Electric Six is an American rock band formed in Detroit in 1996. They are known for combining elements of rock, disco, garage rock, metal, new wave, and punk rock. Since achieving widespread recognition in 2003 with the singles "Danger! High Voltage" and "Gay Bar", they have released 20 studio albums, two rarities albums, one live album and one live DVD. Each band member is given a unique stage name. The line-up has undergone changes over the years: co-founder, lead vocalist, and primary songwriter Dick Valentine has been the only constant member. The current line-up consists of Valentine, lead guitarist Johnny Na$hinal, keyboardist Tait Nucleus?, rhythm guitarist Herb S. Flavourings, drummer Dr. Jay and bassist Mr. Poison.
Contents
History
1990s
The band formed in Detroit in 1996 under the name the Wildbunch, but eventually dropped that name due to pressure from English musical collective the Wild Bunch. Throughout the late 1990s, they played regularly at the Old Miami and Gold Dollar clubs in Detroit, the center of a scene that also produced acts like the White Stripes. The band was originally composed of lead singer Dick Valentine (Tyler Spencer), drummer M. (Cory Martin), lead guitarist The Rock and Roll Indian (Anthony Selph), rhythm guitarist Surge Joebot (Joe Frezza), and bassist Disco (Steve Nawara, formerly of the Detroit Cobras).
Valentine has always been the primary songwriter, both music and lyrics, of the band. During the band's temporary split at the end of the 1990s, he formed his own band called the Dirty Shame and released one CD titled Smog Cutter Love Story which featured a rough draft of "Vengeance and Fashion", a song that later appeared on Electric Six's breakthrough album Fire.
2000s
The band had reformed by 2001 to record and release "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.
The 2003 release of "Danger! High Voltage" proved a massive hit for the band, particularly in Britain. The song also garnered attention after a rumor began to spread that the unidentified second vocalist featured on it, officially credited as someone named John S O'Leary, was The White Stripes' frontman Jack White before his band became popular. Although this was presented as fact in multiple sources, Electric Six guitarist Surge told an interviewer who asked about the singer's identity, "It's a fan. We put a competition out, and he won. He's a mechanic, it wasn't Jack White." Bassist Disco then added, "Yeah, he was probably the only person that entered." In another interview, drummer M. said that his lawyer had "advised [the band] to neither confirm nor deny the presence of Jack White". In a video published on his YouTube channel in 2018, Valentine confirmed that White is the secondary vocalist on the song.
The band's 2003 debut 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, reached No. 5 in the UK charts. The song was reportedly inspired by a raucous night out in Detroit's gay club scene with former Crazy Town member Brandon Calabro. 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.
The Rock and Roll Indian, Surge Joebot and Disco all left the band after finishing the recording of Fire in June 2003, leaving Dick Valentine, M, and Tait Nucleus? as the remaining members. Four new musicians joined Electric Six shortly afterwards - lead guitarist Johnny Na$hinal (John Nash of The Volebeats, The Witches and solo effort The Alphabet), rhythm guitarist The Colonel (Zach Shipps, ex member of Brendan Benson, The Atomic Numbers, and Mood Elevator), guitarist John R. Dequindre (Chris Peters) and bass player Frank Lloyd Bonaventure (Mark Dundon), the last two both being ex members of Ann Arbor's whirlingRoad, Getaway Cruiser, and Six Clips. The Colonel had to opt out of early performances due to prior touring commitments. Bonaventure soon left to attain a Juris Doctor degree, and Dequindre consequently switched from guitar to bass.
2010s
On February 14, 2010, Dick Valentine announced via the Electric Six website that the band is in the process of recording their 7th studio album.
Valentine also mentioned that this album would contain a cover song that they have been contemplating for a long time. This cover has since been confirmed as "The Rubberband Man" by The Spinners.
On April 30, 2010, Dick Valentine confirmed at a concert at the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana that the seventh album would be a twelve-track compilation titled Zodiac. It was released on September 28, 2010.
The band's eighth studio album, Heartbeats and Brainwaves, was announced through their official website on June 22, 2011. It was released on October 11. It was the first release of which Johnny Na$hinal served as producer. Previews of five tracks from the album were posted on the band's official Facebook page.
On January 30, 2012, the band announced via their website and Facebook that they were going to release a live album, titled Absolute Pleasure, in late 2012. The album was recorded at shows in Minneapolis and Chicago in May. Absolute Pleasure was initially reported to be a double album, with the first disc containing the entirety of their first album, Fire, and the second containing their "favorite tracks from all the other albums", however, these plans changed in development and the finished product was a single-disc amalgamation of both discs' content." A live DVD of Fire was also going to be filmed at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in London on December 15; however, these plans were cancelled and later revisited as the band's 2013 Absolute Treasure Kickstarter project.
Lead singer Dick Valentine released his first solo album Destroy the Children under the Dick Valentine moniker on May 14, 2012.
On February 16, 2013, the band launched a Kickstarter campaign for a live DVD called Absolute Treasure. The project was intended to give Electric Six the funds to film and release a live DVD of a performance to be filmed on September 7, 2013. The funding was successful.
2020s
In 2021, Cleopatra Records issued an album of covers by Electric Six called Streets of Gold.
The band spent most of 2022 and 2023 touring North America and Europe.
In 2023, the band released Turquoise, Turquoise was their first album of new material since 2018's Bride of the Devil. Work on the album initially began in January 2020, but was interrupted by the Covid pandemic. Though Turquoise was completed in 2022, its release was held for a year to coincide with a U.S. tour.
Electric Six collaborated with Canadian synth-funk band TWRP on their single "VHS" in August 2023, with Valentine providing lead vocals.
The band completed a "Fire 20th Anniversary" tour of the United Kingdom in late 2023, followed by a "Greatest Hits" tour of Australia in mid 2024.
Sound, style, and influences
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".
Critics have termed their lyrics "disaffected, angry, ironic, and lustful", expressing "macho flippancy" and "tongue-in-cheek pomposity". Dick Valentine has estimated that "90% of [their] songs, maybe even higher" are "about absolutely nothing". Songs by Electric Six are often concerned with subjects such as sex, dancing, masculinity, 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".
Commenting on their usual lyrical material while promoting the band's album Switzerland, frontman Dick Valentine said, "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 cited Freddie Mercury, Talking Heads, Falco, Devo, and Captain Beefheart as his musical influences, as well as Black Sabbath, Queen, and Kiss for the rest of the group.
Band members
Discography
Fire (2003)
Señor Smoke (2005)
Switzerland (2006)
I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master (2007)
Flashy (2008)
Kill (2009)
Zodiac (2010)
Heartbeats and Brainwaves (2011)
Mustang (2013)
Human Zoo (2014)
Mimicry and Memories (2015)
Bitch, Don't Let Me Die! (2015)
Roulette Stars of Metro Detroit (2016)
Fresh Blood for Tired Vampyres (2016)
You're Welcome! (2017)
How Dare You? (2017)
Bride of the Devil (2018)
A Very Electric SiXmas (2018)
Streets of Gold (2021)
Turquoise (2023)