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Since this is now the Electric Six discussion thread, I figure that I better make a proper OP of this. So here goes: Electric Six? The guys who did Gay Bar and that video with the glowing dick and tits? The very same. The band formed in 1996 as The Wildbunch but later became Electric Six, releasing their debut album Fire in 2003. Many would say that they're a dance-funk-electro-rock-sex band made up of six middle-aged men with heavy influences from Devo and Talking Heads amongst others. But they're also funny as hell and never get enough credit from the mainstream media for how intelligent their lyrics and wordplay are. However, that's probably because the mainstream media doesn't realise that they still exist. Yeah, seriously, I thought they had four songs and then vanished. You thought wrong. After Fire came Señor Smoke in 2005, followed by the albums Switzerland (2006), I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master (2007), Flashy (2008), KILL (2009), and Zodiac (2010) with another album on the way. So who are Electric Six? Electric Six is primarily Dick Valentine, who is the charismatic lead singer and sex machine and has been since the very beginning. The current band consists of Dick, The Colonel, Johnny Na$hinal, Smorgasbord!, Tait Nucleus? and Percussion World. The band has gone through many line-up changes over the years with Dick being the only member left from The Wildbunch (although Tait was involved in the making of Fire, and then became a full-time member along with Colonel and Na$hinal prior to Señor Smoke). Previous members include Rock N' Roll Indian, Dr. Blacklips Hoffman and Frank Lloyd Bonaventure. It seems that they're playing near me soon. Should I go see them? GOD YES!!! Electric Six have a well-earned reputation for putting on consistently strong live shows with plenty of entertaining banter, a good selection of songs from the back catalogue, and a party atmosphere amongst the audience who are happy to get drunk, dress as Gaybraham Lincoln and dance the night away. Since they're a band with a relative cult following, they usually play smaller venues which not only makes for an intimate gig but also means that tickets are pretty cheap. So you have zero excuses not to go. Tell me about the new album. Heartbeats & Brainwaves is the eighth studio album, released on October 11th and produced by Johnny Na$hinal. Songs include Gridlock!, Hello! I See You, French Bacon, and Interchangeable Knife. Here's Electric Six to tell you more: quote:In Heartbeats and Brainwaves, Electric Six has created a work of art that confronts these existential crises head-on. All the while it manages to be so entertaining that you completely forget that your limits of time/space comprehension render you completely unable to answer why you are really here. You’re too busy falling in love with Electric Six to realize that you are being hosed with. The band are out on tour in support of the album, with the Hello, Destructor!!!! Tour. Okay, you've got me hooked. Give me something to listen to, for God's sake. Here you go, then. If you have Spotify, check out my Electric Six playlist. (Yes, I know - sadly, SS isn't available on Spotify for some reason. Once it is, if it ever is, I'll add some songs from it, as well as from H&B once it's officially released.) Should I be listening to anyone else at this stage? Other than Electric Six? Hell no! Well, okay, there is one band, who just happen to be Dick Valentine's side project: The Evil Cowards. Yeah, okay, who has Myspace any more? But their official website is a pain in the arse, so this is the best I can do. They have an album called Covered In Gas. If you can find it, buy it; it's one of the best albums that Dick has ever released. If Smorgasbord! is more your cup of tea, he has a band too, called Johnny Headband. Who the gently caress are White Gold & the Calcium Twins? Ah, you've heard the rumours then. Back in 2008, the California Milk Processor Board decided that young people weren't getting enough milk, so they enlisted the help of milk-guitar wielding rock star White Gold who just not-so-coincidentally happened to sound a lot like Dick Valentine (because it was, in fact, the voice of Dick Valentine). White Gold released a couple of music videos and an EP entitled "The Best I Can Give is 2%" which is available on iTunes. Okay, that's settled then. Just one more thing... Yes, Jack White did provide the additional vocal for Danger! High Voltage. The band refused to admit it at the time and the vocals were accredited to a "John S. O’Leary", but it was later found to be White's pseudonym. Valentine has since confirmed White's involvement with the song. ...umm, actually, I just wanted a link to their websites to find out more. Oh right, sorry. Official Website WikiSix - unofficial but in-depth wiki on the band You may now share your eternal love for Dick Valentine and rank their albums from Great to Greatest. BobbyHeenanTinyHat fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Oct 6, 2011 |
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Sep 17, 2010 00:23
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*Possibly* for Jam It In The Hole as they're selling a limited edition 7" vinyl of it at live shows, but I wouldn't be to sure as they are touring and I don't know if time permits. Saying that, they're already working on their NEXT album for 2011, apparently called "Man vs. Internet." So who knows.
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Sep 17, 2010 18:33
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MY BIG GAY WEDDING posted:Hey, so my neighbor is an editor for a blog that posts music stuff like reviews, news, interviews etc., and they got an offer from Electric Six's publicist to interview them at the show in Cambridge, MA next week. I've never written for her before, but she knows I am a huge Electric Six fan so she asked if I'd want to do the interview...of course I said yes. Would love to know if Dick has any new Evil Cowards material planned. I'm curious as to why he didn't use some of the EC songs with E6 instead because a fair few Cowards songs sounded like old school E6 that wouldn't have gone amiss on Flashy or Kill. As for classic E6 songs, there's quite a lot of overlooked stuff. Flashy is pretty weak but I'm surprised that everyone overlooks Dirty Ball. Not a classic but certainly catchy as hell. The same goes for Jimmy Carter from Senor Smoke - not typical E6 but still a great song. In fact, there's a lot of songs like that which I'd stick on a Greatest Hits if one were ever released. Obviously, all the singles would make it and all the songs that videos were made for (except those from Switzerland which'd include half the album), but it'd be criminal not to throw in songs like I'm The Bomb. Also, I'm slightly disappointed that I'm the only one praising The Rubberband Man cover. I wish they'd do more covers because they seem to be pretty good at them.
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Sep 20, 2010 17:03
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They're back in Birmingham, England near the end of the year, which I'm so tempted to attend. Last time, I'd never seen so many fans come in their Gay Bar outfits. At first, it was funny, but it became increasingly surreal as more and more walked past me. Also, whilst I wait for Zodiac, I've been listening back to I Shall Exterminate... and I think the reason why I love it so much, more than all the others, is the lyrics. Whereas Fire is really well-produced and made for radio, Dick peaked lyrically here (but came close on Switzerland) and it came through on Flashy which is not only not as catchy but also a little dull. No lines particularly stand out on any of the songs, whereas I can recite throwaway lines from almost any Switzerland or I Shall Exterminate... songs. I'm hoping that Zodiac returns to that lyrical genius because it's been sorely missed on all except two songs on Kill. EDIT: Also, if anyone wants to spoil the fun early, the album has been leaked. I absolutely adore the album already, American Cheese and Countdown To The Countdown being early favourites. Bold statement, but I'd say that this certainly the best since I Shall Exterminate. BobbyHeenanTinyHat fucked around with this message at 16:39 on Sep 25, 2010 |
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Sep 25, 2010 15:18
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I'm obsessed with Talking Turkey. The line "Happy Thanksgiving, baby" keeps rolling in my head and has done all week. One of the best album finale's they've ever done.
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Oct 1, 2010 16:35
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From http://www.electricsix.com/quote:We are very happy to announce that Dick Valentine (in conjunction with Will Bates of Fall On Your Sword, who also happens to be Dick's partner in Evil Cowards) has written original material, 5 songs in all, which feature as the soundtrack to a brand new original webseries produced by Machinima.com. The series is entitled "Bite Me" (though the E6 song of that name does not feature) and the synopsis is as follows: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuJmEfO2yNI You can hear a bit of one of the songs at 2:57. Hopefully, they make the whole song available somewhere.
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Dec 31, 2010 01:03
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Gridlock is fantastic. Reminds me, I have to get my tickets for their Birmingham, UK show later in the year. Gonna take a friend this time, and introduce them that way.
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Jul 21, 2011 00:33
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In the meantime, here's a new Dick Valentine song for Machinima.com, called "Zombie, Zombie, Skeleton." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSgUySiMybo
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Sep 19, 2011 21:04
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I'm preparing to listen to it now, so I'll reserve judgement, but I'm torn as I originally - and, I suppose, still do - considered I Shall Destroy... to be the best album. Musically, I think that Senor Smoke and Fire are better (the run of songs on SS between Jimmy Carter and Be My Dark Angel is probably my favourite of E6, but the other songs don't do it for me as much), but I still maintain that the lyrics peaked for Switzerland and ISD and that ISD, as a complete album, just feels so much more rewarding and not just a collection of good or great songs. So my order would probably now be: I Shall Destroy... Senor Smoke Fire Switzerland Zodiac KILL Flashy EDIT: And if we're allowed to include Evil Cowards in the equation, I'd slide that one between Fire and Switzerland. I love that album. BobbyHeenanTinyHat fucked around with this message at 22:54 on Oct 1, 2011 |
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Oct 1, 2011 22:50
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Oh I do. I don't listen to Flashy at all any more, because I didn't rate it at the time and I certainly don't rate it now. The worst album they put out, as far as I'm concerned. Two good songs, an album doesn't make (Formula 409 and Dirty Ball).
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Oct 1, 2011 23:23
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PeppermintEgo posted:Random note- Whoever created this thread needs to change the title (if you can do that). Zodiac isn't new anymore! I've tried, but I don't think I can (if I can, I haven't worked out how). Flashy, for me, gets the bottom spot because there's not a single song I'd even consider top 10 in the history of the band. Even KILL had Escape From Ohio which is in my top 5. I just couldn't really get into any song on that album, bar the two aformentioned in a previous post (Dirty Ball is maybe a contender for 10th, maybe...). I really want to like Graphic Designer, but something just puts me off and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe by the time I got to it, I was so put off by the album that it just didn't have the same effect. Who knows. I Shall Exterminate... (ignore I Shall Destroy..., I had the word Destroy in my head for some reason) isn't musically as creative, but there's a ton of great songs on there: Down at McDonnelzzz, Dance Pattern, Riding On The White Train, I Don't Like You, Lenny Kravitz, etc. Lyrically, Dick was spot on at this point. That's also probably why I'm not hot on Flashy, coming from one of my favourite albums from any band of all time to Flashy is a pretty hard comedown. Having said all that, it's Switzerland that conflicts me more than the others, because there are also many great songs on there, and the general sound is still riding on the good times of Fire and SS. It should be so much better than it is, but it just lays smack bang in the middle of my list. I rarely listen to it, or feel like listening to it, yet always enjoy it throughly when I do. It's just one of those albums.
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Oct 2, 2011 13:36
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Harry Privates posted:Fire - Improper Dancing I'd go with this, except maybe I'm The Bomb or Danger! High Voltage instead of Improper Dancing (although that's certainly a favourite). And then I'd outright say that Dirty Ball is my favourite on Flashy, and Night Vision for Switzerland.
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Oct 2, 2011 23:59
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Having listened to Heartbeats and Brainwaves a few times now, I'm going to put it above Flashy, Kill AND Zodiac. It's certainly different in spots, but my initial feeling is that I really like the album for the most part. Gridlock!, Hello I See You and Bleed For The Artist are fantastic (the former two may be my favourite since Escape From Ohio), and there's enough good songs to keep the album listenable. A few duds here and there - Eye Contact does nothing for me - but the hit rate is pretty strong, and that's more than Flashy and Kill. Zodiac was similarly consistent, but Gridlock! is a stand-out that Zodiac didn't have for me, so that pushes it up. So now, my updated order would be I Shall Exterminate... Senor Smoke Fire Switzerland Heartbeats Zodiac KILL Flashy Which means that, if the pattern continues, we should be due an album on par with Switzerland next.
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Oct 3, 2011 16:06
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PeppermintEgo posted:Random note- Whoever created this thread needs to change the title (if you can do that). Zodiac isn't new anymore! Got the thread title changed AND added a new OP with general E6 information. If anything needs adding, let me know.
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Oct 5, 2011 23:52
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Ugh, really not good with names in this thread. I am an Electric Six fan, I swear. Fixed it now.
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Oct 6, 2011 10:07
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I haven't seen this mentioned, so I apologise, but I saw the Electric Six Twitter page plugging a band called Johnny Headband recently and checked out their video: http://vimeo.com/29290662 This is relevant because it turns out to be Smorgasbord!'s other band. Doesn't sound much like E6 at all, but it's still pretty drat good. Makes me want Dick to go out after this record and make another Evil Cowards album. As for H&B, Hello! I See You is now easily my favourite song as I've played it practically non-stop now for a couple of days. I have a soft spot for Gridlock! and Bleed For The Artist, and Interchangeable Knife too, but Hello! is on a par with Escape From Ohio for stand-out tracks that stand up against any E6 song in the back catalogue. I don't hate the electro sound at all. If anyone could pull it off, it was E6, even if Food Dog isn't very good (sorry Gaspar). free snack posted:Don't worry, I never listened to a Evil Cowards song until you said to get it in you OP. Now I can't stop listening to Sex Wars. If you like that, you'll probably like Love Pigs too: http://vimeo.com/6911628 BobbyHeenanTinyHat fucked around with this message at 22:57 on Oct 6, 2011 |
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Oct 6, 2011 22:53
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Jack Trades posted:So, which E6 song hooked you guys up? As typical an answer as it is, it was Danger! High Voltage. From the get-go, I just knew that this was a band that I loved. Yet, I almost completely skipped Senor Smoke at first. As much as I loved Fire and Radio Ga Ga, I had little interest in the album at the time. It wasn't until Switzerland that I really got into the band again and went back to catch up. I've been with them ever since.
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Oct 12, 2011 01:22
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In my love for Hello!, which is yet to die, I finally got to listen properly to the final part of the song and make out the lyrics. "I'm gonna join the cast of your one man show" may now be one of my favourite E6 lines, up there with "calling all girls of the opposite sex" and "I rode a sex wave and washed up on your shore."
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Oct 13, 2011 21:59
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Probably nothing in particular. According to Dick, most songs came about because "I decided I wanted to write a song called _____", and the only song with any real meaning is Hello!, which is about accepting Satan as your ruler.
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Oct 15, 2011 12:16
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Haven't seen this mentioned, so apologies, but Dick Valentine is doing a solo acoustic tour: http://www.o2academybirmingham.co.uk/event/35671/dick-valentine-acoustic--tickets For £7 a ticket, I'm there.
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Dec 23, 2011 21:30
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Jack Trades posted:I know it's early but I wonder when we can expect to hear about this years album. It's better than we could have imagined... Electric Six on Facebook posted:It's 2012, and in the face of the apocalypse Electric Six wants everybody to calm the f$%k down. We've been making records at an alarming rate for years now, and it's time to take a breather. We're getting older, but drat it we're getting smarter. So let's all celebrate that.
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Jan 30, 2012 16:12
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UK FANS UNITE! December 15th, Shepherd's Bush Empire, they're doing a one-off show with the two sets (best-of AND Fire in its entirety) and it will be filmed for the upcoming DVD. Tickets on sale tomorrow.
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Apr 3, 2012 20:15
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If you haven't added Valentine on Facebook, by the way, then you totally should. He's adding everyone and if you leave the right comment or tag him in one, he's pretty awesome in responding. Not only did he reply to mine about all of my friends going to see him live with "You have 183 friends, Jones. Get it done...." but he also decided to read and reply to a completely unrelated comment about Gary Neville as a football pundit with "Neville is a muppet. Neville is a wanker. Neville is a twat. Neville can piss off. Neville is a knob." He probably doesn't even know who Gary Neville is, but it was a super cool thing to do.
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Apr 18, 2012 17:52
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Full UK tour dates have been announced - usual places, usual dates, but it will be the Fire tour so the album will be played in full at each show: Wed 11/28 York UK Fibbers Thu 11/29 Glasgow UK ABC Fri 11/30 Belfast UK Spring & Airbreak Sat 12/01 Dublin IE Academy Mon 12/03 Liverpool UK Academy Tue 12/04 Birmingham UK Academy Thu 12/06 Manchester UK Academy Fri 12/07 Newcastle UK Academy Sat 12/08 Sheffield UK Academy Mon 12/10 Cardiff UK Glee Club Tue 12/11 Brighton UK Concorde 2 Wed 12/12 Bournemouth UK Old Fire Station Thu 12/13 Bristol UK Academy Fri 12/14 Oxford UK Academy Sat 12/15 London UK Shepherd's Bush Empire http://www.electricsix.com/ Weirdly, the tickets are offered as general or VIP... any idea what the VIP entails?
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Apr 29, 2012 21:09
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Not content with a live Electric Six album and a debut solo album, Dick Valentine posted a link to the new Evil Cowards Facebook page 'for the release of their second album "Moving Through Security" available October 2012.' https://www.facebook.com/evilcowardssecondalbum I don't think I could be any happier. The first album is on my all-time favourites list and, in the case of some songs, actually preferable to the middle chunk of E6's catalogue for me.
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Sep 9, 2012 19:04
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Video for Bedford Avenue Wine Distributors... http://youtu.be/uVb5oiF2hdE
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Oct 24, 2012 23:11
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Going to see them in Birmingham tonight. Got VIP, which includes a meet and greet and, supposedly, a 20 minute acoustic session from Dick Valentine. If this is anything less than one of the best nights of my life, I'll be gravely disappointed.
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Dec 4, 2012 10:02
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Had I saw thus earlier, I'd have picked one up from the Merch stand. Had I saw one. They're selling CDs for Dick, EC and E6. Can't remember if I saw any vinyl. I'm at the Birmingham gig now. The meet and greet was just walking up to random band members and hoping for the best. Dick was very cool and approachable, even if he did say I looked like Mark Cuban. Got a picture, plus signed poster and laminate, and he did a 20 minute acoustic set with two E6 songs, two solo songs and an Evil Cowards song. For the money and experience, it was well worth. I'll report on the gig itself later.
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Dec 4, 2012 20:23
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Electric Six and Evil Cowards were £10 each. Valentine's solo is £5. T-shirts are £20. The gig was great, by the way. You'll have lots of fun.
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Dec 7, 2012 06:15
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It got funded last night, I think. They're up to $26,085 now, with 40 days still to go, AND they've added two more cover song packages, one of which is already gone. I hope they make close to $40,000 and do something really special with it. I'll be backing the blu-ray/poster pledge next week. Some really great stuff on offer that I wish I were able to get in on before it went.
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Feb 21, 2013 13:51
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Good news for Spotify users:quote:Hi Mitchell Jones Nice of them to let me know.
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May 23, 2013 16:04
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It's been a while, so let's catch up. Electric Six's next album is called Mustang and is out in October. There is a listening party on Sept 5th (two nights before the Absolute Treasure filming) at Small's in Hamtramck, Michigan. New North American dates have been announced for Sep/Oct in support of the new album. Tickets for the DVD filming are still available: http://concerts.livenation.com/even...mfeedbuyat97249 There is also a(nother) kickstarter for a documentary called It Came From Detroit, going over garage rock from Detroit with music from E6, The von Bondies, The go and others, and interviews with Dick Valentine. It reached its target already, but may be of interest to y'all. http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/plusoneproductions/it-came-from-detroit-0
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Jul 3, 2013 14:07
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Dick was on Red Eye again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69IzMxkgOFo
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Feb 4, 2014 22:21
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NEW ALBUM ALERT: Human Zoo, released in October. Also, has anyone checked out Dick's new 'porn-noir novella', Chinatown Reacharound? It sounds very much like a song that would be sung about in a game of Greatest Hits on Whose Line Is It Anyway?, but if anyone here can recommend it then I'm intrigued to get a copy and check it out.
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May 17, 2014 00:02
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The only song standing out to me so far is Two Dollar Two for the Aerosmith-esque parts. Otherwise, it's a bit hit and miss with emphasis on the miss. Not overly sold on the production either but I may just be hearing things.
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Oct 2, 2015 18:45
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I decided to go back, on a whim, to Spotify to listen to some Electric Six albums. Am I an apologist grasping onto anything to keep E6 relevant in my heart, or has Heartbeats and Brainwaves aged quite well considering the so-so reaction it got when it was released? Hello! I See You is on par with the best stuff they've ever done and Bleed For The Artist, Gridlock! and Interchangable Knife were interesting enough. The latter, in particular, is still a weird song to associate with them and yet it is perfectly listenable. I don't have this feeling so much with Zodiac: even though the songs themselves are probably better, I could barely remember two songs off the top of my head from that album. Heartbeats though, for me, feels like the last really decent album they've made, tipped over the edge by Hello!, which to me is like Escape From Ohio on KILL in terms of a modern classic E6 staple. Anyway, long story short: Heartbeats, better than I remember it being.
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Feb 11, 2016 12:57
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New album, Oct 7th, called Fresh Blood for Tired Vampyres. 1. Acid Reducer 2. Number of The Beast 3. Mood Is Improving 4. I'll Be In Touch 5. Lottery Reptiles 6. Dance WIth Dark Forces 7. Skin Caboose 8. My Dreams 9. Greener Pastures 10. I Got The Box 11. Lee Did This To Me 12. The Lover's Pie 13. Space Walkin' Also, doubling the love of that Obsession cover. That could have jumped onto any recent album and instantly improved its quality.
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Jul 29, 2016 19:41
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Are they running out of money? Do we need a Kickstarter for them to buy some new equipment? I think, listening on my Sonos, that this album is slightly better than the last but it's still beginning to dip into a low-rent garage band sound, which isn't a compliment. And that's a shame because if the production of I Will Exterminate... was on this album, it would sound drat good! The music is absolutely there, the best since H&B, if not better as a complete package. With better mixing and a fuller sound as opposed to a lounge singer band, I'd already have this in the - dare I say - mid to top half of my E6 album ratings.
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Oct 14, 2016 15:57
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