Like most enigmatic weirds, Eugene Slonimerov is hard to get a hold of. Like, real hard. While some unenigmatic nonweirds, like, say, me, respond to emails within fourteen seconds of transmission, Eugene wandered over to a computer eleven days after Kate Carraway wrote him. But no matter - the kid can provide a messily illuminating explication on his band in one fell swoop. From the horse's mouth:

'œRozasia is a new (circa Dec '05) band from Toronto, Canada. Most people of Rozasia live in a house on Major Street with one non-band member called DJ Wes Allen, so it's always a discotheque, but they have an apartment in Moscow, Russia. The air is better there in the summer. The members with long hair don't live in the house on Major Street.

'œThe band is named after the skin condition, not the turtle. The unofficial CD-R EP will be released later this year on a vinyl record. You can buy the CD-R at Rozasia shows for $5. It looks, feels and sounds great! We have financial backers we can't disclose. They
like the recordings very much.

'œYou can listen to Rozasia on www.myspace.com/rozasia, but it's missing one track and lots of overdubs and the mastering. The EP was recorded by Matt Smith with two room microphones in a bigger room and some overdubs at home, in the bathtub.

'œThe language of Rozasia is a culmination and a combination of various Esperanto, foreign and second languages. The music of Rozasia epitomizes the post-millennial post-angst experience of first and second generation Canadian recording artists in collaboration with white trash rock'n'roll and punk music Canadian recording artists. We call this music "Lore Gore" or "Cancon Can-Can" or "Do it!"

The music is like this:

Dave Clarke - drums
Robin Fry - guitar
Jon McCurley - bass, vocals
Alia O'Brien - flute, vocals
Eugene Slonimerov - guitar, vocals
Matt Smith - percussion/etc

'?You can also say: Rozasia is a collective brainchild of flagstone members of Toronto's vibrant independent music community. But only because members of Rozasia could be (or in some cases "could have been") heard live or on record with many other Toronto bands, such as:
Rasta in Pasta, Lunchmeat, Deloro, Jon-Rae and the River, Les Mouches (RIP), Nifty, John Wayner, Damo Suzuki Network (The local chapter), Lenin i Shumov (RIP), Minsk Mensk, Disgrimination, Blood Ceremony, Swing Hajj, and Permafrown.

Rozasia also invites guest musicians, guest appearances so far have included: Ashley Long (Rasta in Pasta) and Mark Roberts (Broken Tree Fort/Swing Hajj).'?

by Kate Carraway