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Electric Six
I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me that Restricts Me from Being the Master

Metropolis Records

Posted: Wednesday, October 31, 2007
By: Mike Ventarola

The very title for Electric Six's fourth release was blatantly borrowed from a drawing dealing with excess by artist George Grosz. The band felt the need to typify some semblance of profusion for the masses and ran with the art as inspiration. Everything about this particular recording deals with excess in all its forms, from the blatant lyrics to the number of tracks included. While the categorization of the music was delineated to the rock genre for this particular review, in actuality, the tracks are a hybrid of styles incorporating power pop, new wave, disco, cabaret-jazz, garage rock, metal, rockabilly, and glam rock. Lyrically, the band doesn't make any apology for crafting tracks with double entendres that are often in your face. The opener, "It's Showtime" deals with the reality of being physically pulled and senselessly grabbed in a multitude of directions by fans and managers while touring. The result is an increasing surplus of unbridled anger and resentment towards people in general. "Down at McDonnellzzzzz" musically depicts the continued loss of places for the youth culture of today to congregate while the stockholders get richer on unhealthy and overpriced pseudo-food. "Fabulous People" thumbs the nose at the supermarket tabloids where the rich get richer from the publicity while the average person will never come close to living with that type of excess. "I Don't Like You" resonates with a drumbeat that would mix well with Toni Basil's "Mickey." In spite of the new wave essence, the band keeps the energy high and the guitar licks tight. "Rip It!" pays homage with the opening guitar licks that are similar to "My Sharona" by The Knack. In spite of some musical lifting to embellish within the body of the songs, Electric Six continues to mesmerize with their stellar ability to play tightly while vocally pushing the chops to the limit. No one will ever come away declaring that this band is predictable.