Electric Frankenstein is the Best, Most Popular Rock Band on the Planet
What do you do with a musical genre that's already peaked? Well, you can let it die, like jazz, or you can turn it into a standard form, like the 12-bar blues. This seems to be what's happened to punk rock, which peaked in, uh, 1979, but is still going strong. Punk has been gloriously standardized: everybody gets three chords, drum, bass and guitar, and the goal of coming up with the catchiest singalong chorus in the allotted time (one to four minutes).
There's nothing wrong with this. Because just as you have successful blues albums, there are punk albums that bat 1.000, following the formula so slavishly you'd think the artists studied at the Punk Rock Formula Academy. Rancid, for example, put 19 perfect punk songs on ...And Out Come the Wolves. Electric Frankenstein hasn't made that kind of record yet, but it certainly isn't for lack of trying, and it might happen soon.
The New Jersey natives have been putting out their Guns N' Roses snarl-punk since the mid-1990s, on a bewildering number of albums and record labels. Electric Frankenstein Conquers the World!, Sick Songs and How to Make a Monster Rock are particularly strong records, but really, any Electric Frankenstein CD will do, and they're easy to recognize because they all have B-movie Frankenstein imagery on their covers, the way all the No Limit albums have gaudy piles of money and pussy. You can spot an Electric Frankenstein record a mile away.
This is just one aspect of the band's frightening ability to self-promote. Electric Frankenstein constantly refers to itself as the "best" and/or "most popular rock 'n' roll band on the planet." A website essay from guitarist Sal refers to adults as "THEY" (e.g., "THEY think THEY finally have you in control") and the band as "the body electric." The body electric's latest effort, The Dawn of Electric Frankenstein (Triple-X), has liner notes that read like The New York Times Magazine on Radiohead: "a high-octane firebomb and the sonic fury of a thousand screaming souls!" Really? To me, it sounded like a bunch of cast-off recordings from the guys who later formed Electric Frankenstein.
Singer Steve Miller, guitarists Jim Foster and Sal Canzonieri, bassist Donato Canzonieri and drummer Rob Sefcik have been doing this since 1992. If their recorded output were anywhere near their bluster, they would be terrific, but they manage to just be good strong punks with Miller's scratched-up voice leading the charge. But wait! On MP3.com (which has about 70 Electric Frankenstein songs for free downloading), five interesting tracks have emerged. They are the band's latest, recorded this summer with Monster Magnet guitarist Phil Caivano, and they are far and away the best stuff Electric Frankenstein has ever done.
"Fistful of Rock" is a true rock 'n' roll anthem. With its sweeping chorus of "Saaaaave me," its much needed backing vocals and its open AC/DC thievery (appropriate for a band of fat old guys), it bats about .375 in the Punk Rock contest. "Hate Machine" is less developed but has much potential (many of these tracks are unfinished mixes, without vocals). "Annie's Grave" is fantastic, a searing tribute to Zep's "Heartbreaker"?when did Miller learn to sing like this? These songs (artists.mp3s.com/artists/11/electric_frankenstein.html) are slated for release on the next Electric Frankenstein CD, entitled Don't Touch Me, I'm Electric! tentatively due out on Oct. 31. This 13-track record will not be sold in any stores; instead, it will be "given out free in large numbers through various prearranged distribution outlets" as part of Electric Frankenstein's continuing plan to, uh, take over the world.
These guys play Thursday at Continental ("where else, ho hum," says guitarist Sal). Don't miss them; you might catch some of this great new material they've got, and you'll certainly hear some Electric Frankenstein classics like "Speed Girl" and "Friction." You have to give Electric Frankenstein some credit. I don't know why, but you have to.