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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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I know nothing about the album except that it's almost out, but it should be noted that they're currently touring and, for anyone in the Detroit area, they're doing a show at the DIY street fair in Ferndale on Saturday. The reason why this is important is that the show's free~  Also, I would definitely say that the band's stayed relatively good over the years. Though I'm not a fan of Switzerland or Exterminate, Flash and Kill are two of my favorites by them.
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Sep 17, 2010 02:31
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I posted this in the last Electric Six thread. It's still relevant, although admittedly, KILL was a significantly better album than Flashy. I'd say it was about even with I Shall Exterminate... Also, who the gently caress likes Flashy and KILL more than Switzerland? Switzerland had Night Vision, Slices of You, and Infected Girls. The only songs anywhere near that good on the last album are Escape from Ohio and Steal Your Bones. I'm still stoked to see them in a couple of weeks. I pretty much can't ever miss an Electric Six show because Dick Valentine is the loving man. His on-stage antics are amazing.
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Sep 17, 2010 03:51
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I Will Exterminate... is almost as good as Senor Smoke. Kill had a few good songs but Flashy was terrible other than Gay Bar Part 2
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Sep 17, 2010 04:56
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I think the Six have had consistently awesome albums which is an impressive feat consdering they've made one every year for seven years now. And yes, if they are playing remotely near you you absolutely need to go.
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Sep 17, 2010 05:00
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Hosenose posted:I Will Exterminate... is almost as good as Senor Smoke. Kill had a few good songs but Flashy was terrible other than Gay Bar Part 2 Yeah nah, Dirty Ball was great, as were Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart and Transatlantic Flight. No comment on the rest of it though. It wasn't a lovely album by any means but they've proven themselves to be capable of much better than that.
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Sep 17, 2010 05:26
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M1TCH3LL posted:After Hours - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CTmNfzUXQM Whole lot of people here only looking at the past. I already love this song.
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Sep 17, 2010 08:35
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Hosenose posted:I Will Exterminate... is almost as good as Senor Smoke. Kill had a few good songs but Flashy was terrible other than Gay Bar Part 2 I like every song on Flashy excepting Making Progress (Oh it's an Electric Six song that's slow with non-energetic instruments, and it's lacking Dick Valentine's voice? No?) while on Switzerland I only like Aggro posted:Night Vision, Slices of You, and Infected Girls much more than being listenable. That said, I haven't listened to it in a while, and I only listened to Exterminate once or twice and I might have had a bit of the "It's not Senor Smoke" going on, so I'll probably relisten soon. Wazzu posted:Whole lot of people here only looking at the past. I already love this song. Honestly, I'm not going to tease myself and am going to wait the extra week so I can just listen to the cd in a straight shot.
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Sep 17, 2010 09:50
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KILL reached the dizzying heights of Senor Smoke in my objective world which all others must live by. And holy moley After Hours is awesome.
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Sep 17, 2010 09:51
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If you don't like every Electric Six song, get the gently caress out.
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Sep 17, 2010 14:28
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Dick Valentine posted:If you don't like every Electric Six song, get the gently caress out. White Train and White Eyes sound almost identical 
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Sep 17, 2010 14:50
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Dissapointed Owl posted:White Train and White Eyes sound almost identical Uh no?
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Sep 17, 2010 15:04
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ES is playing in Nashville on October 9th, and I've been looking for a concert to hit up nearby for the last few weeks..... Now I just have to convince my friends to go 
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Sep 17, 2010 16:31
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I'm most likely seeing them next week (maybe twice), and can't wait to hear the new stuff. Missed seeing them over the summer (which my friend tells the show he saw sucked, which is disheartening), but its been almost a year since I've seen them last and a year since I've stalked the band. But yeah these guys make awesome music, and are awesome people (especially The Colonel), so go see them live if they come anywhere close to you.
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Sep 17, 2010 17:12
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Dick Valentine posted:Uh no? I meant they both sucked. I can't wait for this album. I really liked both Kill and Flashy and those seem to be the least popular ones, so I'm sure I'll love this. Also, they're incredible live. And very nice.
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Sep 17, 2010 17:52
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I can't wait to hear the rest of Doom and Gloom and Doom and Gloom. Does anyone know if they are going to shoot any videos for this album?
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Sep 17, 2010 18:02
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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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Well that was fast. All my friends pretty much jumped right on board and now we're all going to see them in Nashville on October 9th. It's my first ES show 
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Sep 17, 2010 18:38
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I'll pay top money if someone could get me that limited edition 7" at a show 
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Sep 17, 2010 20:22
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drat, too bad... looks like they wont be back in Champaign, Il again like last time. The previous tour they stopped and did a free entrance concert at the student union at the University of Illinois here, it was great and I would gladly pay to see them again but I have no intention of driving all the way to Chicago. As far as their albums go, I Shall exterminate... is by far my favorite, and Kill was pretty good too. Senor Smoke is not that bad, it has a few good songs but that's about it, probably the second worst album of theirs in my opinion. Flashy is the worst, it's so boring, and Switzerland isn't that bad. Fire is still great though. I don't really happen to like what I've heard of this album, though, it all sounds too generic. They're not the most progressive band (although Kill got pretty weird compared to their usual output), and although for the most part I've moved onto more obscure and diverse music, I still love Electric Six. Also meeting the band members was cool, they all seem like really awesome dudes.
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Sep 17, 2010 21:47
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E6 is one of my favorite bands and I love all of their songs/albums (except for gay bar part 2 and sexy trash). I've really liked what I've heard so far. Clusterfuck being my personal favorite. Senor Smoke is probably my least favorite album of their's. I still really like it, but I dunno. Exterminate is probably my favorite album by them, simply because 15/16 of the songs are really good. They're all pretty close though
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Sep 17, 2010 21:56
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M1TCH3LL posted:*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. Oh man, I didn't see about the 7". I've bought a total of 3 copies of Sexy Trash at the past few shows I've gone to (one for myself, two to give out) just because Dick's such a great songwriter and I love how it gives you a look into his songwriting process. It's always great to get more tour exclusives. I also got Flashy on vinyl during Hittin' the Walls and Workin' the Middle, but as far as I know there wasn't a Kill LP. Were there any available on the Kill tour? As for the quality of songs on Kill, I think a lot of Dick's great writing went into Evil Cowards last year. A lot of the stuff on Kill felt like the same caliber as the throwaway songs on Sexy Trash that have one or two lines that get recycled into amazing songs. From the promo video with all the clips of the songs, it seems like Evil Cowards is really influencing his songwriting. I'm just hoping that he's not getting sick of Electric Six. The shows have been amazing, but his stage presence at the Philly show of the Kill tour really had an air of, "I'm still doing this same poo poo 6 years later? I'm ready for something new!" I'd also definitely rate Exterminate and Switzerland higher than Fire and Senor Smoke. Possibly even putting Kill and Flashy up higher, too. After so many live shows, I don't think I'd enjoy an Electric Six show without timbales.
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Sep 17, 2010 22:26
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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. So, anyways, the reason I'm posting this is because I'm looking for suggestions for questions to ask them. I know I'll be able to come up with a few good ones on my own, but it can't hurt to get a few great suggestions from other people.
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Sep 18, 2010 03:34
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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. Ask him if he thought of using any other names besides Dick Valentine. Ask what their favorite part about the new cd is.
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Sep 18, 2010 10:23
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Saw them in Toronto back in the spring and they were fantastic. Seems they're not coming back though, dammit.
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Sep 18, 2010 18:22
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Ask them how sustainable releasing a new album every year financially is. But ask it in a less awful way. Then ask them why they have neglected Australia since Senor Smoke loving gently caress.
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Sep 19, 2010 01:19
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Dick Valentine posted:If you don't like every Electric Six song, get the gently caress out. Pumped for the new album and to see them live again in November.
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Sep 20, 2010 00:09
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Coupon Wizard posted:Yeah nah, Dirty Ball was great, as were Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart and Transatlantic Flight. No comment on the rest of it though. It wasn't a lovely album by any means but they've proven themselves to be capable of much better than that. How could anyone talk about good songs on flashy and not point out We Were Witchy Witchy White Women? That song and Steal Your Bones elevate the last 2 albums pretty high for me. Oh yeah, Clusterfuck is great. Scissorfighter fucked around with this message at 10:32 on Sep 20, 2010 |
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Sep 20, 2010 10:30
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No I did not know that they still existed, and now I'm seeing them in december, cheers.
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Sep 20, 2010 13:32
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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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I thought that Switzerland was universally considered to be their worst album? I like all of the ones that I have (Fire, Senor Smoke, I Shall Exterminate..., and Switzerland), but there's just something about Switzerland that seems off. Oh well, I'll keep an eye out for this.
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Sep 21, 2010 16:00
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Y-Hat posted:I thought that Switzerland was universally considered to be their worst album? Since it's my favourite one I've never understood why people dislike it, but then I'm atypical in that I'm not too crazy about the debut but I really really love everything after it. Having said that, I didn't dig Kill half as much as the last 4 albums. I really want to hear some of the new stuff but I'm afraid that I'll fall into the usual trap of over-listening to the tunes available, and then when I get the album only half of it is new to me.
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Sep 21, 2010 18:54
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Definitely in my diary to see these guys play Brighton in December after an awesome show last year in Hastings. The new album sounds promising.
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Sep 22, 2010 01:32
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I love Electric Six. I really do. But these tracks just... they just do nothing for me. I hate the bastards that come in a thread and say "Oh I liked them when their music was good  " poo poo like that. Bands change and evolve, and I respect this.But gently caress. I really haven't been impressed with much since Switzerland. I absolutely adore the first 3 albums. Just about every song is awesome. And while it's been awhile since i gave the others a listen, KILL had a few okay tracks, and maybe I Will Destroy. IWD... kind of started the downhill slide from "obnoxious and funny" to "obnoxious and stupid." Would still love to see them live though.
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Sep 22, 2010 01:54
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Avril Lavigne posted:Since it's my favourite one I've never understood why people dislike it, but then I'm atypical in that I'm not too crazy about the debut but I really really love everything after it.
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Sep 22, 2010 07:29
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Seeing them tonight for like the dozenth time, hell yeah. I LOVE their first 4 albums, Flashy is okay (though the songs sound far better live), thought Kill sucked outside of like 2 tracks, while Zodiac so far is somewhere between the awesomeness of their first 4 and Flashy. We'll see how it plays out.
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Sep 23, 2010 22:52
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Not any longer. 
Cassel fucked around with this message at 15:16 on Sep 24, 2010 |
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Sep 24, 2010 12:03
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It cannot be stressed enough that they are amazing live. I will be seeing them for the third time this November here in Minneapolis. They love playing First Avenue here and we love them playing here so its a win-win situation.
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Sep 24, 2010 20:41
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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 going to see them on their UK tour later this year. I thought Kill was better than the two before it, but then again I find myself giving them a listen now and again and enjoying them, so v v I guess I like them all really. Just ordered the new one from amazon. mark-p87 fucked around with this message at 21:45 on Sep 28, 2010 |
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Sep 28, 2010 21:38
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