Electric Eels - Spin Age Blasters 2LP

Another six months have passed and Brian McMahon’s ‘JAGUAR RIDE: Memoir of an Electric Eel’ still sits on the partially complete section of my bookshelf. It’s not my most enjoyed rock bio but the insights I have gained, even the beat/jive talk interjections for the Dog Man character, have made me enjoy Electric Eels even more. 

With that book, and this collection of music, I now situate the band in the proud tradition of amateur rock music, which is more inspiring to me than a mythologised oracle. 

Here’s what I said 1 - 2 years ago about one of the best bands ever… 

As a regional teen with a handful of Stooges, Saints and Velvet Underground CDs, I was convinced that “punk-before-punk” was the pinnacle of culture. Visiting Electric Eels incredible geocities website and hearing a few low bitrate mp3s made their mythology of Cleveland’s Electric Eels loom very large.

20 years later I am so so so very tired of conversations about “the first punk band” and am more and more convinced that maybe, just maybe, punk isn’t a real or worthwhile measuring stick. (Note: that doesn’t mean the communities that formed post-77 media spectacle aren’t very meaningful).

Anyway how do the Electric Eels hold up now that one-dimensional transgression and notoriety have lost their lustre? They sound better than ever! This band rules for a more messy and complex set of metrics. For all the talk of nihilism there’s an obvious love, but also urge to deconstruct, the primitive origins of rock ‘n’ roll, with a freedom and spice coming from Albert Ayler’s ghostly free jazz.

‘Spin Age Blasters’ is the definitive document of one of the best to ever do it! — Nic