Electric Six
Fire

THE REVIEW

Autumn 2001: In a local club-disco in my city, people go literally crazy when the DJ plays "Song 2" by Blur, and I comment to a friend, "I've heard a really great song that I'm sure would cause a sensation, and it kind of resembles, with its 'u-uh', 'Song 2' by Blur." I was talking about "Bohemian Like You" by the Dandy Warhols.
Summer 2002: The same song is used for a famous commercial, and it starts being heard *everywhere* and *all the time*, with the result of becoming tiresome...
The Dandy Warhols are on everyone’s lips, but in the end, what have they done? One successful song, a couple of other decent songs, but they haven't left a "mark".

What does all this have to do with anything? Be a little patient, we're getting there!
For a month now, I've been listening to a song that to call compelling is an understatement: "Danger! High Voltage". I would describe the genre as "garage-rock-dance", and the band is called Electric Six.
I look for information online but find little to nothing: I only discover that it's a very popular track in English clubs and that the video is sufficiently crazy to become "the-video-where-the-man's-'package'-and-the-woman's-boobs-light-up".

Then the album comes out, preceded by the second single "Gay Bar", with an equally strange and provocative video (set in the White House, featuring muscular men in briefs with sideburns à la old American presidents) and some more information comes to light: the album's release, initially planned for early 2003, has been postponed due to continuous references in the lyrics to bombs, fire, nuclear wars... and it doesn't matter that there is nothing political about it but that they refer to the "dancefloor": there's a war ongoing and certain things can't be said... well... whatever...

It turns out that Electric Six are from Detroit, like the White Stripes, and it seems that the slightly hysterical second voice in the refrain of "Danger! High Voltage" is indeed Jack White. It also seems that the sax solo was played by former President Clinton, but nothing is certain.

Here's the thing, the problem is exactly this: it feels like this band is "hyped up".

One hit song (still genuinely great), a couple of attention-grabbing videos, some scattered mysteries here and there to pique people's curiosity, a common origin with another "trendy" band like the White Stripes, leading to talk of a "Detroit movement", of a "breath of fresh air in the music scene" etc., etc.
To me, it feels more like a summer downpour, which when over, leaves it hotter than before... eventually, some advertiser will bet on the best song, we'll hear it to death in a commercial with Megan Gale, and in the end, Electric Six will meet the fate of the Dandy Warhols... Amen.