Dave Chamberlain

The Electric Six are so good that they don't even need a record to chart a song.

By now you've no doubt heard it, the song that's become the enzyme for the band's success. It's called "Danger! High Voltage," and despite the fact that the song sounds almost completely unlike anything else from E6's debut full-length, "Fire" (XL Recordings), it took them from just another unknown Detroit garage band to club- and pop-chart force. In fact, the song reached number 2 on the UK's pop charts before the band even had an album out. The song struck a chord with European music fans with its melding of retro post-punk new wave noodling (a sound now dubbed electro) and meaty, overwhelming metal and straight-rock riffs, though the final product is much more rock 'n' roll than anything else. And in that tradition, the E6 applies a sense of style missing in so much rock: the band strictly adheres to its stage names, wears matching guitar straps on stage, and feeds off the energy of lead singer/songwriter Dick Valentine, whose jerky on-stage movements and in-joke attitude lends him the persona of a streetwise Andy Kaufman.

Though the modern version of the band comes off as coldly calculated, it hardly started that way. "Dick Valentine," explains drummer/co-founder M, "was going to weatherman school at Mississippi State, and he had these songs. And I actually saw him doing some of them at an open mic night, just acoustically, and instantly fell in love with what he was doing. I begged him to please do something with them, to record some of the material. So we did, just the two of us, and we decided we wanted to play a couple of shows, so we found the three other guys."

Though the band had started on a whim, it almost ended when Valentine left Detroit. "Dick went to school," continues M, "but it didn't take him very long--a couple weeks--to figure out that he didn't want to be a weatherman after all, so he came back and then the band really kind of began in a serious nature."

The band started its career as the Wildbunch, before legal ramifications forced the switch to Electric Six--the former name was previously used for a collective of DJs from dance-music capital Bristol, England (some of whom went on to form Massive Attack). Though the band attempted to keep the name, M notes that "financially, it was not gonna make sense." The band actually recorded the original version of "Danger! High Voltage," for Flying Bomb Records as the Wildbunch, the success of which necessitated a more rapid name change. "That came out in October of 2001," says M, "and within about a month, we were starting to hear from record companies in the UK. So it was that quick, that it started to come on and have an impact."

The success of "Danger! High Voltage" surprised the band, though by the time their name and likeness was getting slapped across an endless number of UK music mags, E6 knew they had done something right. "You can't get into this stuff," M starts with a chuckle, "expecting that you're going to have a hit anywhere in the world. But by the time it actually happened--certainly we didn't expect number two--but we knew it would do well." The band's confidence was bolstered by a tour through the UK three months before the song officially broke out of the club circuit, when they played to sold-out houses. "People were going crazy," says M. "So you kind of had a sense that there was something good coming, it was just a matter of degree. Obviously, it worked out."

Yet, as is so often the case, "Danger! High Voltage" hardly represents the overall musical flavor that the Electric Six presents. However, the next single set to be released in the UK, "Gay Bar," is very much the totality of Electric Six' sound--loaded with rock 'n' roll swagger, oddball lyrics ("Giirrrl/ I wanna take you to a gay bar") and the Detroit power of sleaze. "It's gonna go big," says M, with a slight degree of humility. "I probably sound as if I'm bragging, but I can tell you where it's play-listed in the UK. It's on A-lists on MTV, Radio One. Whether it'll do exactly what `High Voltage' did remains to be seen, but it's going to do well."

Despite the band's success to date in England, the jury remains out on whether American music fans, who tend to adhere a little more to genre (especially in terms of metal and electro), will buy the electro/disco/metal mix. The Electric Six, however, aren't concerned. "At the end of the day," explains M, "all you can do is just play your music the way you want to, the way it feels right, and however everybody accepts it is fine. So we didn't worry about offending fans of any particular genre.

"In fact, he continues, "that's never a consideration--I don't think you can approach music that way. Worrying about how people are going to react to it, you've just got to do what you do, and put it out there. If people dig it, then great."

The Electric Six plays June 6 at the Double Door, 1572 North Milwaukee, (773)489-3160.

(2003-06-04)

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