electric eels - agitated

Oh, I'm so agitated, so agitated
Run through a washing machine, agitated,
I'm so agitated, I'm so convoluted
I don't know what I know, but I'd just like to shoot it
It's five a.m. and I'm crawling the walls, waiting for imaginary telephone calls
You know what I think, I think the whole world stinks, and I don't need no shrink, I just hate it
Sometimes I think I'd be better off dead, just like my cousin Fred

What can you say about a scuzzy bunch of troublemakers, who used rock and roll as means of venting their seemingly endless frustration, boredom, and hatred upon an unsuspecting public? How about, "Cool, did they make any records?" The Electric Eels might well have been the biggest bunch of low-lifes to come out of the late pre-punk scene in Cleveland, which is saying something for a scene that contributed antisocial snotballs like the Pagans and substance-fueled art-punks like Rocket From the Tombs. They played a total of six gigs (all of which ended in violence and/or arrest) and recorded a handful of crudely played (and mostly bass-less) garage-punk that predicted the angry, fuzzed-out and revved-up sound of the Dead Boys and Rubber City Rebels. So it is safe to call theElectric Eels an influential band, but in a warped, disturbing kind of way.

They formed in 1972 after hulking John Morton and suburban Cleveland friends Dave E and Brian MacMahon saw a terrible band, with a recording contract no less, open for Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. Convinced that they could suck as much as said opening act, the Electric Eels became a reality. The problem was that Morton and pals were prone to violence (generally among themselves), and this became a part of their approach to recording and, more notoriously, performing. TheElectric Eels never employed a full-time bass player, and as a result their sound was fuzzy and grungy, but trebly and, at extreme volumes, capable of being quite irritating. So too was Morton's voice, which was more of a yelp and bark than anything that could be described as tuneful. Their gigs (all six of them) generally disintegrated into shouting matches and fights, especially when Morton would punctuate the songs by hammering a hunk of sheet metal, or start a lawn mower onstage. By late 1975, the Electric Eels' reputation for fighting and unstable (not to mention potentially dangerous) performances led to their being banned from virtually every club in Cleveland, signaling that the end was nigh. Loud, proud, obnoxious, and unapologetically incompetent, the Electric Eels were a great part of the great rock & roll tradition of expressing pure antisocial attitude. ~ AMG

Category:

Music

Tags:

• electric
• eels
• cleveland
• proto
• punk

[polistyrenejassband]

makes me proud to be from cleveland

[onab]

love the vocals

[TheRacistsMustDie]

@ThaKunzlermichael Yeah it's awesome...

[yetti1963]

I bought this as a single from rough trade records as a single in 1977 played by radio one DJ John Peel PURE Class

[byroncoley]

@lazlokovacs74 i do, i think they're very good.

[lazlokovacs74]

Who cares about Sonic Youth?

[ThaKunzlermichael]

Bieber is starting to integrate some Electric Eels into his new set. I hear

[gwugluud]

The Sex Pistols were actually fairly conventional compared to the Eels...With the Eels, the song structures were much more "free-form", and when their guitarist went into a lead, I think he just did whatever, without regard to "music theory". It's conveyance of the frustrations and the confusions of life was effective as HELL. J. Rotten was into outsider and non-mainstream music b4 1976, and I have to suspect that he must have heard this Eels stuff somehow.

[gwugluud]

@polistyrenejassband I think Cleveland is more responsible for punk rock than NY or London, although once they began to run with it, those 2 towns did VERY well (especially London)...And I'm not biased for Cleveland in any way. I'm from a small west TX town. So this is just a general observation...The Dead Boys were from Cleveland. You do well in being proud.

[Drizzlerman]

This makes me smile.

[PostPunkFan]

Awesome! So agitated? ME TOO!

[MACKEYUNLIMITED]

so agi huh huh huh so wha wha wha ?