Soviet Rock Panel Discussion

Meet key players in the Soviet rock ‘n’ roll and punk scenes as they join us online for a panel discussion, moderated by Ned Raggett, music journalist whose writing credits include Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, NPR Music, Daily Bandcamp and the Quietus. Participants are musicians Yuri Kasparyan (Kino), Vitia Sologub (Strannye Igry), Afrika Bugaev (Pop Mekanica), Garik Sukachev (Brigada S), and Joanna Stingray, a recent Cold War Spaces guest, in conversation with former Leningrad rock journalist Alex Kan.

This program is presented in conjunction with Stingray’s newly published memoir, Red Wave: An American in the Soviet Music Underground. Her book details unknown stories of the legendary musicians of Soviet Rock including Viktor Tsoi and Boris Grebenshchikov, her improbable Cold War heroics as a young New Wave Musician of the Soviet rock scene, and how in 1985, she produced Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the USSR with music by her friends that she had smuggled to the West. Her testimony of fortitude and rebellion is also a love story and proof of the power of music and youth culture over stagnancy and oppression. You can learn more about the book and purchase it through DoppelHouse.com.