Send "Electric Six " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Allmusic |
 After 13 years, five prior albums, and a countless number of shows, Electric Six is still going strong. Tyler Spencer (aka Dick Valentine) still has his growl, his falsetto, and his sense of humor intact, as he spouts absurd lines from his tour bus diaries, noting: "There's no such thing as an electric tuba/the Detroit River's not a good place to scuba," "Except for GBV and Devo/Nothing seems to redeem Ohio," and "Still got something to put in ya/But we'll have to go to West Virginia" Since Fire had a goal of using the word "Fire" as many times as possible (933 times), there's a chance that Valentine may be going for a loose concept here. Then again, knowing that Valentine's admitted that 90-percent of his lyrics aren't really about anything, it's hard to tell. Themes aside, as always, the merit of an Electric Six album is based on how comical and energetic it is, and Kill shows that Valentine and the crew (661453�Johnny Na$hinal, the Colonel, Tait Nucleus?, Percussion World, and Smorgasbord) are as eager as ever. Musically, they're at their most aggressive. The levels are maxed out, the amps are cranked, and the distortion dominates, as they barrel through genres; from the punky and short "You're Bored," to the loungey, organ ballad "My Idea of Fun," to the Auto-Tuned Euro dance groove "Newark Airport" -- the third song in their ongoing saga of chill-electro songs for airports (along with 2007's "Lucifer Airlines" and 2008's "Transatlantic Flight.") As on the last album, Flashy, cowbell metal dominates their sound, with songs like "Escape from Ohio" and "Waste of Time and Money" sharing more with '80s leather than '70s polyester. This darker, heavier tone makes the majority of Kill less of a party than Fire or I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master, but splendidly, Dance Commander rears his head to make demands like "Shake that tambourine/Shake that shaking machine!" in "Egyptian Cowboy" and encourages mass consumption in the splendid "Body Shot," which devolves from a grunge-disco jam into a wonderful, dubbed-out frenzy....full text |
| Allmusic |
| After 13 years, five prior albums, and a countless number of shows, Electric Six is still going strong. Tyler Spencer (aka Dick Valentine) still has his growl, his falsetto, and his sense of humor intact, as he spouts absurd lines from his tour bus diaries, noting: "There's no such thing as an electric tuba/the Detroit River's not a good place to scuba," "Except for GBV and Devo/Nothing seems to redeem Ohio," and "Still got something to put in ya/But we'll have to go to West Virginia" Since Fire had a goal of using the word "Fire" as many times as possible (933 times), there's a chance that Valentine may be going for a loose concept here. Then again, knowing that Valentine's admitted that 90-percent of his lyrics aren't really about anything, it's hard to tell. Themes aside, as always, the merit of an Electric Six album is based on how comical and energetic it is, and Kill shows that Valentine and the crew (661453�Johnny Na$hinal, the Colonel, Tait Nucleus?, Percussion World, and Smorgasbord) are as eager as ever. Musically, they're at their most aggressive. The levels are maxed out, the amps are cranked, and the distortion dominates, as they barrel through genres; from the punky and short "You're Bored," to the loungey, organ ballad "My Idea of Fun," to the Auto-Tuned Euro dance groove "Newark Airport" -- the third song in their ongoing saga of chill-electro songs for airports (along with 2007's "Lucifer Airlines" and 2008's "Transatlantic Flight.") As on the last album, Flashy, cowbell metal dominates their sound, with songs like "Escape from Ohio" and "Waste of Time and Money" sharing more with '80s leather than '70s polyester. This darker, heavier tone makes the majority of Kill less of a party than Fire or I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master, but splendidly, Dance Commander rears his head to make demands like "Shake that tambourine/Shake that shaking machine!" in "Egyptian Cowboy" and encourages mass consumption in the splendid "Body Shot," which devolves from a grunge-disco jam into a wonderful, dubbed-out frenzy....full text |
| Slantmagazine |
| Having crafted a distinct niche for themselves over the course of six albums in as many years, Electric Six don't stray far from their trademark brand of groove-heavy, ironic cock rock on Kill. Whether any one of the band's albums succeeds largely hinges on whether or not the lyrics bring the funny and whether or not the hooks are strong, and Kill hits both of those marks reliably. That's the thing about Electric Six: The joke would've worn thin long ago if frontman Dick Valentine weren't able to execute his songs with such a consistent balance of absurd humor and genuine tunefulness. Here, opener "Body Shot" lays down a slinky funk groove that showcases the band's under-appreciated rhythm section, before building to an explosive chorus that finds Valentine championing a life of excess and careening wildly between a full-throated growl and lithe falsetto. "Egyptian Cowboy" is one of the band's most aggressive tracks, with heavily distorted guitars pushed into the foreground even as keyboardist Tait Nucleus punctuates the song with delirious lines like, "Shake that tambourine/Shake that shaking machine!" On the blustery "Escape from Ohio," there's even a passing reference to "Gay Bar," the band's most well known single, though Kill offers nothing quite so accessible. While the album lacks a certain degree of accessibility and thematic coherence, Electric Six's wiseass humor and, moreover, their superior technical skill make Kill an energetic, frenzied party of a record....full text |
| Spin |
| This Detroit band has yet to match the goofy disco-metal glory of 2003's Fire (you'll recall "Danger! High Voltage," featuring Jack White, and "Gay Bar"). But their sixth album's opener, "Body Shots," nails it joyously, with frontman Dick Valentine mixing his two voices -- über-confident growl and sex-crazed falsetto -- on a cowbell-assisted jam that crams Tenacious D, Prince, and '80s metal into the same sweaty club. Again, E6 can't quite keep it up throughout, though they still sound delighted to mess with sounds both full-throttle ("You're Bored") and loungey ("My Idea of Fun")....full text |
Electric Six lyrics
