Biography
Electric Six blended garage rock, disco, punk, new wave, and metal into shrewdly absurd, confrontational tracks that revel in every variety of hedonism. The band arose from the Detroit garage-punk milieu of the late nineties and early aughts, the same milieu that gave rise to the White Stripes and the Dirtbombs. International recognition followed from their ceaseless cycle of tours and recordings together with a steadfast devotion to theatrical excess, balancing raw vitality with calculated ridiculousness. After building a hometown audience under the name Wildbunch, they achieved a major British breakthrough in 2003 via the single “Danger! High Voltage”; that same year’s debut album Fire solidified a devoted cult audience through tracks such as “Dance Commander” and “Gay Bar.” Although personnel rotated constantly and the balance between electronics and guitars fluctuated with each release, the group’s core approach—dance-oriented rock saturated with bombast and lunacy—remained fixed. Beginning in 2005, Electric Six issued a new album every year while Dick Valentine and his rotating cast delivered frenzied live sets that incited audience hysteria. The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted this routine for an extended stretch, yet the 2021 covers album Streets of Gold restored their momentum, and the 2023 originals collection Turquoise displayed the band once again in exuberant, reckless form.
Dick Valentine on vocals, guitarists Rock and Roll Indian and Surge Joebot, bassist Disco, and drummer M. founded the Wildbunch in 1996; keyboardist Tait Nucleus? joined later. On Uchu Cult Records they released the debut single “I Lost Control (Of My Rock & Roll)” and the eight-track collection An Evening with the Many Moods of the Wildbunch’s Greatest Hits…Tonight! that year, followed by a full-length in 1999 on the same label. Switching to Flying Bomb, they issued singles including 1997’s “The Ballade of MC Sucka DJ,” the holiday release “Flying Bomb Surprise Package, Vol. 1,” and 2001’s “Danger! High Voltage,” which gained underground traction especially in the U.K.
The band then signed with XL, re-recording “Danger! High Voltage” with added backing vocals from the White Stripes’ Jack White. After the single’s 2003 re-release, Electric Six delivered their debut full-length Fire that spring. Weeks later Disco, Rock and Roll Indian, and Surge Joebot departed, replaced by Frank Lloyd Bonaventure, the Colonel, and Johnny Na$hinal. In 2004 the group secured a deal with Rushmore, a British Warner Bros. imprint, and parted ways with Bonaventure and M.; John R. Dequindre and Percussion World assumed bass and drum duties. The second album, Señor Smoke, appeared in the U.K. early in 2005 and reached the United States a year later via Metropolis Records. Switzerland followed in autumn 2006, and I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master arrived in October 2007; that year also introduced new bassist Smorgasbord after Dequindre’s exit.
Early in 2008 Valentine launched his American Troubadour solo tour, performing in Hamtramck, Michigan, and Portland, Oregon. That spring Electric Six tracked their fifth album, Flashy, at the Colonel’s studio; Metropolis issued it that autumn. Subsequent releases included the thirty-track demo and unreleased-material set Sexy Trash plus the studio albums Kill (2009) and Zodiac (2010). The following year the band veered toward darker territory, tilting from dance-rock toward synth pop on the nocturnal Heartbeats and Brainwaves. In 2012 they documented their high-energy concerts on the first live album, Absolute Pleasure, while the Colonel exited and Da Ve took his guitar position. The tenth studio album Mustang surfaced in 2013, followed closely by Human Zoo in 2014.
In early 2015 Electric Six self-released the crowd-funded Mimicry and Memories, a two-disc set akin to Sexy Trash that paired one disc of covers with another of rare and unreleased originals. October 2015 brought another studio effort, Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die. By release time it was announced that Smorgasbord had left and Rob Lower had assumed bass. Early in 2016 Percussion World also departed; reverting to his given name Mike Alonso, he joined long-running Celtic punk outfit Flogging Molly on drums. New drummer Two-Handed Bob entered the lineup in time for the 2016 sessions that produced Fresh Blood for Tired Vampyres.
The indefatigable Electric Six released yet another album in October 2017, How Dare You; Todd Glass handled drums on the record while Hypercube Bonanza assumed percussion for subsequent touring. One month earlier they issued the crowd-funded You’re Welcome, containing one disc of covers and a second documenting a concert at the Oxford Academy in the U.K. Bride of the Devil, an especially eerie and hard-rocking effort, arrived in October 2018 just ahead of Halloween. A combination of circumstances, chiefly the COVID-19 pandemic, kept the band off the road and out of the studio for an unusually long interval, but in July 2021 they resumed with Streets of Gold, a covers collection that also contained fresh recordings of “Danger! High Voltage” and “Gay Bar.” In September 2023 E6 returned with Turquoise, their first set of new songs in five years, featuring the tracks “Take Me to the Sugar,” “Born to Be Ridiculed,” and “Staten Island Ass Squad.” As expected the band marked the release with a North American tour that revealed personnel shifts: alongside core members Dick Valentine, Johnny Na$hinal, and Tait Nucleus?, Herb S. Flavorings moved from bass to rhythm guitar, former bassist Smorgasbord rejoined, and new drummer Dr. J took his place.
Dick Valentine on vocals, guitarists Rock and Roll Indian and Surge Joebot, bassist Disco, and drummer M. founded the Wildbunch in 1996; keyboardist Tait Nucleus? joined later. On Uchu Cult Records they released the debut single “I Lost Control (Of My Rock & Roll)” and the eight-track collection An Evening with the Many Moods of the Wildbunch’s Greatest Hits…Tonight! that year, followed by a full-length in 1999 on the same label. Switching to Flying Bomb, they issued singles including 1997’s “The Ballade of MC Sucka DJ,” the holiday release “Flying Bomb Surprise Package, Vol. 1,” and 2001’s “Danger! High Voltage,” which gained underground traction especially in the U.K.
The band then signed with XL, re-recording “Danger! High Voltage” with added backing vocals from the White Stripes’ Jack White. After the single’s 2003 re-release, Electric Six delivered their debut full-length Fire that spring. Weeks later Disco, Rock and Roll Indian, and Surge Joebot departed, replaced by Frank Lloyd Bonaventure, the Colonel, and Johnny Na$hinal. In 2004 the group secured a deal with Rushmore, a British Warner Bros. imprint, and parted ways with Bonaventure and M.; John R. Dequindre and Percussion World assumed bass and drum duties. The second album, Señor Smoke, appeared in the U.K. early in 2005 and reached the United States a year later via Metropolis Records. Switzerland followed in autumn 2006, and I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master arrived in October 2007; that year also introduced new bassist Smorgasbord after Dequindre’s exit.
Early in 2008 Valentine launched his American Troubadour solo tour, performing in Hamtramck, Michigan, and Portland, Oregon. That spring Electric Six tracked their fifth album, Flashy, at the Colonel’s studio; Metropolis issued it that autumn. Subsequent releases included the thirty-track demo and unreleased-material set Sexy Trash plus the studio albums Kill (2009) and Zodiac (2010). The following year the band veered toward darker territory, tilting from dance-rock toward synth pop on the nocturnal Heartbeats and Brainwaves. In 2012 they documented their high-energy concerts on the first live album, Absolute Pleasure, while the Colonel exited and Da Ve took his guitar position. The tenth studio album Mustang surfaced in 2013, followed closely by Human Zoo in 2014.
In early 2015 Electric Six self-released the crowd-funded Mimicry and Memories, a two-disc set akin to Sexy Trash that paired one disc of covers with another of rare and unreleased originals. October 2015 brought another studio effort, Bitch, Don’t Let Me Die. By release time it was announced that Smorgasbord had left and Rob Lower had assumed bass. Early in 2016 Percussion World also departed; reverting to his given name Mike Alonso, he joined long-running Celtic punk outfit Flogging Molly on drums. New drummer Two-Handed Bob entered the lineup in time for the 2016 sessions that produced Fresh Blood for Tired Vampyres.
The indefatigable Electric Six released yet another album in October 2017, How Dare You; Todd Glass handled drums on the record while Hypercube Bonanza assumed percussion for subsequent touring. One month earlier they issued the crowd-funded You’re Welcome, containing one disc of covers and a second documenting a concert at the Oxford Academy in the U.K. Bride of the Devil, an especially eerie and hard-rocking effort, arrived in October 2018 just ahead of Halloween. A combination of circumstances, chiefly the COVID-19 pandemic, kept the band off the road and out of the studio for an unusually long interval, but in July 2021 they resumed with Streets of Gold, a covers collection that also contained fresh recordings of “Danger! High Voltage” and “Gay Bar.” In September 2023 E6 returned with Turquoise, their first set of new songs in five years, featuring the tracks “Take Me to the Sugar,” “Born to Be Ridiculed,” and “Staten Island Ass Squad.” As expected the band marked the release with a North American tour that revealed personnel shifts: alongside core members Dick Valentine, Johnny Na$hinal, and Tait Nucleus?, Herb S. Flavorings moved from bass to rhythm guitar, former bassist Smorgasbord rejoined, and new drummer Dr. J took his place.
Albums
Singles
