Line #144 Music/ElectricSix


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Electric_Six_zodiac1_8217.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Don't you wanna know how they keep starting fires?]]
3
4	->''"We’re just a funny bunch of guys, and we’re also very cynical. We’re doing dance music because we’re the furthest thing from a [[TheSeventies Studio 54]]. We just sit around, eat pizza, drink canned beer, and fart."''
5	-->--[[http://www.tlchicken.com/view_story.php?ARTid=1637 Interview]] with Dick Valentine.
6
7	Electric Six are a UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} sextet that formed in 1996. The band began in earnest as "The Wildbunch" until a similarly-named group from Bristol found out and complained. They're best known for their single [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4gyJsY0mc "Danger! High Voltage!,"]] a dance-friendly duet with [[Music/JackWhite a mechanic who won a contest to sing with the band because he was the only person to enter]], and its associated video which involves the lead singer making out with a middle-aged woman on [[RefugeInAudacity a stuffed moose, and all of them have glowing crotches.]] The video for their single [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTN6Du3MCgI "Gay Bar"]] also received viral-type attention on the internet for its [[CampGay very unique take]] on the White House cabinet of US president UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln. Members of the band are also involved in such listen-worthy side projects as [[http://www.myspace.com/evilcowards Evil Cowards]] and the dairy promotion campaign [[http://joliesimons.wordpress.com/2008/04/24/white-gold-detroits-electric-six-sexes-up-the-magic-of-dairy/ White Gold.]]
8
9	Their music is often described with words such as "disco," "metal," "new wave," "dance," "punk", "rock" and "fairly ridiculous" with influences ranging from Music/{{KISS}} to Music/{{Devo}} to Music/TheDoors to Music/CaptainBeefheart. While practically unknown to the general public in their home country, they [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff were well received in the UK]], which is rather ironic for a band that could be described as remarkably ''American'' and aware of it: their lyrics routinely reference US politics and have {{Shout Out}}s to their home town of Detroit. The singer and head songwriter, Dick Valentine, is noted for his [[LargeHam unique and emphatic vocal delivery]] and his extensive lyrical use of both SoBadItsGood sexual innuendo and humorous pop culture references.
10
11	'''''[-Current Lineup-]'''''
12
13	* [[CasanovaWannabe Dick Valentine]] on vocals
14	* Da Ve on guitar
15	* [[LuckyCharmsTitle Johnny Na$hinal]] also on guitar
16	* [[AerithAndBob Rob Lower]] on bass
17	* Tait Nucleus? on keyboard
18	* Two-Handed Bob on drums.
19
20	'''''[-Studio Album Discography-]'''''
21
22	* ''Fire'' (2003)
23	* ''Señor Smoke'' (2005)
24	* ''Switzerland'' (2006)
25	* ''I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master'' (2007)
26	* ''Flashy'' (2008)
27	* ''Sexy Trash: The Rarities, Demos and Misfires of Electric Six'' (2008)
28	* ''KILL'' (2009)
29	* ''Zodiac'' (2010)
30	* ''Heartbeats and Brainwaves'' (2011)
31	* ''Absolute Pleasure'' (Live Album) (2012)
32	* ''Mustang'' (2013)
33	* ''Human Zoo'' (2014)
34	* ''Bitch, Don't Let Me Die'' (2015)
35	* ''Fresh Blood For Tired Vampyres'' (2016)
36	* ''How Dare You'' (2017)
37	* ''Bride of the Devil'' (2018)
38	* ''[[CoverAlbum Streets of Gold]]'' (2021)
39	* ''Turquoise'' (2023)
40
41	!Electric Six provide examples of the following tropes:
42	* AffectionateParody: The video of "Body Shot" parodies old porn videos.
43	** "Down at [=McDonellzzz=]" parodies old multi-language Creator/{{MTV}} videos with a woman doing sign language next to scrolling text in UsefulNotes/EsperantoTheUniversalLanguage.
44	* AIIsACrapshoot: The titular device from the song "Broken Machine". As the lyrics go, it doesn't care if it tears us apart. It also suffers from [[spoiler:erectile dysfunction.]]
45	* AlbumTitleDrop: ''Fire'' was so named because the band noticed that the songs had an abundance of the word in them and decided to roll with it.
46	** Likewise, ''KILL'' was named from the song "Egyptian Cowboy", as well as being the overall 'feel' of the record.
47	** ''Flashy'' has "Flashy Man".
48	** ''Human Zoo'' comes from a line in "I'm the Devil".
49	* AlliterativeTitle:
50	** "Pulling the Plug on the Party"
51	** "We Were Witchy Witchy Witchy Witchy White Women"
52	* {{Angst}}: Examples include "Rubber Rocket" about the protagonist lamenting that he'd jerk off to internet porn rather than go back to a particular woman and "The Band in Hell" involving a failed artist lamenting his apparent one-way romance with someone... and is now forced to play at a seedy bar in Hell with a band that has [[UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler Adolf]] [[AdolfHitlarious Hitler]] in it to suck for all eternity. Yeah.
53	** They make it all dance-able and non-serious, so fret not.
54	* AnimatedMusicVideo: "Chocolate Pope".
55	* AntiLoveSong: Examples include "Music/LennyKravitz", which is a rather curt lyrical dismissal of a one-night stand, "Infected Girls", which is extolling the singer's desire to mate with STD-infected women due to being infected himself, and "Kukuxumushu", which is about how much the singer got dumped repeatedly, was stalked by different women and pleads with his girlfriend to NOT make him write her a damn love song, they're only fuck buddies.
56	* ArcWords: Fire (hence the album title) and Nuclear War on the album Fire. Devil on every album. On the album Mustang, Dick had a real thing for the word Dragon, it is used in several of the songs, most notably in the [[UsefulNotes/FurryFandom scaly]] anthem "Jessica Dresses Like A Dragon".
57	* ArmsDealer: Whoever's singing "Naked Pictures (Of [[YourMom Your Mother]])".
58	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: "Every barracuda starts out as a guppy."
59	* AutoErotica: Played straight in a spoken word snippet of "I'm The Bomb." Off the same album, "Getting Into The Jam" repeatedly mentions the narrator's plan to "make it in my car" with a woman.
60	* BadassBoast: "But you can't ignore my techno."
61	** The party leader in "[=Down at McDonnelzzz=]" boasting that "The leader's gonna make you party/Preventing you from departing."
62	** "I invented the night", "you must obey the dance commander", "you know that my suit costs more than your house", "I will freak you like you've never been freaked before"... and those are just examples from ''Fire''. Suffice it to say they're very fond of these.
63	* BarBrawl: One erupts as Dick passes by a bar in the video to "There's Something Very Wrong With Us Tonight."
64	* BeneathTheMask: The band has stated that they play disco dance music because it's "exactly what we are not."
65	** This is touched on in "Gay Bar, Pt. 2", when Valentine sings about how surprised people are to learn he likes listening to Peter, Paul, and Mary.
66	* BigNo: Dick Valentine's riposte to Jesus asking if everyone could just get along and shit in "I'm The Devil".
67	* BrickJoke: The "STOP...CONTINUE" gag in "Improper Dancing" is treated as this when performing live, in that the brief silence on the track is when the band plays an entirely different song, before then cutting back to the rest of "Improper Dancing".
68	* BurgerFool: In the lyrics of "Down at [=McDonnelzzz=]" a guy shows up to hold a parking lot party at a [[strike: [=McDonald's=]]] [=McDonnelzzz=] because "his people need a place to go." The video plays the trope straight thematically: a SunglassesAtNight centaur with a Vanilla Ice haircut, a [[Franchise/BackToTheFuture DeLorean]] and plastic toy [[KatanasAreJustBetter katana]] and his clown-dressed friends hurl burgers at a BurgerFool, interrupting his training video, before breaking out the 40s of malt liquor.
69	** "Boy or Girl" suddenly switches to the narrator welcoming someone to Big Burger. Can he take your order?
70	** "Pleasing Interlude I" has the man walk down to Monty's Grille to get a burger. [[SpotTheImposter Things go awry.]]
71	** "Telephone Conversation" deliberately averts this, which is why the song wasn't released on an album. It namechecks Koo Koo Roo, a Michigan restaurant chain. The band didn't want to change the lyrics, but didn't want the chain to sue them, so the track was eventually self-released on Sexy Trash.
72	** "Late Night Obama Food" is a nonsensical song about having to eat fast food out in the city.
73	* CallingYourAttacks: Most of ''Fire'' would have Dick announce the SOLO!
74	** In "Riding On a White Train", he repeatedly announces the solo ''while it's playing''.
75	* TheConspiracy: "Formula 409" features the band, circa the lineup of ''Flashy'', being abducted by men wearing suits and T. rex masks and brainwashed with psychotropics into literally cleaning up Detroit with spray cleaner and rags.
76	** For the former trope, "Germans in Mexico" qualifies, wherein American Fighter Jets snatch Mexican women for sale in Berlin (or are called upon to stop said sale) and German spies attempting to take over the world are in love with the president's daughter.
77	* CloudCuckooLander: Just try reading any of Dick Valentine's lyrics, or better yet, [[http://electricsix.com/ the blog on the band's website]].
78	* ConceptVideo: Most videos they've shot qualify. Notable ones include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3zPlvT6unM "There's Something Very Wrong With Us So Lets Go Out Tonight"]], with its twist ending, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of2WzZx9AhA "Dance Commander"]] which, due to having two completely unrelated concepts smashed together and cut between, also qualifies as a SurrealMusicVideo.
79	* CoverAlbum: ''Streets of Gold'', which also closes with re-recordings of their two most famous songs.
80	* TheCoverChangesTheMeaning: The band chose to cover "I Got The Six" by ZZ Top to deliberately invoke this, where the 'six' in the original title was a penis reference (the song being about 69ing), it now comes across as Dick using his status as the leader of Electric Six to convince someone to sleep with him.
81	* CreepyMonotone: The distorted voice in "Lucifer Airlines" and "It's Horseshit!"
82	* CrowdChant: ''Human Zoo'' opens with a crowd chanting the band's name, before it segues into "Karate Lips". It reappears in "Gun Rights".
83	* DarkerAndEdgier: ''KILL''.
84	** LighterAndSofter: ''Zodiac'' to ''Kill''.
85	* DeadAllAlong: The singer reveals this to be the case at the end of [[spoiler: "Transatlantic Flight."]] The vocoder chorus even hammers it home by repeating "Everybody's dead" over and over again at the end.
86	* {{Death}}: The narrator in [[spoiler: the video for "There's Something Very Wrong With Us Tonight".]]
87	* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: "Put a little mustard on that mustard!"
88	** ''Señor Smoke'' ends with a song titled "Future Is In The Future."
89	* DownerEnding: "Cheryl vs. Darryl" for ''Mustang'' as a whole, [[RapeAsDrama given the subject matter.]]
90	** For another surprisingly serious final song, "White Eyes" caps off ''Kill'' with a song about the narrator being haunted by a white-eyed ghost [[spoiler:who makes them go blind]]. Or it's from the perspective of [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness a hallucinating drug addict]].
91	* DrFeelgood: The singer of "I Buy The Drugs."
92	* EndingFatigue: Invoked in "Improper Dancing":
93	--> ''STOP...(beat)... [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments CONTINUE!]]''
94	* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: "I Am a Song."
95	** It watches you masturbate and hits on women. A very ''naughty'' song...
96	** "Formula 409." You can clean your kitchen, baby. Make it look good every time. You can use a little Mr. Clean, or...
97	* FanDisservice: Tina Kanarek, the woman in the "Danger! High Voltage!" video, was 70 at the time. Having the voice of [[{{Music/TheWhiteStripes}} Jack White]] doesn't help.
98	** The naked porn star grandmother in the video for "Body Shot".
99	* FunctionalAddict: Played with in "Feed My Fuckin' Habit", and presumably who the narrator in "I Buy the Drugs" is talking to.
100	* GenreThrowback: "Heartbeats and Brainwaves", a throwback to '80s synthpop.
101	* GroinAttack: Dick is nearly bitten in the dick by a dog at the end of "Formula 409." Luckily, he punches it away.
102	* HistoricalHilarity: The video for "Gay Bar", starring an entire White House of gay UsefulNotes/{{Abraham Lincoln}}s.
103	* HotBlooded: Dick Valentine's style of singing is so over the top it probably never even knew a top existed.
104	** He lets up a little bit on some songs: "Steal Your Bones", "Chocolate Pope", "Jimmy Carter" and "Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart" are examples. However his distinctive wacky accent is impossible to disguise.
105	* IntentionallyAwkwardTitle: "She's White" and "Randy's Hot Tonight". Whether the songs are actually about a white woman (instead of her just being being "white-hot") and a crush on another guy respectively is... [[WordSaladLyrics ambiguous]].
106	* IntercourseWithYou: If it's not a [[SillyLoveSongs Silly Love Song]] or angst.
107	** ZigZagged: Given how alternately serious and non-serious the band comes off as.
108	* IAmTheBand: Dick Valentine is the only person left of the original Wildbunch since ''Fire.'' Eventually getting switched around, people have been hanging about since ''Switzerland'' and ''Señor Smoke.'' He also is the primary music and songwriter for the band, with only the most recent albums featuring songs penned and composed by other members.
109	* ILoveTheDead: "Alone With Your Body" is described as "the feel-good necrophilia anthem of the summer."
110	* ItCameFromBeverlyHills: In "I'm The Bomb" the subject of the singer's affections is cited as "a superstar living in the three-one-oh," which is the area code that dominates most of the upscale UsefulNotes/LosAngeles neighborhoods. The singer being thought of as "just another sucker perpetrator living in the two-one-three" is yet another ShoutOut to Detroit.
111	** "I Buy The Drugs" says the drug dealer operates out of the PO Box of FOX Broadcasting's LA headquarters.
112	* LargeHam: [[PunctuatedForEmphasis Every. Single. Song.]]
113	** Special mention should be given to the word 'Devil'. Every time Dick says it he does it in a way that makes him sound like an over the top cartoon villain - "Deh Ville". As he loves saying the word, this happens a lot (especially in the Wildbunch period).
114	* LastNoteNightmare: Exaggerated in "It Ain't Punk Rock". It goes from a regular E6 song to some sort of nightmarish industrial-ambient ''thing'' for ''almost half of the track''.
115	* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: "(Who The Hell Just) Call My Phone" ends like this after suddenly bringing an accordion into the instrumentation.
116	* LoungeLizard: Dick Valentine's stage and lyrical persona -- the full-blown CasanovaWannabe version, but it was especially prevalent in Fire.
117	** "Taxi To Nowhere" is a fast-paced lounge piano song (complete with sounding like it was an amateur recording of a lounge singer in a hotel somewhere) about being stuck in a moving taxi without any money.
118	* LyricalDissonance: "Jimmy Carter" reuses a chorus line from "[[Music/BackstreetBoys Backstreet's Back]]", except that it's sung in a very serious and somber tone, used in a very serious and melancholy way, and juxtaposed with depressing quotations from Creator/WilliamButlerYeats.
119	-->There's a lion out in the desert\
120	Slouching towards Bethlehem to be born again\
121	Backstreet's back, alright
122	** "Iron Dragon", off of ''Mustang'', is a sombre break-up song... that also talks about wizards, dragons, knights, medieval warfare, and betrayal.
123	** "Alone With Your Body" is a cheerful, upbeat rock song about wanting to [[ILoveTheDead fuck corpses.]]
124	** "Hello! I See You!" is about the apocalypse and Satan punishing the wicked, set to an apparent 80s love ballad.
125	* MallSanta: WordOfGod says the title character of "Big Red Arthur" is essentially this, to the degree where he's too incompetent to properly slide down a chimney, [[spoiler:resulting in him falling to his death. [[NotAfraidToDie Not that he really minds.]]]]
126	* TheManBehindTheMan: In this case, the Woman behind The Guy Who Rules the World in "Watching Evil Empires Fall Apart".
127	** There's also the smoking cat in "Formula 409"'s music video, apparently commanding the T. rex suitmen.
128	** The narrator in "There's Something Very Wrong With Us, So Let's Go Out Tonight" sees everything the policeman sees...
129	** The narrator of "American Cheese" is a rich, powerful playboy who has made a fortune off of... well... American Cheese. Subverted when the outro reveals he's quite powerless, and his bragging was a meaningless time waster.
130	** The title song of ''How Dare You'' discusses movers and shakers who're on par with the Mafia, making money and killing haters.
131	* MinimalisticCoverArt: ''Bitch, Don't Let Me Die'', to the point of not even having the title on the cover.
132	* NewSoundAlbum: ''Heartbeats And Brainwaves'' is essentially an Electric Six take on SynthPop.
133	* NoMouth: [[spoiler: The bride]] in the ''Psychic Visions'' video.
134	* NotAfraidToDie: "Big Red Arthur", if only because his death means he can leave the awful world he lived in behind.
135	* OdeToIntoxication: "I'm On Acid," from the Wildbunch days and "I Buy The Drugs," from the viewpoint of the enabler to the intoxicated.
136	* OutOfGenreExperience: "(Who The Hell Just) Call My Phone" is, for the most part, similar to a song you'd expect from the "disco" side of Electric Six. But near the end, the same riff plays out, but with the bass and drums replaced with an accordion, before LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand.
137	* PerformanceVideo: "I Buy The Drugs" has them performing at Detroit's only existing frat house, in a sort of ''Film/AnimalHouse''-style.
138	** "Rubber Rocket" is the band doing a Detroit bar crawl.
139	* PissTakeRap: One pops up in "It Gets Hot", [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment for some reason.]]
140	* PlaceWorseThanDeath: "Escape From Ohio" portrays being in Ohio as a fate worse than death.
141	* PornStache: The video of "Body Shot" and their cover of "Radio Gaga", featuring Freddie Mercury cosplay.
142	* ProductPlacement: Parodied in "Down at [=McDonnelzzz=]", especially in the music video. The burgers held by the lusty women are even black-bar censored out as they sexily eat them.
143	** "Formula 409". Even better than Mr. Clean!
144	** The Flashy Man: The Platform/XBox to your Creator/{{Atari}}. Several years before Music/CeeLoGreen made the same analogy.
145	** Subverted with "Infected Girls." At the end one can hear a girl reciting part of "Pleasing Interlude I" from ''Señor Smoke'' in Croatian. The only words understandable to an English speaker, however, are what sounds like "chocolate and a Coca-Cola" which makes it sound like she's just listing products.
146	** The line about Druid Fluid from "Clusterfuck", which is an actual beer. May be unintentional.
147	** Mountain Dew, extolled by the Devil in "I'm the Devil" as [[TakeThat death in a bottle]] (dew dew dew dew)
148	** "Dark Angel" has the singer telling a girl to be "[his] Capri-Sun."
149	* [[RefugeInAudacity Refuge In Absurdity]]: Read their [[http://www.wikisix.co.uk/mediawiki/index.php?title=Main_Page lyrics]] sometime.
150	** The press releases they write up for new albums are completely ridiculous. The one for ''Zodiac'' has them deliberately name dropping Glenn Beck, Music/LadyGaga, and Robert Pattinson to increase its chances of getting Google hits. The press release for ''Flashy'' featured a several-paragraph-long ShaggyDogStory about communism.
151	* RapeAsDrama: "Cheryl vs. Darryl" has the eponymous ex-couple's breakup begin with a casting call for a rape scene. When all's said and done, their romance is completely destroyed by it, even if it was simulated.
152	* RelaxOVision: The "'''SIT-BACK-RELAX'''" in "Lucifer Airlines" attempts to be this. Whether it's successful in the context of the song is up for debate, considering [[{{Hell}} where the airline goes]].
153	* RhymingWithItself: The first verse of "Dark Angel" begins with Dick rhyming "street" with itself three times in a row... and then rhyming "torture" with itself right after that.
154	* RunningGag: In "Showtime", the repeated references to "putting a little mustard on it".
155	* SeriousBusiness: Inverted. The band has a very light-hearted and casual attitude towards their music. As a result the group has often been written off as a novelty joke band by critics at home and abroad. Valentine's response: "Some people take music very seriously, and then they see us, and they want to take it seriously but they're too afraid the joke is going to be on them."
156	* SexDrugsAndRockAndRoll: Subverted. The members establish an image of being party-crazed rock star barflies but then, when interviewed, admit they're doing it simply because it's a fun change of pace from their normal lives.
157	* {{Sexophone}}: Used in a number of tracks. "Dirty Looks" is a good example, as is "Formula 409".
158	* SillyLoveSongs: If they're not vaguely angsty songs or songs about sex metaphors, they're this. Pumped to eleven.
159	* ShoutOut: Enough to probably deserve their own page.
160	** "Gay Bar, Part Two" references a lot of Fire, Senor Smoke, and Switzerland, and in turn is a jab at people's claims that they only ever wrote a handful of songs worth listening to and people who never bothered to check anything past Fire.
161	** From their Wildbunch days, "I Am Detroit, you are Mars. You've got red sand, I've got cars."
162	** "American Cheese" reuses "Vengeance and Fashion"'s end beat. Either a CallBack or the musical equivalent of LazyArtist.
163	** As with AffectionateParody above, [=Down at McDonnelzzz=] is a ShoutOut to '90s-era MTV videos.
164	** ''Film/TopGun'' is part of the brainwashing program in the "Formula 409" video.
165	** The song "Boy or Girl" has "[[Series/AllThat Hi, welcome to BIG Burger. Can I take your order?]]"
166	** "Doom and Gloom and Doom and Gloom" musically references, of all songs, [[Music/PinkFloyd "The Great Gig in the Sky"]] and "Baker Street".
167	** "Pulling the Plug on the Party" includes the lyric "We dropped turkeys out of planes just to fill up the sky[[Series/WKRPInCincinnati And they know damn well they can't fly.]]"
168	** Flashy Man, who Dick says is "the Platform/XBox to your Creator/{{Atari}}".
169	** [[Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow "Absolute Pleasure".]]
170	** As already noted, "Escape from Ohio" is a TakeThat to the whole state, but ''does'' also give positive mention to a couple of prominent bands that hail from there ({{Music/Devo}} and Music/GuidedByVoices).
171	** The man the narrator talks about in "The New Shampoo" is obviously Advertising/TheManYourManCouldSmellLike, and namedrops various brands, like Head and Shoulders and Setsun Blue.
172	** "Alone With Your Body" cops the "Crack open a cold one" quip from Series/CriminalMinds (see the quote page for Quotes/ILoveTheDead).
173	** The "pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty pretty girl" line from "Nuclear War (On the Dance Floor)" references Music/{{The Rolling Stones\|Band}}' "Beast of Burden".
174	** The cover for ''Bride of the Devil'' is a reference to ''Film/{{Dawn of the Dead\|1978}}.''
175	* SpokenWordInMusic: Some appropriate voice clips are used to set up "Flashy Man". There's nothin' wrong with likin' a flashy man.
176	* SpookyPainting: Several in the "Danger! High Voltage!" video.
177	* {{Spot The Impos\|TOR}}'''[[LargeHam TOR]]''': "Pleasing Interlude I" is a bizarre skit wherein Dick accuses the cashier at his local GreasySpoon of being "THE IMPOS'''TOR'''" for not remembering his order.
178	** I... woke up on the MainPage again... and I needed something to write about. So I went down to the {{fora}}. "What'll it be?" Said @/FastEddie, sporting a wry grin. "Just give me the usual, Eddie," I said. @/FastEddie scratched his head. "What was that again?" The usual was a heaping of JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourLife, with [[SugarWiki/SweetExists SugarWiki]] fritters AndADietCoke. @/FastEddie knew that! I had been editing here every day for the past four years! Then I began to realize... The troper standing behind the server was '''the IMPOST-''''''''OR.'''''
179	** ...
180	*** '''DANCE EPIDEMIC TONIGHT!!'''
181	* StageNames:
182	-->'''Interviewer''': So, with the band, it seems like pseudonyms are important for you guys--
183	-->'''Dick''': I wouldn’t say they’re important.
184	-->'''Interviewer''': So then why use them?
185	-->'''Dick''': Well, it’s a kind of escapism, I suppose. It's another security blanket. We're all terribly weak people, so we need something.
186	* STDImmunity: Averted with "Infected Girls", about having sex with, er, STD-infected girls.
187	* SurprisinglyGentleSong: Generally once or twice [[OncePerEpisode per album;]]
188	** "Synthesizer" from ''Fire'' is remarkably softer than the rest of the album, and yet still manages to both rock and hold a dance beat. "I Invented The Night" does both, it is a ballad for the verses and goes into rock for the bridge and chorus.
189	** "Jimmy Carter" off of ''Señor Smoke'' is an oddly beautiful acoustic ballad stuck right in the middle of an otherwise dance-heavy album and features some of the most bizarre WordSaladLyrics they've ever written. "Pleasing Interlude I" and "II" and parodies of this.
190	*** "Taxi To Nowhere" is piano jazz on ''Senor Smoke'', although the original Wildbunch version of the song has a rock guitar arrangement.
191	** "There's Something Very Wrong With Us, So Let's Go Out Tonight", although "Surprisingly Sinister Song" would be more accurate, on ''Switzerland'', as well as "Germans in Mexico". "Chocolate Pope" is much more gentle and light-hearted for the album, as well.
192	** "Watchin' Evil Empires Fall Apart" from ''Flashy'', which, while still a rock song, is more ballad-ish and contemplative than the others.
193	** "Immolate Me", "One More Time", "People Like You (Don't Like People Like Me)", "The World's Smallest Human Being" and "Cold Future" from ''Sexy Trash''.
194	*** Many of their Wildbunch songs ("Jimmy Carter" is a remake of one such song from those years).
195	** "Steal Your Bones" from ''KILL'', a melancholy, slower-paced song about the narrator promising their friend -- who they are obsessed with -- that they'll [[TitleDrop "steal your bones"]] once they are dead.
196	** "Doom and Gloom and Doom and Gloom" and "Table and Chairs"/"Talking Turkey" from ''Zodiac''.
197	** "I Go Through Phases" and "The Intergalactic Version" from ''Heartbeats and Brainwaves'', though the entire album is gentle, compared to some of their others.
198	** "Iron Dragon" and "Cheryl versus Darryl" from ''Mustang'', which are also both very mehlancholy songs.
199	** ''How Dare You'' has two: "Dark Politics" is a slower, mostly serious song about the state of unstable politics and how we're in it for the long run if we don't die, and "The Hotel Mary Chang" is the singer lamenting his self-exile inside the titular hotel.
200	* SurrealMusicVideo: Videos not mentioned elsewhere on this page that qualify include [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGn-cNmuzJo "Mr. Woman"]] which features a giant couch stalking Dick Valentine, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KET11SOC5YA "Infected Girls"]] with Dick dressed as a cowboy in hell, dancing men in hazmat suits and fellatio on the steps of a Buddhist temple, and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnsq9XtpmEk "Synthesizer"]] in which Guy Perry waltzes through a number of completely unrelated scenes naked and sporting a keytar sent from the gods.
201	* TakeThat: There's a few.
202	** "Rock And Roll Evacuation" from ''Señor Smoke'' was recorded in the middle of president George W. Bush's second term, hence the line "Mr. President, make a little money sending people you don't know to Iraq. / Mr. President, I don't like you, you don't know how to ''rock''."
203	** Averted in the "Radio [=GaGa=]" music video, though Dick knew exactly he was doing when he was dressed as Freddie Mercury dancing on his own grave.
204	** A lighthearted one at the Electric Six Wiki founder:
205	--> ''"Somebody in Newcastle has taken the time to research the catalog of Electric Six and provide a compendium of lyrics to our songs. While we are grateful and honoured, we are also very worried about this person."''
206	** " ''Except for GBV and Devo / Nothing seems to redeem Ohio / It is the state that killed my love.''
207	** One of the songs on ''Absolute Pleasure'' is introduced with the phrase, "This goes out to some of the ladies". The song? [[spoiler:[[StealthInsult "Infected Girls"]]]]
208	** "Creator/AdamLevine", which is not only an insult at Adam Levine, it's also one at pop idols in general. The chorus literally tells him to rot/burn in Hell (motherfucker).
209	** Lenny Kravitz: "And I never understood why anybody likes Lenny Kravitz."
210	** "I'm The Devil" has the Devil himself proclaim he put death into a bottle. The result was Mountain Dew.
211	** "Daddy's Boy" is one towards Donald Trump and was written during his presidency.
212	* TeensAreMonsters: Parodied in "Kids Are Evil", a song where paranoia about the youth gets turned up to eleven and some [[DisproportionateRetribution rather extreme]] [[GroinAttack retaliation]] is proposed as the solution.
213	* TheEighties: "Jam it in the Hole". STOP! THEY ARE GOOD TIMES!
214	** ''Heartbeats and Brainwaves'' is a deliberate throwback to '80s synthpop.
215	* ThisIsASong: "I am a song! And though my words don't often rhyme! I am a song! With a refreshing twist of lime!"
216	** "Love Song For Myself", from the same album.
217	* TitleDrop: Inverted - ''Fire'' is named for how often the word appears in the lyrics.
218	* TrillingRs: '''''Rrrrrr'''''ip it! '''''Rrrrrr'''''ip it!
219	* TrueArtIsIncomprehensible: The artist "Bleed for the Artist" seems to specialise in this -- from the lyrics, said artists' projects alternatively involve [[{{LOL 69}} sixty-nine dudes]], [[AncientEgypt ninety-nine rooms in a Pharaoh's tomb]], a gaggle of girls dressed as angels dancing on a heart, even ''more'' males, and statues of Christ. The song itself asks:
220	--> ''...but begs the question 'Is this art?'"
221	* TyopOnTheCover: The ''Mustang'' cover art includes a woman wearing a jean jacket with the band name and album title spray-painted on it, but the former is rendered as "Eletric Six" (the band name is also printed elsewhere on the cover, spelled correctly this time). Dick Valentine has said this was a genuine mistake that happened when they commissioned the artwork, but they decided to ThrowItIn.
222	* VisualPun - In the "Formula 409" video, Dick Valentine's disembodied head. Dick head?
223	* WordSaladLyrics: While the lyrics themselves aren't especially tangled up, the band has admitted that no less than 90% of their songs are about absolutely nothing. The topics of their songs also ping-pong back and forth between the initial subject matter and any number of nonsensical witticisms: exactly ''how'' the fire in the Taco Bell is relevant to the fire in the disco need not be over-thought.
224	** Of special note is "She's White"'s opening line "I was born a prisoner in your dungeon of flesh", which is this trope embodied.
225	** Sometimes the lyrics are nonsensical in a way that dives straight into MindScrew territory. For example, this pair of lines from "We Were Witchy Witchy Witchy White Women" explaining when the two lovers met constantly contradicts itself: "I met you on a Monday, it was Friday night. You were doing alright 'cause it was Saturday night."
226	** "Kukuxumushu" (which means 'flea's kiss' in Basque) appears on the surface to be an AntiLoveSong about a girl with the titular name, but Valentine admitted he just saw the word in a clothing store in Spain and wanted to use it in a song.
227	* WhipOfDominance: The cover of ''Human Zoo'' has a man using a leather belt in this fashion... on some rug pelts.

Context Music / ElectricSix