Messer Chups

Messer Chups is an experimental band from St. Petersburg, Russia. The band was founded by Oleg Gitarkin who had previously performed with Oleg Kostrow under the name of Messer für Frau Müller. Messer Chups is often considered a "spin-off" band of Messer für Frau Müller. The band was originally a duo of Gitarkin on bass guitar and Annette Schneider who played the synths. During 2000–2002 Messer Chups consisted of Gitarkin and Igor Vdovin on synth. In 2003, the producer of Messer Chups and head of their home label Solnze Records, Oleg Tarasov, invited the world famous theremin player Lydia Kavina to join them. Together they have released several albums and reworked their previous releases. In 2005, Messer Chups became a duo consisting of Gitarkin and ZombieGirl on bass. In 2007, they became a trio, with drummer Denis "Kashey" Kuptzov from the famous band Leningrad. In 2008, they changed their drummer to Alexander Belkok, and Alexander Skvortzov became their vocalist. Messer Chups' music often features a foundation of surf drums on which they build collages of samples from odd sources, like jazz, east European animation soundtracks, and American B-pictures. On top of that they play guitar solos and the theremin. The group's album "The Incredible Crocotiger" was used as the soundtrack for the dating sim Monster Prom.