Album Review: Flashy – Electric Six

I always miss Electric Six’s shows, but figure the tour will bring them around another time. Thing is, by the time they hit the stage again they’ve usually recorded a whole new album and are on a whole new tour. The industrious band has released a new album every year since 2005, each equal in its downright ridiculousness. You might say that the Electric Six are serious about not taking themselves too seriously. And while the band may be accused of delivering quantity over quality, I respond with this: Electric Six are probably having more fun than your band. And who was invited to play at Lollapalooza last year?

If you aren’t familiar with Electric Six, here’s a quick crash course: all six have stage names that sound like stripper cops (the current lineup consists of Dick Valentine, Tait Nucleus? Johnny Na$hinal, The Colonel, Percussion World, Smorgasbord), and they play a brand of aggressive, humorous rock that usually features some combination of heavy guitars, falsetto vocals, horn solos, and off kilter-lyrics.

Newly released Flashy is no exception. To get an idea, the first music video is “Formula 409”, a blistering testimonial to the cleaning product. Yes, you heard me right. “We Were Witchy Witchy White Women” tells some sort of story about ex-lesbian witches (“I put a spell on you/ you put a spell on me”). The songs maintain the sense of humor sonically as well— “Dirty Ball” has a lounge-y spoken word breakdown over a bass line and bongos. And “Your Heat Is Rising” is a page straight out of the book of Weezer, mixing “Say It Ain’t So” guitar upstrokes with Cuomo-esque self-depreciating lyrics like “Anytime you want to leave your lover for me/ would be a good time to leave your lover for me”. Ultimately, there definitely isn’t a “Gay Bar” part two on this record (although Valentine and friends are aware of this, jokingly starting the album with “Gay Bar Part Two”…), but any reason for the E6 to hit the road again is a reason good enough.

Featured Track:
 “Dirty Ball”

Flashy is now available on Amazon