Why You Need the Official Electric Six User Manual:
Because your safety depends on it.

Electric Six is a rampaging unit of Detroit New Wavers. THE ELECTRIC SIX MISSION involves the systematic dispersal of crucial superliminal messages, some of which may be meant for you. This OFFICIAL ELECTRIC SIX USER MANUAL seeks to assist you in understanding THE ELECTRIC SIX MISSION, and possibly, your place in THE ELECTRIC SIX PLAN.

You can bet he means it: in his life- -as in his songs- - Dick Valentine shuns irony and insincerity. "I'd paid my tuition. I knew what I was getting into. I say there was no looking back." But his passionate blue-screen dream was sidetracked, stalled indefinitely, when he found his university lodgings located in the middle of a lumber yard. "The yard foreman would ride by my front door waving to me, 9 am to 5 pm. It was pretty depressing."

Throwing caution to the wind he returned to Detroit, where he reactivated Electric Six (then operating as The Wildbunch), a motley assortment of Motor City Rock rejects that he'd assembled just prior to leaving town. Their initial purpose had been only to promote the release of Valentine's new 7 inch EP, I Lost Control (of my Rock and Roll). Dick was pleased to learn that in his absence, Detroit public radio had latched onto the single, and Detroit's underground was already buzzing about Electric Six's two live shows (the second of which is now available on a special 8-Track-only release.) The pungent stench of meaty opportunity was thick in the air. After years of butting his head against the locked door to Rock and Roll Adventure, Dick Valentine was ready for one last concussion.

But the enormous attention that became fixed on Electric Six after "breaking the scene" came with a harsh price. Not surprisingly, it was Valentine who suffered the very worst of it. At the time, he was performing under his "Jackson Pounder" pseudonym. It wasn't long before dirt-mongering members of the press realized that this was the same Jackson Pounder who'd starred in a series of sensationalistic, straight-to- video grade-Z movies back in the mid-'80's. Most notable (and most embarrassing) of these films were 1987's WhoreMaster, and its 1988 follow-up, WhoreMaster 2: Master of Whores. For years Valentine had been able to keep this shameful fact hidden from his family and friends. Thanks to the Electric Six, his number was finally up.

"I was playing with fire," he admits. "I was clinging to something. I guess I thought that I could be Jackson Pounder forever and suffer no consequences. Now I know better. It's like, I'm finally to proud say, 'Hey, my name is Dick Valentine!'"

Having weathered such personal struggles, Valentine makes no bones about his place in rock history: "I AM The Spokesman for My Generation." He calls the Cobains, the Dylans, the Becks and the Lennons of the world "pussies" for passing on such a mantle and holds it tight, his empty fist high above his head in a gesture of Absolute Triumph.

It is a Brave New Rock World that Electric Six inhabit. The rules have changed; policies and principles have been thrown upside down. (Perhaps, were it not so, the band might be shot on sight.) The rock and roll fan of the late'90's demands something new and different. Electric Six delivers, employing the most unorthodox of rock instrumentation to Valentine's sullen ruminations and manic celebrations. Guitars, bass -- even drums -- all find a home in the eclectic Electric Six stew. Some songs even feature the addition of keyboards. "We're not afraid to experiment," explains guitarist The Rock and Roll Indian.

"But what is Electric Six about? What the hell do they sound like?" The question has been put forth again and again, sometimes by people who have seen the band numerous times- - even, on occasion, by the band members themselves. Indeed, it is a matter that the band would rather avoid altogether. While they are all Rock Soldiers to the end, Electric Six is involved in wide-ranging clandestine activities, and music is the most conventional of their many strange predilections. Interviews with the band often devolve into a messy role- reversal, with the former interviewer being interrogated on his or her feelings about film, political assassinations, lesbianism, absinthe, MK- Ultra or cuisine.

But even if Electric Six's primary activities take place far from the light of day, it is their very public role as a musical combo that has brought them most of their notoriety. So again it must be asked, what about the sound?

Critical attempts to "nail down" the Electric Six "thing" have ranged from the obvious ("Devo meets KISS") to the vague ("dirty needle leads over a shrewd garage-rock shimmy"), to the bizarre ("Bobby DeNiro's kids." "We assume that that particular writer was somehow under the impression that Robert DeNiro starred or co-starred in Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch," says drummer Martin M. "But we're not sure. [The writer] was from Lansing, anyway, so anything's possible.") The press gets even more flustered trying to make sense of frontman Valentine: "Bryan Ferry meets Dr. Frankenstein," claimed one contributor to an earlier band bio, while Sven Thorrunsensen of Sweden was moved to declare, "He is The White Fred Schneider!"

Truth be told, Electric Six is a ten legged influence-devouring monster. In the band, forty years of historica de la musica happen all at once. "It's a neo-gnostic thing," explains axe-slinger Surge Joebot, also an ordained PriestMaster General for the shadowy UC/ZG.

"I just think that people can't decide if they love us or can't fucking stand us," states Disco, Electric Six's rough-and-tumble bass player. "That's the only reason they keep coming to see us."

Electric Six doesn't just want you at their shows. They don't just want you to buy all Electric Six-related merchandise. THE ELECTRIC SIX MISSION involves your social, psychological, spiritual and physical commitment.

Your safety depends on your commitment to their values. Watch the seemingly unrelated headlines, the outlandish behavior of your "co-workers", the price of gas, the strange new texture of your dinner steak. And remember - - they're not fighting for freedom, they're not fighting for justice. They're fighting just because that's just the way it is.

All Content © 2002 Electric Six / Wildbunch Inc. except where otherwise noted Site © 2001 Octane Grandé and Uchu Cult - An Uchu Grandé Joint Contact Electric Six Contact the Webmasters