Urbana Gerila

Urbana Gerila (Serbian Cyrillic: Урбана Герила, trans: Urban Guerrilla) was a former Yugoslav punk rock and new wave band from Belgrade. The band is notable as the participant of the Artistička radna akcija project in 1981. In 1982, the band members formed an ad hoc group Berliner Strasse (Berlin Street), influenced by post-punk and krautrock, performing songs with lyrics in German language.

History

Initially named Punkreteni (Punkmorons), the teenage band existed for less than two years during the early 1980s. Punkreteni consisted of Branko Rosić (bass), Vladimir Arsenijević (guitar), Zoran "Cane" Kostić (vocals) and Slobodan "Loka" Nešović (guitar). All band members were between the ages of 13 and 15. After a few weeks the band changed its name to Urbana Gerila. Nešović soon left to form his own group called Defektno Efektni. Featuring raw sound and drawing lyrical inspiration from, among other things, the events surrounding the activity of terrorist groups such as the Baader-Meinhof Group, Urbana Gerila had its first live performance as part of an event called Palilula Culture Olympics, in 1980, which was one of the first punk performances in Belgrade. Later, the band became a cult attraction, managing to sell out a Zagreb venue Lapidarij despite not having any recordings.