Switzerland (album)

Switzerland is the title of the third album by Detroit rock band Electric Six.

Switzerland
Studio album by
Electric Six
ReleasedSeptember 12, 2006 (2006-09-12)
RecordedNovember 2005[1]
GenreRock
Length42:15
LabelMetropolis
ProducerPeters & Peters
Electric Six chronology
Señor Smoke
(2005)		 Switzerland
(2006)		 I Shall Exterminate Everything Around Me That Restricts Me from Being the Master
(2007)
Singles from
Switzerland
  1. "I Buy the Drugs"
    Released: 15 August 2006 (2006-08-15)
Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
Metacritic49/100[2]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[3]
Pitchfork Media(4.9/10)[4]
Alternative Press[5]

The album consists of thirteen new tracks. The band commented that:

[...] for the first time, none of the songs have the word "dance" or variation of "dance" in the title. But fear not. We have songs with "drugs" and "girls" and "tonight" and "night" and "louder" and "party" in the title, so we haven't given up on our philosophy just yet.

A music video for the song "I Buy the Drugs" was recorded on July 1, 2006 and was released on their MySpace site in early August. A digital download of the track followed on August 15, 2006.

The album was released on September 12, 2006 in the United States and was followed by releases in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Scandinavia.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Tyler Spencer; all music composed by Tyler Spencer except where noted.

  1. "The Band in Hell" – 3:19
  2. "I Buy the Drugs" – 3:22
  3. "Mr. Woman" – 2:52
  4. "Night Vision" – 4:03
  5. "Infected Girls" (Peters/Shipps) – 3:29
  6. "Pulling the Plug on the Party" – 2:54
  7. "Rubber Rocket" (Tait) – 3:37
  8. "Pink Flamingos" – 2:42
  9. "I Wish This Song Was Louder" – 3:14
  10. "Slices of You" (John Nash) – 4:17
  11. "There's Something Very Wrong With Us, So Let's Go Out Tonight" – 4:23
  12. "Germans in Mexico" – 3:01
  13. "Chocolate Pope" – 1:02

The Australian release of the album under label Inertia Records contains a fourteenth track, a Midnight Juggernauts remix of "The Future Is in the Future" from the band's album Señor Smoke.[6]

Music videos

Lead singer Dick Valentine stated in an interview that the band intends to record a video for every song on the album, "a lot of them...low budget".[1] Seven official videos were released:

In addition to the official videos released by the band, Electric Six also hosted a contest for the best fan video for the first single on the album, "I Buy the Drugs."[7] Several winning videos were posted on the band's MySpace page but have since been removed.

Personnel
  • Dick Valentine - vocals
  • John R. Dequindre - bass, harmonica
  • Percussion World - drums, cymbal
  • Johnny Na$hinal - lead guitar
  • The Colonel - rhythm guitar, background vocals, sitar
  • Tait Nucleus? - synthesizer, piano[8]

Trivia
  • Roughly at 1:50 mark of the track "Infected Girls" there is a speech of the girl telling the story from "Pleasing Interlude I" (a track from the band's second album, Señor Smoke) in Russian in the end in Lithuanian.
  • Lead singer Dick Valentine has stated that the name Switzerland was chosen because he had never been there, and hoped that the band would be invited to tour. As of February 2009, Electric Six is scheduled to tour Switzerland in March.[9]
  • The album was dedicated to the Swiss tennis player Roger Federer.

Legacy
  • Demo versions of "I Buy the Drugs" and "I Wish This Song was Louder" were subsequently released on the band's first compilation album "Sexy Trash".
  • The band performed "I Buy the Drugs" and "Infected Girls" on their first live album "Absolute Pleasure".
  • The band performed "I Buy the Drugs" in their live concert film "Absolute Treasure".
  • Demo versions of "Night Vision" and "Slices of You" were subsequently released on the band's second compilation album "Mimicry and Memories".
  • Dick Valentine recorded acoustic versions of "The Band In Hell", "I Buy the Drugs" and "Pink Flamingos" for his solo album "Quiet Time".
  • "Night Vision" and "Infected Girls" appeared in the band's mockumentary feature film "Roulette Stars of Metro Detroit", with a remix of "Night Vision" appearing on the accompanying soundtrack album.
  • The band performed "Night Vision" and "Germans in Mexico" on their second live album "You're Welcome!".
  • The band performed a stripped-down version of "Pink Flamingos", "Night Vision" and "I Buy the Drugs" on their third live album "Chill Out!".[10][11]

References
  1. "Dick Valentine, Musician, Electric Six" Archived 2006-12-08 at the Wayback Machine, Gothamist, June 9, 2006.
  2. "Switzerland by Electric Six". Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  3. Allmusic review
  4. Pitchfork Media review Archived 2008-09-17 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Reviews - Alternative Press". Retrieved 3 October 2016.
  6. "Switzerland" Archived 2006-10-17 at the Wayback Machine at Inertia Records.
  7. "Electric Six to hold groundbreaking fan video contest for 'I Buy The Drugs!'" Archived 2012-02-05 at the Wayback Machine, official Electric Six website, August 18, 2006.
  8. https://www.discogs.com/electricsix-Switzerland/release/1048218
  9. See "Frequently Asked Questions 2009" http://www.electricsix.com/
  10. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/e6absolutetreasure/a-very-electric-sixmas-and-chill-out
  11. https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/electric-six/2018/smalls-bar-hamtramck-mi-33ef1499.html
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