Stinking Lizaveta

After four album releases and 10 years of touring around the country blitzing audiences with their famously dynamic live shows, Philadelphia's instrumental power trio Stinking Lizaveta (named for a Dostoevsky character) has become an institution of sorts in the US underground music scene. Their eclectic style of music incorporates post-rock, metal, sludge, prog, stoner and doom with jazz stylings and eastern influences. RockDetector's book, 'History of Stoner, Goth, and Doom', categorizes their music as 'doom-jazz', a label that the band have taken to citing when asked to describe their music.

Stinking Lizaveta's numerous fans include Steve Albini, who recorded and mixed their debut album, '...hopelessness and Shame', in his basement back in 1996. Their first three albums were released on the now-defunct Tolotta label (Spirit Caravan, The Obsessed, Dead Meadow, Othrelm) run by Fugazi bass player Joe Lally. An invitation from Steve Albini brought the band their European debut performance at the UK All Tomorrow's Parties festival in March 2004, where they played a storming set that created a sizeable stampede to their merch table.

The trio comprises brothers Yanni and Alexi Papadopoulos on guitar and electric upright bass and Cheshire Agusta on drums. Yanni elicits an impressive range of sounds from his electric guitar, from heavy Sabbath-y riffs to graceful winding melodies, with periodic departures into stoner groove territory. He also provides the only 'vocals' on the album by singing/screaming into the pickups of his guitar to create an eerie howling noise. Alexi also gives his electric bass a versatile workout, using fingers, bow and effects pedals to create an array of different sounds and moods - from the heavy doom of 'Side Naked' to the light jazziness of 'Someone’s Downstairs'. All of this is underpinned by the inventive drumming of Cheshire Agusta, who combines 'pile-driven polyrhythms', dextrous cymbal work and complex fills to keep things varied and exciting.

The band's fourth album was released in 2004 by At a Loss Recordings in the US, and Monotreme Records in the UK/Europe. In September of 2005 Stinking Lizaveta spent two and a half weeks on tour with Clutch being the only opening band, each night getting an overwhelming response from audiences of hundreds of people.

In April 2007, the band played at the Roadburn festival in Holland. In May 2007, they began a US tour with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum.