Pitchfork

It sounds like the setup to a bad joke: Mickey Mouse and Joseph Stalin drop some E and walk into a downtown L.A. rave. But the joke's on Joe, it seems, as some top-shelf dance musicians are sticking it to the long-departed murderous Communist dictator.

May 26, at Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall, the likes of Amon Tobin, Cut Chemist, DJ Spooky, Peanut Butter Wolf, J-Rocc of the Beat Junkies, and Dublab Soundsystem will perform remixes of the works of Stalin-era Russian classical composers 'til first light. They're calling it PRAVDA: Shadow of Stalin, and if it doesn't exactly sound like a blast just yet, read on.

PRAVDA-- named for the communist Soviet newspaper-- is meant as a celebration of the idea of artistic endeavors flourishing in an otherwise oppressive sociopolitical climate; hence, the night's focus on the works of Shostakovich, Prokofiev, and Mosolov, three composers who worked during Joseph Stalin's thirty-year reign as General Secretary of the Soviet Union. The KCRW-sponsored all-night event's music will be complemented by visuals from iconic Russian films, live onstage painting, and video projections by MC This.

A couple days before, on May 24, DeVotchKa and special friends Petra Haden and Saul Williams take the Disney Concert Hall stage to interpet Russian chanson tunes.

I'm sure all the nice people involved would like us to reiterate the event's fervent lack of endorsement of Stalin's regime, so there it is.