Splean (?????)
Splin (Splean) is a nice band from Petersburg, led by a fellow called Aleksandr Vasilev. The latter is a practising buddhist - which, by the way, isn't very unusual amidst Russian rock musicians. There are hordes of them; "Piknik's" Eduard Shklyarskiy (the guy with the wonderful name, but for me unbearable music) and legend Boris Grebenshikov are only two others.
Splin's name actually comes from the Russian word for 'spleen' (in the sense of 'melancholy', that is - not necessarily the intestine). Their songs are often about that, too, and, yes, drugs. Also, the songs can often seem rather cute, for some reason, like "??? ??????", or "???-??? ???".
Splin regularly figurates in the soundtracks of Aleksei Balabanov's nice films, such as the ???? films ("????? ?????", "?????? ? ???"), and ????? ("????????????? ?????").
Article by : Music to My Ears