God save irony. God save Dick Valentine.
I interviewed the lead singer of Electric Six via e-mail while his band was tying up a European tour for their third album, Switzerland. Notorious for minting the skeezy, coercively catchy indie hits “Danger! High Voltage” and “Gay Bar,” the Detroit-bred sextet seems to be departing from their well-suited disco-sexed punk jokes for a more deflated arena-rock punch line. While they still put out high-concept videos to match their embedded sense of humor, the music isn’t translating like it used to. This isn’t to say that Valentine himself has lost his comedic edge. In fact, he’s damn funny. Somebody, please give this man a cigar.
Mountain Xpress: “What’s the word from Europe? You just played Russia, right?”
Dick Valentine: “The word is that Europe is dying. It is a godless culture and they are all socialists and they are doing everything they can to lose the war on terror. Er … wait … this isn’t Fox News? Sorry. Wrong answer. What I meant to say is that we had a blast and it was great to return there after a two-year hiatus. Yes, we just played in Russia. Moscow is a grim, miserable place. Yet, for some reason we love to go there.”
MX: “Anything weird or illicit to report?”
DV: “Not unless losing our minds by drinking some beers and talking to hot, hot Russian co-eds is weird or illicit. I mean seriously, dude, what would you do in that situation? NOT talk to those girls? Please … “
MX: “What are the best and worst aspects of the crowds at your shows in the States vs. those abroad?”
DV: “Stupid meathead dudes exist everywhere. That’s the worst. Soft, delicate, shy, demure, deaf-mute, submissive, lonely co-eds exist everywhere. That’s the best.”
MX: “You tour like a beast. What keeps things sane, playing so many shows back to back?”
DV: “Like any beast, this beast needs to feed. And then hibernate. We remain sane because of a COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE. Every man in the band knows if he phones it in on any given night, he’s back to carving meatloaf at Ponderosa. It’s that simple. Sanity and relationships suffer as a result, but our bank accounts … our bank accounts are huge and aerodynamic … like the Hindenburg.”
MX: “There is a stark contrast between the Electric Six persona of your videos and that of your band’s live performance. You have this highly orchestrated ‘mock show’ that most people know from your records and videos, and the more ‘meat and potatoes’ rock show that comes out in your live performances. Do you think one persona hinders the performance of the other?”
DV: “I don’t think that a performance hinders another on our end. But perception of the band has been hindered somewhat. I think in the UK in particular, the videos were a double-edge sword. While the videos were eye-catching and memorable, people got the impression that we weren’t a rock band because they didn’t see us performing in the videos. That had more to do with the ‘novelty act’ tag that we got than anything. But if we had to do it over, we’d do the same thing. Straight performance videos are boring.”
MX: “As your music seems to be branching out, as seen on the most recently released Switzerland, do you ever feel that the ironic drug-comedy-disco-pimp-cock-rock schtick might be wearing thin?”
DV: “Well, we never set out to make the same record twice. If Switzerland had been our first record, then you’d probably have gotten Fire as our third. As far as ‘schtick’ is concerned, I take offense to that, because nothing we’ve ever done has been calculated or contrived. For some reason, people think that just because you intentionally write puerile lyrics or do a disco song that you must be trying to pull one over on them. Honestly, we just want to be an entertaining band. To me, ‘schtick’ implies an intent to be something you’re not in order to ‘cash in’—and that’s never been the case with us. I wrote ‘Gay Bar’ in 1996 and believe you me, I wasn’t seeing dollar signs in my head after I heard the finished product. But I still loved the song … I love how ridiculous it is.”
MX: “On your Web site you occasionally write these hilarious political quips, a sentiment which is almost completely absent in your music. Why is that?”
DV: “American politics is just so fascinating. We are led to believe that these dips**ts on either side of the aisle can realistically make our lives better or safer … and no one stops to think about what buffoons these people are. I hope it never changes … it’s wonderful. And our Web site is a fun way to comment on some of it. As far as whether or not it’s in our music, well, I just write the songs I write as they come to me and don’t really analyze any further than that.”
MX: “If Electric Six were a famous world leader, who would it be?”
DV: “George W. Bush. We don’t agree with him on many things but we have both ‘talked to families who die.’”
[Michael Bixler is a freelance writer and Asheville refugee living in Philadelphia.]
Electric Six plays The Orange Peel (101 Biltmore Ave.) on Tuesday, April 3, with Test Your Reflex and Night Kills the Day. 9 p.m. $12/$14. 225-5851.
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