- Since 2004, the Melbourne based band VulgarGrad have been criminally and intentionally performing the raucous and at times threatening popular street songs of the Russian underclass. Having released their first album King of Crooks in 2009, their latest release -now on parole- The Odessa Job updates the repertoire to include songs made popular during the Soviet and later Perestroika eras.
Born in Poland and making Australia his home since the early eighties, Jacek Koman remains the frontman of everyone’s favourite band of Russian criminals. With grit, grunt, bad and brassy vibes and vocals to match, his accompanying musicians have remained relatively unchanged since King of Crooks, their first leave on bad behaviour.
Coinciding with the release of their first new album in a decade, The Odessa Job is set to egg on like-minded swashbuckling rascals scrambling for a place at VulgarGrad’s limited round of tour dates.
Grimacing and smiling in equal measure are the resultant reactions to the first single to be released, I Remember (an ode to a mother’s warning to her son that no good will come from hanging out with thieves) and also to the rollicking Oy,Mamochka and the respectful song to Kostya the Sailor both featuring guest vocals from Zulya Kamalova.
Jacek Koman brings his characteristic gruff vocals to these songs about dive bars, fishermen, knife fights and ballroom dancing after years as an in-demand actor of film, television and stage in Australia and in his homeland Poland. Who can forget his role as the cat loving, money lending limo driver Jacob to Senator Clover Green in the most recent series of Rake.
Another menacing song from the Black Sea Port -and renowned throughout the region- is Gop Stop, a command to stand and deliver from a threatening street thug. Aunty Haya who is expecting a strange package from Shanghai is another example of the favoured, plundered tunes from Odessa, but it’s the closing song the waltzing, klezmeric Solomon Plyar’s School of Ballroom Dancing that glues the smile to many a worn out street thug’s mug. I recommend all of the musical contraband on offer in The Odessa Job, grab it before it gets confiscated by the FSB.
- Rick Heritage.