Electric Six

Electric Six is a six-piece Detroit-based rock band that plays a mixture of "garage, disco, punk, new wave, and metal."All Music Guide: Electric Six: Band overview. The band met underground recognition in 2001 with the single "Danger! High Voltage," and subsequently recorded three full-length albums: Fire, Señor Smoke, and the upcoming Switzerland.

Biography

Formation and the Wildbunch years

The band formed in 1996 and was initially known as The Wildbunch, eventually dropping that name due to pressure from the Bristol trip hop collection of the same name."Sax as a Weapon: You Didn't Know that Rock 'n' roll Burned", by Amy Phillips, April 2 - April 8, 2003, The Village Voice. Throughout the latter half of the '90s, they played regularly at the Old Miami and the Gold Dollar in Detroit,Meet the Electric Six from the official website. the center of a scene that produced breakout acts like the White Stripes."The White Stripes: Candy Coloured Blues - Unauthorized", The New York Times, 2003.

The band's first formation was comprised of Dick Valentine (vocals), Rock and Roll Indian (guitar), Surge Joebot (guitar), Disco (bass, ex member of Detroit Cobras), and M (drums). Dick Valentine (real name Tyler Spencer) is and has always been the primary songwriter (both music and lyrics) of Electric Six."Fanning the Fire: Boozing with the boys of Electric Six", by Eve Doster, Metrotimes December 25, 2002. During the band's temporary split at the end of the 1990s, Tyler Spencer formed his own band called The Dirty Shame"Dick Valentine, Musician, Electric Six", Gothamist, June 9, 2006. and released one CD entitled Smog Cutter Love Story which featured, among other tracks, a first version of Fire track "Vengeance and Fashion." The band reformed by 2001 to record and release the first release of "Danger! High Voltage" and record the track "Dealin' in Death and Stealin' in the Name of the Lord" with Troy Gregory for his Sybil album.Troy Gregory: Sybil, from Fall of Rome Records official website.

Mainstream success

The 2001 release of "Danger! High Voltage" was an underground hit, particularly in the United Kingdom. The single also garnered the band public attention after word got out that a pre-fame Jack White from The White Stripes sang backup vocals on single track "Danger! (High Voltage)" when it was recorded.Pitchfork Record Review: Danger! High Voltage EP

The band's 2003 breakout album Fire earned the group significant critical success, landing the "Danger! High Voltage" single at number 2 on the UK singles chart. Their second single, "Gay Bar", released in 2003, became a hit as well in the UK, reaching #5 in the charts.

The album made it into several best-of-2003 lists,Metacritic: Best of 2003Best in Music 2003, FREEwilliamsburg: The Williamsburg Brooklyn Culture Guide, December 2003 - Issue 45.Favorite Music of 2003, Perfect Sound Forever music magazine. as well as reaching the top 10 in the UK album chart, and another single "Dance Commander," which gave Electric Six its third Top 40 single in the UK.

Lineup changes

After finishing the recording of Fire, three members left in June, leaving Dick Valentine, Tait Nucleus?, and M. The Colonel (Zach Shipps, guitar, ex member of Brendan Benson and Mood Elevator), John R. Dequindre (Chris Peters, bass/guitar) and Frank Lloyd Bonaventure (bass) subsequently joined the group, though they had been associated with the group for some time. Clocked In: Don't You Want to Know How They Keep Starting Fires?, Ann Arbor Paper, Volume 2, Issue 2: September. In time, Johnny Na$hinal joined the group on guitar, Dequindre switched to bass, and Bonaventure left the group.

Señor Smoke

The band's sophomore album, Señor Smoke, was released in the UK on February 14, 2005. Since the band hadbeen dropped from their previous American record label,NY Rock Confidential by Jeanne Fury. a North American release of the album was delayed until February 7, 2006, when it came out on Metropolis Records.

The first single from the album put the band at the center of controversy, especially with Queen fans following a cover of the Queen hit song "Radio Ga Ga.""Electric Six Upset Queen Fans With Radio Ga Ga Video", ContactMusic.com, November 24, 2004. The controversial music video shows lead singer Dick Valentine as the ghost of Queen's flamboyant lead singer Freddie Mercury and a backing band of poodles. Queen drummer Roger Taylor, who wrote the song, said that he was "unimpressed" with the video;"Queen 'unimpressed' by Electric Six video", Kerrang!, December 3, 2004. however, Queen guitarist Brian May reportedly liked it."Electric Six Go Radio Ga Ga", XFM Online.

Recent developments and new album

In November of 2004, drummer M. called it quits, leaving Dick Valentine as the sole original member of the former Wildbunch. Their new drummer, Percussion World, has been affiliated with the band and its members for some time, and has been named as a permanent member of the band.

Electric Six finished recording their third major album, entitled Switzerland, in November, 2005. The release date for North America has been set for September 12, 2006. The band intends to record a video for every song on the album, "a lot of them...low budget."

Sound and style

Electric Six incorporates a variety of styles to form a unique sound, resulting in being termed a "genre-blurring" band."Electric Six Revitalized and Ready to Hit the Road", ChartAttack.com, June 6, 2006. The group's sound has been described as a synthesis of "disco, synth pop, glam, and arena rock,"All Music Guide: Review of Señor Smoke. including the falsetto vocals of disco, laden with "rampant solos, be they guitar riffs, synth wails, or strutting drums" that enforce the band's "energetic sound.""Electric Six" at Epitonic.com. However, the band members themselves have rejected such genre classifications as "disco-metal" and "disco-punk.""Detroit's Burning" by Matt Schild, Aversion.com, June 11, 2003.

Critics have termed their lyrics as "disaffected, angry, ironic and lustful,""Rocking through the pain", by Eric F. Lipton, The Daily Page, March 23, 2006. expressing "macho flippancy" and "tounge-in-cheek pomposity."All Music Guide: Review of Fire. Songs by Electric Six are often concerned with subjects like nuclear war, human sexual behavior, masculinity, dancing, and fire (The band's official biography states that their debut album Fire was so named because they "noticed an abundance of the word fire on this record and...decided to go with it."). Lead singer Dick Valentine had commented on these tendencies in song content with regards to the band's new album:

for the first time, none of the songs have the word "dance" or variation of "dance" in the title. But fear not. We have songs with "drugs" and "girls" and "tonight" and "night" and "louder" and "party" in the title, so we haven't given up on our philosophy just yet.[http://www.electricsix.com/archive/2006_01_01_archive.html#113769687042051658 Frequently Asked Questions 2006: January 19, 2006, from the band's official site.

Discography

Image:Electricsix.fire.jpg|

Fire
(2003) Image:Electric six - senor smoke.jpg|Señor Smoke
(2005/2006) Image:Switzerland.jpg|Switzerland
(2006)

Trivia

Electric Six became minor Internet celebrities in 2003 due to a pair of unofficial online music videos for "Gay Bar." One, featuring kittens in viking helmets singing the song, was animated in Flash by Joel Veitch of Rathergood.com. The other, created by ATMO, was comprised of pieced-together clips of public appearances by George W. Bush and Tony Blair. The clips and music were juxtaposed in such a way as to make it appear, to humorous effect, that Bush and Blair were singing and gesticulating along to the song (video clip).
The woman featured in the "Danger! High Voltage" video is Tina Kanarek. She is an actress from Toronto in Canada and was 70 at the time of the video shoot.PopMatters Music Review: Fire by Stephen Haag, May 30, 2003.

References

External links

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