Mention the ’60s and people’s minds go to ideas of hippy-dippy, happy-clappy flower children and sing-along, pastoral pop music. Well, there was another side to that decade, a darker, more violent, and more menacing side, and if you were to turn that vibe into a sound, it would be a lot like Shoot Me, the opener of this eponymous album from Electric Peace.
And as a way to kick off, it is perfect, as they have given us eight tracks that echo the musical territory mined by the likes of Iggy Pop, The Doors, The MC5, and Mick Farren’s Deviants, plus a whole lot of contemporary ideas thrown into the mix too.
From the brilliantly named Prince of Death on the Freeway, a blend of Mad Max lyrics and Radar Love groove, to the Hendrix-esque You Hear Them Coming, from the urgent energy of Motorcyclist Down to the Deep-Purple-in-overdrive vibe of I’m A Fly, you have the sound of ’60’s that they don’t want you to talk about. The dark underbelly of the decade. The music that turns the Summer of Love into the Winter of Discontent.
If this band had access to a time machine and the right contacts in the underground movie world, these songs would have been the soundtrack to Easy Rider, and it would have been a much better film for it.
