Electric Six is a six-piece metro Detroit-based band that plays what has been described as a brand of rock music infused with elements of "garage, disco, punk, new wave, and metal." The band met recognition in 2003 with the single "Danger! High Voltage", and subsequently recorded five full-length albums: Fire, Señor Smoke, Switzerland, I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master and Flashy. They have also released a rarities album, Sexy Trash.

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. Throughout the later half of the '90s, they played regularly at the Old Miami and the Gold Dollar in Detroit, the center of a scene that produced breakout acts like the White Stripes.

The band was originally composed of Dick Valentine (Tyler Spencer, vocals), Rock and Roll Indian (Anthony Selph, guitar), Surge Joebot (Joe Frezza, guitar), Disco (Steve Nawara, bass, former member of The Detroit Cobras), and M (Cory Martin, drums). Dick Valentine is and has always been the primary songwriter (both music and lyrics) of Electric Six. During the band's temporary split at the end of the 1990s, Tyler Spencer formed his own band called The Dirty Shame 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.

Mainstream success (2001-2003)

The 2003 release of "Danger! High Voltage" (produced and mixed by Damien Mendis and Stuart Bradbury) proved a massive hit, particularly in the United Kingdom. The single also garnered the band public attention after a rumor 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. Although this was presented as fact in multiple sources, then-guitarist Surge said in an interview:

In another interview, former drummer M. said: "My attorney has advised us to neither confirm nor deny the presence of Jack White."

Still, the rumor persisted that Jack White was featured on the song "Danger! High Voltage." Initially both he and the Electric Six denied this, and the vocal work was credited officially to the unknown John S O'Leary. However, a recent radio interview with Tim Shaw on Kerrang! 105.2 in the UK had Electric Six lead singer Dick Valentine talking openly about White singing on this song as well as speculating on the amount of money he was paid ($60,000).

A Q magazine piece about The White Stripes stated that Jack White did in fact work with Electric Six on the vocals for the song "Gay Bar".

The band's 2003 breakout album Fire (also produced and mixed by Damien Mendis and Stuart Bradbury) 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 big hit as well in the UK, reaching #5 in the charts.

The album made it into several best-of-2003 lists, 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 and tour

After finishing the recording of Fire, three members left in June, leaving Dick Valentine, M, and Tait Nucleus? (Christopher Tait). The Colonel (Zach Shipps, guitar, ex member of Brendan Benson, The Atomic Numbers and Mood Elevator), John R. Dequindre (Chris Peters, bass/guitar) and Frank Lloyd Bonaventure (Mark Dundon, bass) (both-ex members of Ann Arbor's whirlingRoad, Getaway Cruiser and Six Clips) subsequently joined the group, though they had been associated with the group for some time. In time, Johnny Na$hinal (John Nash) joined the group on guitar, Dequindre switched to bass, replacing Bonaventure.

In the spring of 2004, Electric Six played at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.

Señor Smoke (2005)

The band's second album, Señor Smoke, was released in the United Kingdom on February 14, 2005. Since the band had been dropped from their previous American record label, 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." 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; however, Queen guitarist Brian May reportedly liked it.

According to Dick Valentine

Switzerland (2006)

In November 2004, drummer M. called it quits, leaving Dick Valentine as the sole original member of the former Wildbunch. Their new drummer, Percussion World (Mike Alonso), 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, titled Switzerland, in November, 2005 and released it in North America on September 12, 2006. The band intends to record a video for every song on the album, "a lot of them...low budget." At present, eight videos have been released.

I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master (2007)

In May 2007, "Swedish" bassist Smorgasbord! (Keith Thompson, member of Johnny Headband) joined the band, replacing John R. Dequindre on the bass, who reportedly wished to spend more time on his other musical projects.

I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master, Electric Six's fourth studio album, was released October 9, 2007. It has sixteen tracks. In the UK the album was pushed back to the 22nd of October.

16 out of 18 tracks recorded were used on the album. There were no singles in support of this album, however the band have had several music videos produced and spread over the internet for a number of tracks on the album.

Flashy, Sexy Trash and Live Album (2008-Present)

A fifth album, Flashy, was released on October 21 2008. The track titles were announced via the official site and a synth demo of the track "Your Heat Is Rising" (codenamed 'Fuschia'), a mashing together of all the album tracks and the track 'Transatlantic Flight' appeared on the band's MySpace page..^{[citation needed]} Later the songs Formula 409, Your Heat Is Rising, We Were Witchy Witchy White Women, and Lovers Beware showed up, along with a video for Formula 409.

Also, it has been announced by someone who works closely with the band^{[by whom?]} that during their tour they will release a tour-only album called Sexy Trash, featuring 30 unreleased songs.

On April 22, 2009, Dick Valentine announced on stage at a show in Ft. Lauderdale, FL that the band was recording the show for a live album that was being produced by their drummer. Whether or not he was joking remains to be seen.

In May 2009, Metropolis records released "Covered in Gas" by the Evil Cowards, a project by Valentine and Fall On Your Sword's William Bates.

Kill

As announced by an online marketing representative of the band, the title of their next album will be "Sign of the Beefcarver", after a Detroit restaurant.^{[citation needed]} It is slated for release on October 20 2009.^{[citation needed]}

Dick Valentine told the audience at Johnny Brenda's in Philadelphia on April 30, 2009 that the new fall release will be titled "Jared Styles".^{[citation needed]}

However it has been confirmed by the band that the final name for the album will be simply, 'Kill'.

Electric Six incorporates a variety of styles, resulting in being termed a "genre-blurring" band. The group's sound has been described as a synthesis of "disco, synth pop, glam, and arena rock," 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." However, the band members themselves have rejected such genre classifications as "disco-metal" and "disco-punk."^{[clarification needed]}

Critics have termed their lyrics as "disaffected, angry, ironic and lustful," expressing "macho flippancy" and "tongue-in-cheek pomposity." Dick Valentine has estimated that "90 percent of our songs, maybe even higher than 90 percent" are "about absolutely nothing." Songs by Electric Six are often concerned with subjects like starting a war, starting a nuclear war, going to the gaybar, going to the store, human sexual behavior, masculinity, dancing, hypersexuality, fast food 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^[which?] lyrical tendencies in song content with regards to the band's third 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.

—

Valentine cites Freddie Mercury, Talking Heads, Devo, and Captain Beefheart as his musical influences, as well as Black Sabbath, Queen and KISS for the rest of the group.

• Fire (2003)
• Señor Smoke (2005/2006)
• Switzerland (2006)
• I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master (2007)
• Flashy (2008)
• Sexy Trash (2008)
• Kill (2009)

• Electric Six official web site