Pitchfork

It turns out the stiffs weren't the only ones wincing at songs like "Gay Bar" and "Naked Pictures". Two years ago, the UK press and sanctimonious U.S. journalists were quick to scoff at America's unwillingness to embrace Electric Six's "highly ironic" brand of dick-and-fart-joke rock. The "indie rock hates fun" claims made sense for the dismissals of outlandish (but ingenious) acts the Darkness and Junior Senior, but where's the subtle witticism in "I wanna take you to a gay bar"?

Yeah, "Danger! High Voltage" was killer, but hardly because of lines like "Fire in the Taco Bell!" A lot of things happened to go right for Electric Six on the track, most notably the cautious application of Dick Valentine's grating, class clown vocals. His affected growl may recall Jack Black or Adam Sandler, but what spews from Valentine's mouth is often painfully unfunny-- and downright unlistenable over an entire album. Which is a shame, because Electric Six's revamped guitar/bass/drums lineup oftentimes aims for the same straightforward rock aesthetic as the Hold Steady or Art Brut, albeit with brain-dead rather than merely divisive vocals.

As if per some Faustian agreement, Fire struck gold with "Danger!" and came up dry on everything else, save for a few commendable stabs at synth pop and dance. Likewise, Señor Smoke flirts with mediocrity on some dancier tracks. "Dance Epidemic" dazzles in comparison to its peers, with its libido-driven funk guitar and voluptuous synth bass (think Enon's "Leave It to Rust" at a kegger) accounting for roughly 80% of the album's hooks in less than three minutes. The title of "Dance-A-Thon 2005" may somewhat falsely advertise, but I'll take its spacey post-grunge bassline and uncharacteristically reserved drumming over the AOR claptrap of their "Radio Ga Ga" cover.

But enough pussyfootin'-- it's time to address the real shit. This album drops four consecutive hard rock stinkbombs to kick things off, proving Andrew WK has left a mark on the music world. Tongue-in-cheek, head-up-ass ballad "Jimmy Carter" gets its jollies referencing presidents ("Like Ronald Reagan falling asleep for ever more," yikes!) and quoting the Backstreet Boys. Señor Smoke's saddest aspect, however, is its yearning for another dance-floor single. "Devil Nights" and "Boy or Girl" got high-hats, synths, and even steal the chords to "Danger!", but seem more concerned with cartoon sound effects and lines like "Hi, welcome to Big Burger, may I take your order?" You wanna be in a joke band, Dick? Fine, then you're gonna be treated like you're in one.