So, I've been listening to a band I love, and felt really bad they never got the credit they deserved on a global level.

The band I'm talking about is Ekatarina Velika, a.k.a. EKV. (Named after a Russian ruler, Catherine the Great).

The thing is, if you are from Balkans, the world doesn't really know about you unless you played a major role in our wars, or play sports (Novak okovi (Djokovic) reference :D ).

But since wars are behind us, and this band's music still sounds amazing, and is a testimony of the time when there was a war (in the 90's), I wanted to share their music with you all. Some of you might like it.

Their music depicts a time when things here started to change. Tito died, and Yugoslavia started collapsing. A lot of nations lived here together, and suddenly, hate towards people who were not of your nationality was promoted. The younger generation (the part of it that was not brainwashed, at least) was miserable because of it.

They were hopeless, they did not want to see their friends moved to another country (a newly formed country, I might add) just because their last name was different, or because their great-grandfather was born somewhere else; let alone see them killed for the same reason.

They talked about weltschmerz (world pain) they felt, and made music to let their feelings out.

This was also the time hard drugs first came to this territory, and people had no idea how harmful they were.

The story I personally like the most about this band is the following.

Just before the war in Bosnia started,many musicians gathered in Belgrade, got a truck, and made a mobile concert. They stood in the trailer while the truck rode around the town, and played. They kept repeating ,,Mir, brate, mir!'' ('Peace, brother, peace!').

During the war, many young people left for the USA, Germany, or wherever else they could, in order to save themselves and their families.

But many artists, Milan and Margita, a.k.a. Magi (the pianist in EKV) included, refused to leave. Milan kept saying he could never leave his country (Yugoslavia, not Serbia). So he stayed.

He died in 1994 of pancreas cancer.

Magi was an amazing pianist with opportunities to go to Russia to continue her education. She decided to stay and work on EKV.

She was deeply struck by Milan's death, they were incredibly close.

She was a true bohemian, and a gentle soul. After the 90's she pretty much stopped playing, and has spent her last years in a homeless shelter. She died in 2002. The cause of her death was never public, but it is assumed she died of an infection due to heroin use.

They are the two most famous members of this band.

Most of the people who played in EKV are dead.

But their music lives on.

This is my favorite EKV video, since it was filmed in aSynagogue in my town (Subotica, Serbia) in 1992. I lived a 100m away from it at the time.

And this is my favorite EKV song of all times.

The lyrics are true poetry. I'll translate Sinhro for you.

,I will change the world by the end of this song. I will dance the drunken dance in therhythm of the wind. I will let the Sun melt the love, between the worlds, away from us. I came to take you away, so you wouldn't be afraid,so you wouldn't say 'I'm not here', so you wouldn't close your eyes, so you wouldn't forget word by word. I came to take you to the houses of my ancestors, to tell you there is no night, so you would give up. Desire is hunger is fire. I will change the language, the movement, the body. I will speak the words of someone else's songs. I came to tell you 'Keep me safe'. Your step is my name, keep me safe.I came to take you away, so you wouldn't be afraid.I came to take you to the houses of my ancestors.I came to take you away, so you wouldn't be afraid.'

If you do like this band, let me know, and I'll recommend more songs, translate lyrics, whatever you need. I'd really like to see them get as popular as they deserve to be.

They still are a voice of the oppressed youth in Balkans.

Oh, and if you people like this, I would be more than happy to share more bands from here in the future.