Song of the Day: ГШ (Glintshake) – Убожество

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJs think you should hear. This week, we are featuring songs by Icelandic artists performing at the 2017 Iceland Airwaves Music Festival, curated by Kevin Cole, host of The Afternoon Show on KEXP. Today’s song is ГШ (Glintshake)'s “Убожество” from last year's self-released album ОЭЩ МАГЗИУ.

ГШ (Glintshake) – Убожество (MP3)

If all this talk of Russian collusion in American politics has you longing for the simpler, more innocent days of the Cold War, then our Song of the Day is for you. Glintshake formed in Moscow in 2012, but their internal clocks appear to be set to 30 years prior, in that early ’80s moment when post-punk began mutating into pop music, and European accents started infiltrating North American airwaves. Taken from their self-released 2016 album, ОЭЩ МАГЗИУ, “Убожество” judders with the sort of jagged guitars and jittery, cowbell-clanging energy that made The B-52’s and Pylon college-radio favorites in the Reagen era, while sprinting toward a gloriously cacophonous sax-squawked finale that brings to mind manic 21st-century rabble-rousers like Love Is All and current DIY deities the Downtown Boys. And though vocalist Ekaterina Shilonosova sings entirely in Russian, her sass and sneers are easy enough to decipher.

ГШ (Glintshake) performs live at Reykjavik’s Kex Hostel, as part of KEXP’s Iceland Airwaves Music Festival broadcast, on Thursday, November 2nd, at 11:00 AM (PST). Watch live streaming video of their performance via the KEXP Facebook page. In the meantime, watch the band perform the track last year at the CHA (Central House of Artists) in Russia.