City Has an Underground but No Metro

Fourteen train-hours northeast of Moscow sits the sleepy city of Kirov. A military industrial center firmly closed to outsiders until the mid-1980s, Kirov is slowly readjusting to a new way of life, stirred by the changes taking the capital city by storm.Little would local radio surfers know that a proper twist of the dial might land them a rare gem -- recordings from bands like Mudhoney, the Supersuckers, and Nation of Ulysses. If the names do not sound familiar, you probably have never traveled the depths of the Western underground music scene. If they do, Kirov's tiny enclave of non-standard programming might prove music to your ears.Kirov is home to Relax Radio, one of two independent radio stations serving the listening needs of the 800,000 or so people in Russia's Novovyatsky region. And do not be fooled by its somewhat soporific name: Relax Radio is one of the country's most progressive broadcasters. Since going on the air last July, 71.8 FM has sent a daily dose of the most outr? in Western alternative music out over a 70-kilometer radius. Muscovites can try to pick up the broadcasts on shortwave. Although a majority of the station's air time is spent spinning more standard fare -- a necessary nod to advertisers and sponsors -- Relax is fast earning a reputation for its welcome look beyond the everyday. "We try to avoid the commercial mainstream, but we have to do certain things to keep from going hungry," said Andrei Mukhin, 24, one of the station's six disc jockeys. "But we try to get people to listen to indie music" -- music released on independent labels -- "by playing it from time to time in between regular songs."Subliminal programming is not the station's only tactic. The final hour of every broadcasting day -- days run from noon to 8 P.M. Sunday through Friday and noon to 10 P.M. Saturday -- is given over completely to alternative music, with the DJs indulging their particular listening whims in regular weekly shows. Anything from Manchester rave to a '60s rock library is likely to be heard. Mukhin, whose clean-cut appearance and impeccable manners belie his taste for musical deviance, is himself an indie fan. His own weekly "Mechanical Shark" program -- named in honor of a cryptic sign-off from a Boston pen pal -- is an almost academic attempt to acquaint his listeners with the distant and murky world of indie music. Broadcast Mondays from 7 to 8 P.M., Mukhin -- who goes by the on-air name of Murmansky, in tribute to his arctic childhood home -- spins music and tells tales of groups that even radio listeners in the West rarely get a chance to hear."People don't know anything about these bands," said Mukhin, who for each program concentrates on a theme, usually geographical, in indie music: bands from New York or Seattle or Boston, for example. "I play the music, but I also talk about the groups as much as I can, trying to make it as understandable and interesting as possible."Mukhin, whose particular love is Washington bands -- he lists Fugazi, Minor Threat and Shudder to Think as personal favorites -- is a teacher at heart. After graduating from Kirov's pedagogical institute, he taught English at a local school. He gave it up last Christmas in favor of Relax Radio, but he still takes a scholarly interest in collecting and disseminating information on indie music.He began writing over two years ago to American "fanzines" -- magazines focusing on specific groups -- and built up a stockpile of information, demo cassettes and CDs, all through the less-than-trusty Russian mail. To the 100 letters he sends out a month, he said, he gets roughly a 10 percent reply."I think what we're doing is unusual, because as far as I can see there is no station in Russia that plays totally underground music," said Mukhin, who said the station hopes to ultimately stretch its broadcasting day to 24 hours. "I'll play anyone, even if they've just released their first demo."