Customer Reviews

Covered In Gas

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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I came to hear of Evil Cowards because I am a fan of Electric Six. Titling myself a "fan" is actually a bit of a misnomer - I am a ridiculously huge fan of Electric Six, to the point where I hired them to play my wedding last month. I'm including that information so that you can understand where this review is coming from. Electric Six, musically and lyrically, is a big hit with me.

I listened to the Evil Cowards tracks ahead of time - four are available on MySpace for streaming - and enjoyed them but wasn't particularly blown away. Wanting to support an artist that has given me countless hours of listening enjoyment, I went ahead and bought the CD anyway. The first thing to notice is that this is not Electric Six. Sure, a few of the songs, arranged differently, could be Electric Six songs, but this is absolutely not an Electric Six CD. Besides sharing a frontman/writer, this album also shares a curious trait with most Electric Six albums - they take quite some time to fully digest. The first few listens did not have me particularly hooked. A few tracks stood out - Love Pigs and Sex Wars - but the rest seemed somewhat "eh". And then, just like Flashy last fall, this album started to make sense. I started to feel it. It is one of the catchiest, most fun-to-listen-to CDs I've ever heard.

You'll either feel the same way, or you won't care for it. You'll either "get it" or you won't. This will either be a favorite for you or utterly forgettable. Something tells me that if you're reading this review, it won't be the latter.

If you are familiar with Tyler Spencer, better known by his alias Dick Valentine, of Electric Six then you know what you are getting yourself into. Evil Cowards, while considered a side project by Spencer, has all the evil charm, rediculously catchy lyrics, new wave electronics, and overall jive that Electric Six is known for.

In fact, upon first listen you would swear you were hearing the newest Electric Six album, just as I did. There is little that differs between the two projects other than this album having a more soundtrack feel and less guitar. Like some of E6's music, Covered In Gas is a fun record that has the potential to completely ANNOY the listener. As much as I enjoyed this silly yet fun disco/punk/new wave fiasco, I will be hard pressed to listen to it all the time. Personally, if this were the new Electric Six album I would say it was their worst offering.

Still, I recommend it to fans of Electric Six and fans of wierd music in general. You will actually need to love weird music because if you buy this album you are getting 13 tracks of the most insane dance rock ever. Chopping Up The Teacher is gold as is Soldiers of Satan. Recommended buy, but if you are a fan of Tyler Spencer's main project then you already know what to expect entirely.

Only Tyler Spencer would sing a line like "I'm going to polish your turd."

Soon to be classic, ha.

I've had this album for over a year now, and I enjoy it a little more each time I listen to it. It's fun and clever and great to sing along to while motoring around town in my car.

I discovered these guys by accident: I typed "Electric Six" into Last.fm (for those of you who do not know what last.fm is, it's a music player where you type in the name of an artist or genre of music that you like and it will play artists like the artist/genre of music you entered), and it played these guys. At first I didn't know how I felt about the album, as this band is a bit different from Electric Six. But after listening to the album a few times, I totally changed my mind. Great album!!