cowboys and two Leningrad Ladies . The songs, all somewhat influenced by polka and progressive rock , are performed in English and have Theme (literature)|themes such as vodka , tractor s, rocket s, and Genghis Khan , as well as Folklore|folkloric Russia n songs, rock and roll ballad s and cover version|covers from bands as diverse as The Beatles , Led Zeppelin , Modern Talking , and Lynyrd Skynyrd , all presented with lots of humour.
Ten years after the Total Balalaika Show , on August 23, 2003, the Leningrad Cowboys and the Alexandrov ensemble returned to the Senate Square in Helsinki with UMO and various international performers for the spectacular Global Balalaika Show , was released on DVD directed by Timo Suomi, on November 21, 2003.
In 2006 the album Zombies Paradise was released. This album features a hard rock sound, and draws influences from speed metal , groove metal , and industrial metal . However, covers of famous old songs sounds chaotically effective (especially " Manic Monday "). The album also includes the 1994 Studio version of " Happy Together (song)|Happy Together " as well as a new 2006 version. The music video for the album's cover of the song " You're My Heart, You're My Soul " – is made totally in animated 3D computer graphics as a road-thriller movie.
One more show with the Russian Military Band was played in Finland on November 22, 2008. A newly-released publication, Bio-Book PRAVDA – The Truth About The Leningrad Cowboys also appeared. Promotional lines included: "Here it is finally, The Leningrad Cowboys book "Pravda"!"
October 2011 saw the release of the Kaurismäki Leningrad Cowboys features and short films as a box set by the The Criterion Collection as of their Eclipse (DVD)|Eclipse series of releases. This month also featured the new album Buena Vodka Social Club , their first album of all-original material since 2000's Terzo Mondo .
Band Members
col-begincol-2 Current members cite web|url= http://www.spv.de/News/newsdetail.php? newsID=145 |title=SPV |publisher=Spv.de |date= |accessdate=2011-12-10
