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KGB — Call It A Night
Album: Contra-Intelligence
Avg rating:
7.7

Your rating:
Total ratings: 4291









Released: 2009
Length: 3:54
Plays (last 30 days): 1
(instrumental)
Comments (274)add comment
 youngers wrote:

Information on the Lenin statue shown in this albums cover.
 Lenin Wiki Link


On related Seattle news, the Freemont Troll is moving to Bellevue.   Maybe 10 years ago I would have cared more, though over the last several years especially I've stopped thinking of myself as a Seattle-ite and more a Pacific-Northwesterner.

LLRP  
Information on the Lenin statue shown in this albums cover.
 Lenin Wiki Link
 sqqqrly wrote:

Read the 2020 Census and learn how it was working out: https://www.census.gov/content...

"[In 2019,] the Black poverty rate was the lowest since 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates were published."

"The 2019 Hispanic poverty rate of 15.7 percent reflects the lowest poverty rate for this population since estimates were first produced in 1972."

The lowest poverty rates in 50 years?  Time to "fix" that!

Ya...Primary sources can be a bitch.



You do realize the US Census is a political instrument, don't you? It was established in the Constitution as a means to allocate political power among the various political subdivisions. The census you reference is based on information gathered by the Trump Administration, collected and memorialized by Trump, and due to the Covid pandemic, the incomplete public response to the actual 2020 Census.

I realize true believers can be very focused. The US Census is a wonderful source of information. But its function is political and subject to gaming. It's one source among many and shouldn't be given a status as an independent, unbiased perspective.
 Rantanplan wrote:

I dont want to argue aggainst your central point at all, but there is no country in europe under a socialist political system at the moment.  The nordic countries are liberal  democracies with a capitalistic market economy. Yes, there is high taxation, a strong welfare state and strong regulation of the market, but this is NOT socialism. There is private property, a free market and the "means of production" are not collectivized at all. You may call it social democracy or something along those lines, but saying that europe countries are socialist is just plain false.  The nordic countries have some quite admirable policies and societal and economic outcomes but this is due to capitalism and a state that intervenes in the case of market failure and other undesirable side effects of market economy not due to socialism.
Sorry for triggered rambling, am german liberal democrat.
Half of Germany was socialist til '89, shit was not cash money at all.
Have a nice day from Frankfurt!



A German is probably better equipped to make these observations but for what it's worth, let me make a few observations. Anything less than predatory capitalism is considered socialism/communism in America. Single payer healthcare - commie! A living wage -commie! Proper public education - commie!

The OP commented communist nation were corrupt as if that were not the case in capitalist countries. My culture were communist or more properly - a community. They looked after their families and neighbors' well-being. It was not corrupt but born of the understanding that the suffering of one is felt by all. We were marched 1400 miles barefoot in winter by the US army when gold was discovered on our home by white settlers. Thousands died of disease, starvation, and exposure along the forced journey.

I have my own opinion of the models of governance around the world. America does not have the moral authority to dictate to other countries how to best serve the needs of their citizens.
 sqqqrly wrote:

Read the 2020 Census and learn how it was working out: https://www.census.gov/content...

"[In 2019,] the Black poverty rate was the lowest since 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates were published."

"The 2019 Hispanic poverty rate of 15.7 percent reflects the lowest poverty rate for this population since estimates were first produced in 1972."

The lowest poverty rates in 50 years?  Time to "fix" that!

Ya...Primary sources can be a bitch.

Have someone explain to you the difference between coincidence and causality.

These were all established trends. None had a dammed thing to do with anything the bigoted, sphincter-lipped vulgarian did.
I love that a band that advertises that they play weddings gets airplay on RP. 
Love the talent of this group.....Play on
 smartn1 wrote:


Seattle band. That statue is located in the Fremont neighborhood. 

I probably could have shared that with Drifting Dave too; I'm just not that smart! 

     3526 Fremont Pl N, Seattle, WA 98103

Long Live RP and the Freedom to be Peculiar! 
 DriftingDave wrote:




I had, I knew that it is an acronym of the band member's names but I suppose YOU should have had a look at the album cover where the band members pose before a statue of Lenin as well as the album name ''contra-intelligence''. @lizardking Wow, what a tone-deaf reply...


Seattle band. That statue is located in the Fremont neighborhood. 
super nice
I’m hoping They’ll play music like this in Heaven - at least sometimes.
 sqqqrly wrote:

Read the 2020 Census and learn how it was working out: https://www.census.gov/content...

"[In 2019,] the Black poverty rate was the lowest since 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates were published."

"The 2019 Hispanic poverty rate of 15.7 percent reflects the lowest poverty rate for this population since estimates were first produced in 1972."

The lowest poverty rates in 50 years?  Time to "fix" that!

Ya...Primary sources can be a bitch.


This is my contender for most primitive political online argument this year. 
 greiffenstein wrote:
I don't disagree with most of what you write here, DD, but for the casual co-mingling of socialism/communism and atrocities.  First of all, socialism is not communism, and currently most of Europe is under socialist political system, particularly the thriving countries of Scandinavia which are not just doing well but could teach the US several lessons on tolerance, inclusiveness, and how to make government work for the people.  I encourage you to examine what movements and political ideas you are lumping together and how much of your hostility against them is fact-based, and how much is fact-blind.  I'm not a pro-socialist and I think commnism has been overwhelming proven to be an corrupt system of government.  But I will offer that I think blind adherence to one form of government, one political party, or one ideological platform without considering others objectively will lead to believing absurdities just because they're touted by members of my "tribe".  And, as Voltaire said, "Those who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities."  Look into any history book and you'll soon realize it's not just the "effing commies" committing them.  Actually, just look into what people are protesting against all over the world right now.

 

 


I dont want to argue aggainst your central point at all, but there is no country in europe under a socialist political system at the moment.  The nordic countries are liberal  democracies with a capitalistic market economy. Yes, there is high taxation, a strong welfare state and strong regulation of the market, but this is NOT socialism. There is private property, a free market and the "means of production" are not collectivized at all. You may call it social democracy or something along those lines, but saying that europe countries are socialist is just plain false.  The nordic countries have some quite admirable policies and societal and economic outcomes but this is due to capitalism and a state that intervenes in the case of market failure and other undesirable side effects of market economy not due to socialism.
Sorry for triggered rambling, am german liberal democrat.
Half of Germany was socialist til '89, shit was not cash money at all.
Have a nice day from Frankfurt!
 radioparadise9 wrote:
 zurcronium wrote:
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
 
How's it working out?


 
Read the 2020 Census and learn how it was working out: https://www.census.gov/content...

"[In 2019,] the Black poverty rate was the lowest since 1959, the first year for which poverty estimates were published."

"The 2019 Hispanic poverty rate of 15.7 percent reflects the lowest poverty rate for this population since estimates were first produced in 1972."

The lowest poverty rates in 50 years?  Time to "fix" that!

Ya...Primary sources can be a bitch.
Stuff like this is why I pay for Radio Paradise. Not sure where else I would hear a song like this dropped in with the other stuff in the RP main mix, or how far out of my way I would have to go to find such an exquisite piece were it not for RP. Also love the transition to Unkle’s In a State.
...this song sreminds me of a movie...sound like a movie score....beautiful melancholy...
 thewiseking wrote:
Why stain such beauty with the KGB moniker?
 

It's literally their names. Julie King, Claude Ginsburg, Dave Bartley. Now putting them in that order... I guess maybe they thought they were being funny? I don't know.
 radioparadise9 wrote:
 zurcronium wrote:
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
 
How's it working out?


 
Aged like milk.
 BCarn wrote:

Why? Did your grey matter dissolve?
 
Gropey Joe and Willy's Hoe. Did yours?
I don't disagree with most of what you write here, DD, but for the casual co-mingling of socialism/communism and atrocities.  First of all, socialism is not communism, and currently most of Europe is under socialist political system, particularly the thriving countries of Scandinavia which are not just doing well but could teach the US several lessons on tolerance, inclusiveness, and how to make government work for the people.  I encourage you to examine what movements and political ideas you are lumping together and how much of your hostility against them is fact-based, and how much is fact-blind.  I'm not a pro-socialist and I think commnism has been overwhelming proven to be an corrupt system of government.  But I will offer that I think blind adherence to one form of government, one political party, or one ideological platform without considering others objectively will lead to believing absurdities just because they're touted by members of my "tribe".  And, as Voltaire said, "Those who believe in absurdities will commit atrocities."  Look into any history book and you'll soon realize it's not just the "effing commies" committing them.  Actually, just look into what people are protesting against all over the world right now.

 
DriftingDave wrote:
My friends Steve and Sara have started a band and asked me if SS would be cool as a band name, preferably with the letters in vivid lightning shape since Sara really love lightnings. They are working on their first album called Final Solution to celebrate that they finally have got together in the recording studio. 

Look, the song is beautiful, no one can deny that; but to name a band after an organisation that was the spearhead for one of the most repressive state formations in modern history, with massively documented atrocities,already while this band was playing, shows that the band members must have been really stupid and ignorant, or in other words, effing commies. Before the re-haul of the RP website there used to be a picture (that someone uploaded to this thread) of a stroller with a dead baby inside tipped alongside other victims of communism, scattered on a frozen river bank somewhere in Russia. It seems to be gone now but ever since, this picture is what I get before my eyes every time I hear this song. So for me this song has become a homage to all the victims of the anti-human ideas of socialism/communism. 
 
 

 lizardking wrote:

Yes, but King-Ginsburg-Bartley could have called themselves BGK, or any other name, yet they chose not to.
I've been reading a true story about an agent who defected from the KGB. Not in the least funny or witty or entertaining. It was a vicious terror organization. 
 

MI RICORDA UN album che mi ha regalato un amica in Serbia - molto bella
Beautiful piece of music that touches many parts of my soul (that Violin is exquisite) that I did not know I had, so am promoting from an 8 to a 10.
Sitting here working away, deep in my work, but this piece broke through and stopped me dead.  Thanks RP.
 zurcronium wrote:
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
 
Why? Did your grey matter dissolve?
I think it's really beautiful. Interested in hearing more from this band 

Just came from cello concert with 4 of Vancouver's cellists playing classic Baroque pieces. Then to hear this. Rather special.

The KGB cannot take over the Kremlin again quick enough.

 lizardking wrote:


I suppose looking into the band might have shed light on the name and from where/when they came....

 



I had, I knew that it is an acronym of the band member's names but I suppose YOU should have had a look at the album cover where the band members pose before a statue of Lenin as well as the album name ''contra-intelligence''. @lizardking Wow, what a tone-deaf reply...
 maboleth wrote:
There's something tragically nostalgic with this song.  Like growing up, changing, losing your loved ones in the process.
 
Very true. I'm hearing a little different story, but similar in mood. Living your life, making your experiences, failing at some important crossroad, getting up again, more experiences, things go well for a while, again failure and suffering, wondering what it's all about and  how and what for it'll all end. And yes, death. Your own and that of dear ones. The ever-present question: can we somehow, in some way, survive death? Give it all a meaning?
 radioparadise9 wrote:
 zurcronium wrote:
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
 
How's it working out?


 

Do you have to ask that? 
Love hearing this song each time it is played!
Brilliant piece of music!!!
There's something tragically nostalgic with this piece. Like growing up, changing, losing your loved ones in the process.
Every time I hear this song, my rating goes up. Absolutely beautiful!
 DriftingDave wrote:
My friends Steve and Sara have started a band and asked me if SS would be cool as a band name, preferably with the letters in vivid lightning shape since Sara really love lightnings. They are working on their first album called Final Solution to celebrate that they finally have got together in the recording studio. 

Look, the song is beautiful, no one can deny that; but to name a band after an organisation that was the spearhead for one of the most repressive state formations in modern history, with massively documented atrocities,already while this band was playing, shows that the band members must have been some really stupid and ignorant, or in other words, effing commies. Before the re-haul of the RP website there used to be a picture (that someone uploaded to this thread) of a stroller with a dead baby inside tipped alongside other victims of communism, scattered on a frozen river bank somewhere in Russia. It seems to be gone now but ever since, this picture is what I get before my eyes every time I hear this song. So for me this song has become a homage to all the victims of the anti-human ideas of socialism/communism. 
 
 
I suppose looking into the band might have shed light on the name and from where/when they came....

https://www.kgbmole.com/kgb/

"This KGB is not a spy organization, but a band from Seattle
that plays for New England style contradance, English Country
Dance (as MI-5), Mostly Waltz and other social dance events, concerts, and private functions such as
wedding receptions. We write a lot of our own music, and the
rest comes from all over the world: the British Isles, French
Canada, the Northeastern USA, Western and Eastern Europe, South
America, the rest of the USA, and places we haven't yet identified.
Our waltz, Call It a Night, is featured on Radio Paradise; another waltz, The Clock Stopped, is used by Richard Powers to teach cross-step waltz.

We are:


Julie King - piano
Claude Ginsburg - violin, concertina, viola
Dave Bartley - mandolin, guitar, cittern, etc.
My friends Steve and Sara have started a band and asked me if SS would be cool as a band name, preferably with the letters in vivid lightning shape since Sara really love lightnings. They are working on their first album called Final Solution to celebrate that they finally have got together in the recording studio. 

Look, the song is beautiful, no one can deny that; but to name a band after an organisation that was the spearhead for one of the most repressive state formations in modern history, with massively documented atrocities,already while this band was playing, shows that the band members must have been really stupid and ignorant, or in other words, effing commies. Before the re-haul of the RP website there used to be a picture (that someone uploaded to this thread) of a stroller with a dead baby inside tipped alongside other victims of communism, scattered on a frozen river bank somewhere in Russia. It seems to be gone now but ever since, this picture is what I get before my eyes every time I hear this song. So for me this song has become a homage to all the victims of the anti-human ideas of socialism/communism. 
 
Such a beautiful song...
I feel like I've heard it every month or two on RP for years.
It's almost, but not quite enough.
Fiddle tunes infiltrated by foreign agents 
KGB CIA MOSSAD All think polices
Give me some music to steal theim my siprituality
See what living in frozen climates with no access to the 'Net can do for ya?  You can come up with something nice like this?  Heh!

Highlow
American Net'Zen
This reminds me of Dr. Zhivago. A sad love story in as sad land. my favorite movie
Just bumped 8->9 as it is exactly the calming influence I need right now!
 Kicks wrote:
So sweet and beautiful... This kind of music calms you down... <3
 

 zurcronium wrote:
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
 
How's it working out?


So sweet and beautiful... This kind of music calms you down... <3
one of my favorites in the RP rotation.
 jambo wrote:

what blows my mind is how do these people who are geniuses/prodigies make a living? who pays them enough to live on. we need to bring back times when there were rich patrons of the arts. what happened to that?
 
Rich patricians for the arts still exist, they're generally tax dodgers who live above the law and use tax havens, and pay to have wings in art galleries named after them so that the average joe thinks they're amazing. When all they had to do was stay anonymous and pay their friggin' taxes like ordinary people. 
 Azrica wrote:

Exactly !
 
what blows my mind is how do these people who are geniuses/prodigies make a living? who pays them enough to live on. we need to bring back times when there were rich patrons of the arts. what happened to that?
 dyharenas wrote:
Bloody marvelous
 
Exactly !
Bloody marvelous
As many times as I've heard this on RP, I don't tire of hearing it. I still enjoy every listen.
Beautiful instrumentation, nice choices. Classical yet modern. Diggit.
Why stain such beauty with the KGB moniker?
Takes me back to the time I spent as a child with the old timers of my family.  They were of the way back times.  The turn of the last last century.  Late 1800's to 1900's.  They felt differently.  Peasant feeling, kind of sets the mood for simple living and humbleness. Vivo Nuevo Mexico!
 Kaw wrote:

Cool to remind me about that.
I had a game called Spy vs. Spy: The Island Caper on my MSX. As a 5-7 year old kid I never figured out how to play the game and what's the goal.
 

 
Simple, kill the other guy and call it self defense.
Some things never change, read the news. 
Okay, this track is sure getting it's airplay-worth on here. Lovely tune.
Amazing how often I hear it. In 48 hours it gets played twice? Hit the random button, will ya Bill?
Anything to mention about the rest of this album?
{#Hearteyes}
 Figure wrote:
Beautiful piece, but the KGB name.. Sorry, too much blood here in Russia.

 

Julie King.  Claude Ginsburg. Dave Bartley.
Beautiful piece, but the KGB name.. Sorry, too much blood here in Russia.
I want to vote for Trump suddenly.  
lovely.
 yes...its all too beautiful  Highlowsel wrote:
A beautiful instrumental piece.  Not to go all maudlin about it but I think, by way of giving loved ones a way to remember me, it's one I'd like played at my funeral.  My way of saying it's been fun, I hope for you, too.  As for now.....see ya 'round out there in the Universe.  {#Motor}

Highlow
American Net'Zen

 


A beautiful instrumental piece.  Not to go all maudlin about it but I think, by way of giving loved ones a way to remember me, it's one I'd like played at my funeral.  My way of saying it's been fun, I hope for you, too.  As for now.....see ya 'round out there in the Universe.  {#Motor}

Highlow
American Net'Zen
Gil Scott-Heron — The Revolution Will Not Be Televised was my reward for psd'ing KGB thank you, strong reminder of Serious music
beautiful musicianship.
Gorgeous {#Cheesygrin}
Beautiful music.
 twoplain2sea wrote:


                One of the agents last move was to distribute
                Christian comics at the Madras railway station.

 
It's called Chennai now
 twoplain2sea wrote:
Mad Magazine, from adolescence.

 


i like it more and more


                One of the agents last move was to distribute
                Christian comics at the Madras railway station.
 twoplain2sea wrote:


 
Cool to remind me about that.
I had a game called Spy vs. Spy: The Island Caper on my MSX. As a 5-7 year old kid I never figured out how to play the game and what's the goal.
 

 passsion8 wrote:

True, but it does come up a whole lot in rotation. Not that there's anything wrong with that!

 
Like I said. I find myself whistling the entirety of the song. Could be Talking Heads, so no complaints here!
 eveliko wrote:
Certainly more convincing than Ludovico Einaudi in terms of good taste.

 
Yeah less linear and parallel.
 WonderLizard wrote:
Also a great album.

 
Thanks for advise on the album. 
This tune is just magic. 
 ginniet wrote:

This is one of my favorite songs played on RP and yet another example of one I never would have heard of any other way.  I put it on my iPod, and it always has a calming effect.

{#Meditate}



 
True, but it does come up a whole lot in rotation. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
Also a great album.
 hayduke2 wrote:
don't like this, think I'll CRUSH THEIR HEADS!!!
The Head Crusher

 
I do like this.......but I love your post as well!
 Bleyfusz wrote:
How do they manage to sound so Russian?

 
  Vodka  {#Mrgreen}
Certainly more convincing than Ludovico Einaudi in terms of good taste.
How do they manage to sound so Russian?
don't like this, think I'll CRUSH THEIR HEADS!!!
The Head Crusher
Reminds me of "Nightnoise."  Great stuff!
Russia springs to mind
That-y
be-y
'Irony Curtainy'
would-y
it-y
?
to me the name is all wrong for the music, but then 'The Brand New Heavies' play jazz, so what do i know eh?
This one is a masterpiece! Sounds like a movie soundtrack. Can be great for non lovers of classical music,  I think it has a different catch, and I'm sure if you find a movie that includes that KGB song people will listen
 rdo wrote:

I have thought about this post a lot (the one to which you replied).  The KGB was a murderous band of thugs, who changed their name from the NKVD which was a genocidal band of thugs.  For Russians this name must be really hard to swallow.  Of course it is meant with irony and perhaps the band is unaware of the significance.  Let me ask you, what if a band named itself The Gestapo, or The SS, The Ku Klux Klan, or Khmer Rouge?

They need to change it, but am open to argument.



 
Perhaps the open joy in their music would indicate a certain irony in the name?
 fredriley wrote:

Light rather than heat. An unusual thing on RP comments. Thanks for the information and background. 

Irony isn't entirely new in band names. New Order is clearly a reference to 30s fascism, and the band's previous name of Joy Division referred to Jewish sex slaves in concentration camps. If the irony of KGB is offensive, then imagine how much more offensive New Order's irony was in view of the Holocaust. 

 
Actually, the band's manager read a newspaper article about the Cambodian government that followed the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Order#Origins_and_formation:_1977.E2.80.931980

"Rob Gretton, the band's manager for over twenty years, is credited for having found the name "New Order" in an article in The Guardian entitled "The People's New Order of Kampuchea". " 
The band freaked out when they learned about the Nazis' earlier use of the phrase: 

https://www.bandnameexplained.com/2013/07/new-order-band-name-meaning.html

"After the members of New Order had found out that their band name had a rather charged meaning, they stated profusely that they distanced themselves from Hitler's ideas. Singer Bernard Sumner: 'We really, really thought it didn't have any connotations, and we thought that it was a neutral name, it didn't mean much.’ "


 MusiqueMusique wrote:

Hey, RDO : Communist revolution, not socialist. We have socialists  here in Canada. They run several provinces.They attacks the peasantry with offer management and crop insurance. They even stockpile a Maple Syrup Strategic Reserve. The socialist revolution here also wages war on its citizens by providing universal state ran health care, subsidizing day care and universities and providig funding for the CBC public broadcaster. The current Conservative government party is not socialist, according to most people's opinion. They're fostering free expression by starving the CBC and save Canadians by caring about nothing but oil and building pipelines.
 
USSR = Union of Soviet Socialist Republics
 rdo wrote:
I wonder where Lazy8 saw "outrage" in my comment?  Sorry for not getting more into the irrelevant hairsplitting about how the NKVD in fact became the KGB.  Applauds to Fred for not calling me an evil troll which is a mark of evolution in him.   The name should be changed.  NKVD was responsible for 15 million murders, and there is almost no one who disputes this.  The socialist revolution in Russia was carried out in the express aim of the benefit of peasants —- yet these peasants were the ones who resisted Lenin tthe most and were simply exterminated for that reason.
 
Hey, RDO : Communist revolution, not socialist. We have socialists  here in Canada. They run several provinces.They attacks the peasantry with offer management and crop insurance. They even stockpile a Maple Syrup Strategic Reserve. The socialist revolution here also wages war on its citizens by providing universal state ran health care, subsidizing day care and universities and providig funding for the CBC public broadcaster. The current Conservative government party is not socialist, according to most people's opinion. They're fostering free expression by starving the CBC and save Canadians by caring about nothing but oil and building pipelines.

I wonder where Lazy8 saw "outrage" in my comment?  Sorry for not getting more into the irrelevant hairsplitting about how the NKVD in fact became the KGB.  Applauds to Fred for not calling me an evil troll which is a mark of evolution in him.   The name should be changed.  NKVD was responsible for 15 million murders, and there is almost no one who disputes this.  The socialist revolution in Russia was carried out in the express aim of the benefit of peasants --- yet these peasants were the ones who resisted Lenin tthe most and were simply exterminated for that reason.
 Lazy8 wrote:
rdo wrote:
I have thought about this post a lot (the one to which you replied).  The KGB was a murderous band of thugs, who changed their name from the NKVD which was a genocidal band of thugs.  For Russians this name must be really hard to swallow.  Of course it is meant with irony and perhaps the band is unaware of the significance.  Let me ask you, what if a band named itself The Gestapo, or The SS, The Ku Klux Klan, or Khmer Rouge?

They need to change it, but am open to argument.


Your history is a little wobbly (the NKVD and other agencies merged and separated numerous times until splitting to form the KGB and MVD in the '50s) but the band is fully aware of who the KGB are/were. I don't know their politics but I do know they're from Seattle, where they are a beloved part of the music and dance community.

The statue of Lenin in the background of the cover photo is also in Seattle. Back in the '90s when towns in eastern Europe were toppling statues of communist icons and selling them for scrap an English teacher bought one and shipped it home. When he died it was put on display in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle. It's still there (and for sale if you're interested) and has become something of a local landmark. Seattle is a place where a statue of Lenin isn't necessarily ironic.

KGB (the band, that is) plays and writes a lot of eastern European-influenced music. their album names are all playing off cold war themes and their record label is called Mole Records, but I doubt they are endorsing the Russian KGB. More likely playing off the relaxation of tensions following the end of the cold war, when a band in Seattle (home of defense contractor Boeing, nearby a large Navy base on Puget Sound, and arguably one of the most likely missile targets in North America) could turn an object of fear into an object of irony.

If it really bothers anyone you can contact the band thru their website and let your displeasure be known. You probably wouldn't be the first to get your knickers twisted about their name. If your outrage isn't real outrage, just internet outrage, feel free to hit the PSD button and boycott the band.

You'll be missing some great music tho.

 
Light rather than heat. An unusual thing on RP comments. Thanks for the information and background. 

Irony isn't entirely new in band names. New Order is clearly a reference to 30s fascism, and the band's previous name of Joy Division referred to Jewish sex slaves in concentration camps. If the irony of KGB is offensive, then imagine how much more offensive New Order's irony was in view of the Holocaust. 
 bb_matt wrote:
Beautiful melody in this, but just a 'little' bit repetitive. It needs a counter melody to truly be great. 

 
I agree...Call it a night.
Beautiful melody in this, but just a 'little' bit repetitive. It needs a counter melody to truly be great. 
 paisleydancer66 wrote:
refreshing! Speaking; of names... I am descended in a family that named a son Little Green Berry...

 
Does this mean that YOUR given name is really paisleydancer66?
All potential political/social consequence aside, I find this piece to be quite beautiful!
 Lazy8 wrote:
rdo wrote:
I have thought about this post a lot (the one to which you replied).  The KGB was a murderous band of thugs, who changed their name from the NKVD which was a genocidal band of thugs.  For Russians this name must be really hard to swallow.  Of course it is meant with irony and perhaps the band is unaware of the significance.  Let me ask you, what if a band named itself The Gestapo, or The SS, The Ku Klux Klan, or Khmer Rouge?

They need to change it, but am open to argument.


Your history is a little wobbly (the NKVD and other agencies merged and separated numerous times until splitting to form the KGB and MVD in the '50s) but the band is fully aware of who the KGB are/were. I don't know their politics but I do know they're from Seattle, where they are a beloved part of the music and dance community.

The statue of Lenin in the background of the cover photo is also in Seattle. Back in the '90s when towns in eastern Europe were toppling statues of communist icons and selling them for scrap an English teacher bought one and shipped it home. When he died it was put on display in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle. It's still there (and for sale if you're interested) and has become something of a local landmark. Seattle is a place where a statue of Lenin isn't necessarily ironic.

KGB (the band, that is) plays and writes a lot of eastern European-influenced music. their album names are all playing off cold war themes and their record label is called Mole Records, but I doubt they are endorsing the Russian KGB. More likely playing off the relaxation of tensions following the end of the cold war, when a band in Seattle (home of defense contractor Boeing, nearby a large Navy base on Puget Sound, and arguably one of the most likely missile targets in North America) could turn an object of fear into an object of irony.

If it really bothers anyone you can contact the band thru their website and let your displeasure be known. You probably wouldn't be the first to get your knickers twisted about their name. If your outrage isn't real outrage, just internet outrage, feel free to hit the PSD button and boycott the band.

You'll be missing some great music tho.

 Thanks for pointing out that it's the statue in Seattle, Lazy8.  I've seen that and taken pictures with it, but I didn't analyze the picture on the cover of the album.  I just enjoy the song.


This is one of my favorite songs played on RP and yet another example of one I never would have heard of any other way.  I put it on my iPod, and it always has a calming effect.

{#Meditate}


rdo wrote:
I have thought about this post a lot (the one to which you replied).  The KGB was a murderous band of thugs, who changed their name from the NKVD which was a genocidal band of thugs.  For Russians this name must be really hard to swallow.  Of course it is meant with irony and perhaps the band is unaware of the significance.  Let me ask you, what if a band named itself The Gestapo, or The SS, The Ku Klux Klan, or Khmer Rouge?

They need to change it, but am open to argument.


Your history is a little wobbly (the NKVD and other agencies merged and separated numerous times until splitting to form the KGB and MVD in the '50s) but the band is fully aware of who the KGB are/were. I don't know their politics but I do know they're from Seattle, where they are a beloved part of the music and dance community.

The statue of Lenin in the background of the cover photo is also in Seattle. Back in the '90s when towns in eastern Europe were toppling statues of communist icons and selling them for scrap an English teacher bought one and shipped it home. When he died it was put on display in the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle. It's still there (and for sale if you're interested) and has become something of a local landmark. Seattle is a place where a statue of Lenin isn't necessarily ironic.

KGB (the band, that is) plays and writes a lot of eastern European-influenced music. their album names are all playing off cold war themes and their record label is called Mole Records, but I doubt they are endorsing the Russian KGB. More likely playing off the relaxation of tensions following the end of the cold war, when a band in Seattle (home of defense contractor Boeing, nearby a large Navy base on Puget Sound, and arguably one of the most likely missile targets in North America) could turn an object of fear into an object of irony.

If it really bothers anyone you can contact the band thru their website and let your displeasure be known. You probably wouldn't be the first to get your knickers twisted about their name. If your outrage isn't real outrage, just internet outrage, feel free to hit the PSD button and boycott the band.

You'll be missing some great music tho.
 typeforbreakfast wrote:

um. the band got their name from combining the first initials of each of the founding member's last names: julie king, claude ginsburg, and dave bartley. please for the love of all that is holy, LIGHTEN. UP.



 
And yet the album art and title belie that neat explanation
refreshing! Speaking; of names... I am descended in a family that named a son Little Green Berry...
First I've heard of them but I like what I hear!
it's a fantastic melody, so much intense!
{#Cowboy} It is (K)iller (G)reen (B)ud  {#Chillpill}   Helmholtz wrote:
Normally it would be decent 5, but I rate it 4 because of that silly band name. Those who lived once in communism like me would understand...

 




Love it!!  {#Bananasplit} 
 HearsayDave wrote:
Umm ... If their names all started with a K, then KKK shouldn't be offensive to some?
 
What if the band had six members-- Nick, Ian, Greg, Ryan... you get the picture?  I win
I hear God in this.
Did anyone not too busy obsessing about the name of the band notice that the countermelody being played in the A part is the B part, and vice-versa?

No?

OK then. Just thought that was kinda cool.
Umm ... If their names all started with a K, then KKK shouldn't be offensive to some?
 Gajdzin wrote:
Not a bad tune, but the name of the band and the album cover are disgusting. Would you buy an album called "The Holocaust" by a band called "The Nazis"? I don't see any difference, coming from this part of the world (Poland). KGB were mass murderers, exactly like the Nazis. A little sensitivity wouldn't hurt.

 
um. the band got their name from combining the first initials of each of the founding member's last names: julie king, claude ginsburg, and dave bartley. please for the love of all that is holy, LIGHTEN. UP.


 Proclivities wrote:

Those band names aren't quite as direct in their associations and those associations are almost seventy years old.  This band's name doesn't bother me, but I could see how it could bother people, especially people who may have been directly affected by the KGB, which still existed in the 1990s.

 
I have thought about this post a lot (the one to which you replied).  The KGB was a murderous band of thugs, who changed their name from the NKVD which was a genocidal band of thugs.  For Russians this name must be really hard to swallow.  Of course it is meant with irony and perhaps the band is unaware of the significance.  Let me ask you, what if a band named itself The Gestapo, or The SS, The Ku Klux Klan, or Khmer Rouge?

They need to change it, but am open to argument.


 SmackDaddy wrote:


Do you apply the same thinking to Joy Division and New Order? There such a thing as the ironic use labels known for other reasons.

 
Those band names aren't quite as direct in their associations and those associations are over seventy years old.  This band's name doesn't bother me, but I could see how it could bother other people, especially people who may have been directly affected by the KGB, which still existed in the 1990s.
 Gajdzin wrote:
Not a bad tune, but the name of the band and the album cover are disgusting. Would you buy an album called "The Holocaust" by a band called "The Nazis"? I don't see any difference, coming from this part of the world (Poland). KGB were mass murderers, exactly like the Nazis. A little sensitivity wouldn't hurt.

 

Do you apply the same thinking to Joy Division and New Order? There such a thing as the ironic use labels known for other reasons.
laozilover wrote:
gosh darn it! No buy link!

CDBaby has them, or you can get them from Mole Records.
It's pleasant, but just not good enough.  The mandolin playing is far too elementary
Normally it would be decent 5, but I rate it 4 because of that silly band name. Those who lived once in communism like me would understand...
Niiice! Relaxes me at work.
make it stop!
sooooo beautiful