Fire : Electric Six : Review : Rolling Stone

Detroit punk-disco pranksters Electric Six have crashed the dance floor with their techno-stosterone hit "Danger! High Voltage," featuring vocals from their pal Jack White of the White Stripes. Fire is the summer's most brilliantly demented party record: Dick Valentine screams about how sexy he is ("I'm a man!/With conversation skills!/I'm a man!/With hundred-dollar bills!"), while the other band members -- Surge Joebot, M., Disco and the Rock and Roll Indian -- blast their heavy guitars, sax and industrial-strength beats from the Taco Bell to the gates of hell. Valentine sweet-talks the ladies ("3-2-1, I'm the bomb/And I'm ready to go off in your shit" goes one chorus) in sleaze anthems such as "Vengeance and Fashion," "I Invented the Night" and "Nuclear War (On the Dance Floor)." Electric Six: strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.

ROB SHEFFIELD
(RS 925, June 26, 2003)