parazity.nn.ru was the official website of the Nizhny Novgorod punk band "The ПараZиты" (rendered in Latin script as The Parazity), active in the first half of the 2000s. The Nizhny Novgorod connection is visible both in the domain, in the nn.ru zone, and in the content of the pages: in announcements the band signed itself "THE ПАРАZИТЫ (Nizhny Novgorod)", its concerts were held at the Nizhny Novgorod clubs "Matritsa" ("Matrix"), "Nautilus" and "ROKKO", and its discs were sold at the Nizhny Novgorod stores "Tak Nado" and "Divizion"[2]. In the nn.ru directory the site was listed as "Official website of the band 'The Parazity'" with the description "Official website of the punk band 'The Parazity'!"[4]. The footer of every surviving snapshot carries the signature "the Parazity, 2002" and "Designed by VSD"[1].

What the site looked like

The earliest surviving snapshot of the home page is dated June 2002. The top menu at that time consisted of the items "Придурки" ("Dumbasses"), "новости" ("news"), "фото" ("photos"), "истори" ("histor", sic in the original), "концерты" ("concerts"), "интервью" ("interviews"), "аудио-видео" ("audio-video"), "приколы" ("jokes"), "форум" ("forum"), "братва" ("the crew"), "ссылки" ("links"), "90-60-90"[1]. The site was not yet finished at that point: the feed held only three posts, the earliest from November 23, 2001 — "Greetings to all punks and the rest of the drunks!!!" — while a post from May 16, 2002, as the home page put it, admitted: "Writing into the void for now... <...> And here we still haven't managed to finish the site!!!". A neighboring note from the same day was addressed to a band member nicknamed Budilnik ("Alarm Clock") and concerned a change of the pages' character encoding[1].

By February 2004 the site had been finished. The menu had changed to "Паразиты" ("Parasites"), "новости" ("news"), "фото" ("photos"), "ПараZиты" ("ParaZites"), "концерты" ("concerts"), "интервью" ("interviews"), "музыка" ("music"), "контакты" ("contacts"), "форум" ("forum"), "братва" ("the crew"), "ссылки" ("links"), "90-60-90"[2]; in a December 2005 snapshot the "crew" section had been replaced by "альбом" ("album") and "дневники" ("diaries")[3]. The home page displayed the latest forum threads along with reply counts — "A war for.... porn is coming", "Tabs for The ПараZит'ы", "Budilnik's birthday", "IRC channel for alternative youth :)" (January–February 2004)[2]. The contact address given was the_parazit@mail.ru, and at the bottom of the page was a request: "We would be glad if you put a button linking to www.parazity.nn.ru on your site"[2].

The band's chronicle in the news feed

The chief value of the surviving snapshots is the dense 2003–2004 feed, which effectively serves as a chronicle of the band. On September 9, 2003, the musicians appeared on the "Bolshaya Stirka" ("The Big Wash") show on ORT, gave a short interview and performed the song "A Kamaz Truck Ran Over My Mother-in-Law"; the episode's airing was announced for September 15[2]. On October 10, 2003, the band performed at Nizhny Novgorod's "Matritsa" together with "Tarakany" ("The Cockroaches"); on November 5 — at the "ROKKO" club (start at 21:00, admission 50 rubles); on November 20 — at the "Costumed Ball of Monsters" at the "Nautilus" club (start at 23:00, admission 60 rubles)[2]. In late November 2003 "ПараZиты" traveled to Yekaterinburg for a concert and began handing out their own pin badges there[2].

Broadcast appearances formed a separate storyline: on January 14, 2004, the song "Vesna" ("Spring") aired on the "Pankomat" program on "Nashe Radio", and in the preceding episode, as the home page reported, "now they're putting 2 Parazity songs in one Pankomat episode"[2]. The song "Pokhmelye" ("Hangover") was included on the compilation "Okhrenitelny" ("Awesome"), "Ya lyublyu zhivotnykh" ("I Love Animals") went into a supplement to the magazine "Ritm Extreme", and an article about the band ran in the magazine "Kruto" ("Cool")[2]. There was also a report of side work for Budilnik in advertising: after a shoot, "his mug can be seen in any transport in Nizhny Novgorod", with photo test shots from a "Megafon" ad posted separately[2].

The central event of the feed was the release of the band's first full-length album, "Voyna za Porno" ("War for Porn"), on February 6, 2004[3]. That same day the "Matritsa" club hosted the "California Punk Fest" with the album's presentation, featuring, alongside the Nizhny Novgorod hosts, "Smekh" ("Laughter") and Hic Salta from Moscow and "Gvalt"; tickets were sold at "Tak Nado" and "Divizion" for 80 rubles, and for 100 on the day of the concert[2]. The site directed wholesale orders of the disc to Moscow, to Preobrazhensky Val 24, building 1, to the label "AiB Records"[3]. Separately it was reported that on April 25 a joint triple punk split by three bands from three cities was released — "Kurki" (Saint Petersburg), The ПараZиты (Nizhny Novgorod), and "Smekh" (Moscow)[2].

Its place in the Nizhny Novgorod internet

The site was registered in the nn.ru directory, in the "Projects: Music" section, and connected to the Counter.nn.ru counter under number 10393. In a directory snapshot from July 8, 2003, the entry read "Rating: 117"[4], and in a September snapshot of the same section — "Rating: 257"[5] — meaning the counter's figure doubled over the summer (on how these numbers work, see the Archival study of the Nizhny Novgorod internet from the counter.nn.ru rating). In the published results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote for 2004 the site does not appear[6]. In the Nizhny Novgorod Internet of the early 2000s, a site like this occupied the place of a music band's home page: a feed of notes, a photo gallery, and a forum, all run by the band members themselves.

How it closed

Judging by the snapshots, updates stopped in the spring of 2004: the last feed entry is dated February 26, 2004, and a snapshot from December 22, 2005, shows the same news item still first in the list[3]. The last snapshot of the site in the web archive is dated September 23, 2008[7]. At the time of our check, the domain parazity.nn.ru no longer responded.

Sources

  1. web.archive.org — Home page, 2002 (archive)
  2. web.archive.org — Home page, 2004 (archive)
  3. web.archive.org — Home page, 2005 (archive)
  4. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, «Projects: Music» section, July 2003 (archive)
  5. web.archive.org — nn.ru directory, «Projects: Music» section, September 2003 (archive)
  6. web.archive.org — Results of the Nizhny Novgorod Internet Day vote, 2004 (archive)
  7. web.archive.org — List of the site's snapshots in the web archive (archive)