My younger brother, who used to flail around to “Danger! High Voltage” (you know, the song from that dumb car commercial with the sumo wrestlers) first introduced me to Electric Six.

Thankfully, I’ve since become more aware of the rest of their work. I now flail around to “I’m the Bomb,” when the world has kicked me in the ass.

Formed in 1996 in Detroit, the band has gone through several line-up changes over the years, with the only remaining original member being vocalist Dick Valentine (or Tyler Spencer).

“Every change was welcome, let’s put it that way,” said Valentine. “I mean, the first major change to lineup was because half the band really wasn’t built for touring. We got some professionals in there, and a lot of those guys are still with us.”

The band is currently working on their seventh album, but Valentine wanted to keep most of the details under wraps in case the band decides to change directions, considering they are very early in the recording stage.

“I’m also incredibly paranoid. I’m scared of people stealing my concepts,” he said.
However, Valentine did reveal that the album would probably be a departure for the group.

“A couple songs kind of sound like Neil Diamond with big horn productions and stuff. I could actually be a concept album, which we said we’d never do,” said Valentine.

“I think if you got into our band for [debut album] Fire, if you’re one of those people [ . . . ] and didn’t hear the other records in between, then you heard the one we’re making now, you might not like us anymore. But I think our other records will provide a perfect bridge to this next record.”

The band has a show in Winnipeg coming up on March 17, and although they have not played here before, Valentine got a pretty solid interpretation of our city from a magazine he found in an airplane.

“I was on a North West flight, and their feature city in the magazine was Winnipeg. It was funny because of how they were [ . . . ] selling the city,” said Valentine. “There were black people there! And Asian people there! And that made it different than other Canadian cities or other cities somehow, but they didn’t really show any pictures of the city, they just showed a black guy and an Asian guy.”

“That was supposed to make you want to go to Winnipeg, which it did.”

Valentine also said he used to love the Jets uniforms and that Winnipeg should definitely get an NHL team again.

“Dale Hawerchuk, baby!”

And although he’s never experienced a Winnipeg crowd before, Valentine sounded pretty optimistic.

“Anytime we go someplace for the first time [ . . . ] generally we get a rockin’ ovation,” said Valentine. “Take Vancouver, for instance. First time we ever played Vancouver it was like 3 million people were there and saw us, and the crowds have been dwindling ever since.”

He then admitted he was just trying to fuck with me: “I wanted to see how you’d react to that.”

However the March 17 show turns out, Winnipeggers will have a long way to go to shock the band.

“We played a Christmas party in Moscow in 2003 for a bunch of Russian mafia lawyers. The room was fine, but it was one of the most decadent, weird events ever,” said Valentine.
“They flew in a girl group from the Ukraine that was like a pop act in the Ukraine at the time [ . . . ] and they did some sort of Christmas pageant where they had midgets running around and shooting hookers, and Santa Claus [was] involved somehow, and bubbles, and drunk Russian guys everywhere. It was good.”

I’m still debating the validity of this tale, but true or not, you’ve got to give the guy props for coming up with a crazy story on the spot.

Electric Six plays the Royal Albert Arms on March 17.