SPORT SUCKS (SPORTAS)

Do you know that GRUPĖ SPORTAS have NOTHING TO DO with the real sport?!


The band “Grupe Sportas” (in English it means "The Sport") had played in a large number of concerts (more than one hundred) which took place in various Lithuanian clubs and festivals.

„Grupė Sportas“ is especially loved by Lithuanian students and youth. Search for Grupe Sportas on a youtube if you do not believe! :)

The band was formed in year 2001 by the vocalist and well known Lithuanian underground „hero“ - avant-garde musician and programmer - Marukqs (Marukas). The first steps of the band were made in underground festivals. Marukas claims that he was influenced by Sex Pistols, Kraftwerk, soviet comedy, 80-ies dance music, Monthy Python, Pedro Almodovar, Hayao Miyazaki cartoons, The Residents and Japanese rock.


Boring story:

On the year 2002 free downloadable „postpunkish“ records appeared on the internet. With deep, cynic lyrics, simple melodies, funky music and expressive mad vocalist of the band were great success not just between indie music lovers, but also by regular students, which were hungry for the fun, rock and dance. The band „Grupe Sportas“ took place on the Lithuanian national TV (LTV) song contests many times and once they were lucky and won the first prize on the year 2004 with their song „Policija“ („Police“).

On the year 2005 the band had released their first radio single „Beibi“ ("Babe"), which was played on small national radio stations and it was the soundtrack of the movie „Perspektyvi pora“ („Perspective couple“, director Kęstutis Gudavičius) which had a great success in „AXX“ cinema festival (thousands of people viewed this movie on local cinema theaters). The adventures of the leader of the band Marukas where described on the book of Nerius Pečiūra „Vilniaus kiberpoema“ ("The cyberpoem of Vilnius"), which was sold in biggest Lithuanian bookstores.

BLOOD, SEX, BUDDHISM AND SCANDALS:

On the spring of year 2005 local newspapers described a love story of Marukqs and his painter gothic girlfriend and underground artist Twiggy, which was using a human blood to paint her pictures. On the same year Marukqs has quit alcohol and now he is healthy life living atheist with sympahties to Confucianism and Buddhism.

On the year 2009 the band wrote the song which title translation was, ups... pardon my French :D, "I put my dick on the crisis" ("Bybį dėjau aš ant krizės"). The song was just a primitive shouting of provocative phrases.


Marukqs claimed for some crazy acts like painting the face in dirty colors, wearing makeup imitating beaten face, playing on the stage wearing only pantaloons, imitating to cut his penis on a concert (a comedy act using a piece of pink foam), crazy vibrating his voice and performing "Jan Curtis" dance. He has wide 3.5 octaves range voice and he can sing both male and female vocal parts, growl, scream and imitate the Mongolian throat-singing style. Marukas has suffered heavy lung disease pleuritis because of his heavy lifestyle, but then successfully rehabilitated and now he is attending classical music singing lessons to add more colours for his Depeche Mode and Sex Pistols influenced voice. Once Marukqs felt depressed with the music. He has spontaneously decided to quit the music forever and sold all his hardware for cheap. "Then I had to buy everything again. I am really sorry for this..." - Marukqs remembers this pathetic act.

Andrew Katinas is a creative guitar player of the band. He has entered the band on year 2007. This young fellow has faked his real age when trying to enter the band (at that time he was just 16 years old, and the minimum requirement was at least 17). It was quite a surprise for Marukqs when Katinas has announced that he celebrates his 17 year birthday the second time. While heavily influenced on "Led zeppelin", "Audioslave" and "Depeche Mode", Andrew really loves to experiment with his guitar. The weird thing about him is that he is a big fan of the heavy metal band "Gorky Park".


On the year 2006 the band has released their radio single „Ūdra“ ("Otter“). The lyrics of this song describes a girl which looks like an otter (a small predator animal which lives in Lithuanian rivers) and which is riding a trolleybus "Solaris“ (paradoxical reference to Andrey Tarkovsky movie title and Czech trolleybus brand name). The melody of this song references to Vietnamese folk and 80-ies electronic music.

After the great success of the band in Latvian radio stations and concerts in Riga and Liepaja the album „Žemiau juostos“ („Below the belt“) was released. Young guitarist Andrius Katinas (he just graduated his musical education school) and experienced drummer with Brazilian and Russian blood in his veins Seržas did a big help for making the band's face. Marukqs now sings, plays the bass and turns knobs on his keyboard.

Music style:

Disco-funk-electro-punk-synthrock. The mix of power chords and disco. Satiric, aggressive and intelligent TRUE MUSIC FROM THE HEART AND BRAINS.