Leningrad Cowboys

The Leningrad Cowboys is a Finnish rock band famous for humorously performing rock and roll covers of popular songs, exaggerated pompadour hairstyles, long, pointy shoes, often featuring a Russian military band, the Alexandrov Ensemble. The band was an invention of the Finnish film director Aki Kaurismäki, Sakke Jarvenpää and Mato Valtonen, members of the Finnish pop-punk band Sleepy Sleepers. The band was conceived in a bar in 1986 as a joke on the waning power of the Soviet Union. Jarvenpää and Valtonen expressed their wishes that Kaurismäki would direct their first music video, which resulted in the short film "Rocky VI" (1986). After two further short films, "Thru the Wire" (1987) and "L.A. Woman" (1988), Kaurismäki decided to direct a feature film about them, Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989). In these films they are joined by Nicky Tesco, founding member of the UK punk rock band The Members.