Rock Extraveganza, Part 1

First off, thanks to Mufi and Yutaro for the comments, I'll oblige your respective requests and get back to you on a soon-to-come post. Everyone who's reading this should look to them as a shining example of humanity. This site works both ways, I educate you, you educate me, everybody wins. Feel free to comment with thoughts on the article and the music contained in it, as well as related bands or just something I should check out. However, if all you can come up with to post is "yutaro is gay", well, that's just not helping anyone. That's it for the intro, let's jump right in.

Freeland too much for you? Lupe not your style? Let's get back to the roots. My roots, America's roots: Rock. Headbanging, distorted, loud, sweaty, freedom-loving rock. Music started with rock for me. My first album was Aerosmith's Get A Grip, and it was love at first sound. So I'm here to further your rock education with three bands you probably haven't heard of. Well, alright, you've probably heard one of them, but not two. On second though, two is very possible, but I'll be damned if I'm not the only human being in existence that knows of all three of these bands. They are, in order of discovery: Electric Six, Bang Camaro, and Drist. Two of which were discovered via that most noble of American icons: Guitar Hero.



Electric Six is a band I discovered via an internet cartoon. Namely, this internet cartoon, featuring Electric Six's fan favorite track, Gay Bar (slightly ridiculous video warning, Probably offensive Bat-shit-insane, over-the-top-slightly-treasonous-and-containing-numerous-references-to-gay-sex video warning). E6 is hard to define musically. While firmly grounded in over the top rock riffs, creamily blended with a kinky disco/punk/metal vibe, it's the lyrics that defy description. With such enticing songs names as Naked Pictures, Gay Bar, and Chocolate Pope you can only expect so much in terms of meaningful content. Admittedly the lyrics are often hard to take seriously, however they are hilarious and work surprisingly well with the solid rock sound that the six-piece Detroit-based band puts out. Their first album, Fire!, is the only one I have listened to at length, only hearing a few tracks from other albums. Earlier this year I was awarded the pleasure of seeing them play live at The Middle East in Cambridge, Mass, and since then I've been acquiring and listening to their newer works. The electronic aspect of their music that was condensed to a few tracks in Fire! seems to have permeated their sound, becoming an integral part of several tracks of the more recent albums. The newer albums carry more meaning than earlier works, with such scathing social commentary as the song "Down at McDonnellzzz" off E6's most recent album "I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me From Being The Master". Also prevalent in E6's newer works is a slightly more pop sound, resonating especially hard off their 3rd album Switzerland, featuring such catchy tunes as I Buy The Drugs. While a nightmare to describe, they are an dream to listen to. If you enjoyed those shining examples of E6's fantastic work, I urge you to go out and obtain a copy of Fire! at the very least. For those of you that aren't quite convinced, here are a few more examples to try and convert you: Dance Commander, Danger! High Voltage (quite disturbing), and last but certainly not least, Synthesizer (unofficial, yet slightly intriguing video).

Next up: Bang Camaro!