Brilliant Idiots

By Josh Tyrangiel

The Detroit outfit known as Electric Six are too stupid even for the stupid garage-rock revival, which is probably why their debut album, Fire, is so much fun. The first single, Danger! High Voltage, went to No. 2 in England earlier this year thanks to a Gloria Gaynoresque bass line, electric-current sound effects and lyrics like "Fire in the disco! Fire in the Taco Bell!" The track has a ferocious vocal cameo from a purported auto mechanic named John S. O'Leary, who everyone insists is not Jack White of the White Stripes. The same Jack White who insists that his drummer is his sister, not his ex-wife.

Everybody in Electric Six has a made-up name (the guitarists are the Rock and Roll Indian and Surge Joebot), but if the band is full of ironic knuckleheads, at least they're ironic knuckleheads with talent. Tracks like She's White and Improper Dancing have a lunatic energy that starts with singer Dick Valentine, whose over-enunciated roar makes him sound like a postmodern Tom Jones. The music is guitar pop, but Electric Six are liberated or lazy enough to steal ideas from anywhere, so disco beats and power chords get sprinkled in. Most tracks sound as if AC/DC and the Village People got drunk together, especially Gay Bar, which has Valentine growling of a lesbian ex-girlfriend, "You're a superstar, at the gay bar." The joke goes on too long, even at 38 minutes, but it would take a hard-heart not to laugh, or at least dance. --By Josh Tyrangiel