Die Electric: Push Pull

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More About

• Dave Gardner
• Misha Dashevsky
• Brian Shuey
• Selby Tiger
• Pete Wentz

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Die Electric
Push Pull
Heart of a Champion

I wish Die Electric had been around in 1986. They'd have been perfect for the best party I ever puked at, a Tuesday-night house party in south Minneapolis. Jesse from Fame was there with a girl wearing a boa constrictor and everyone was drunk in their honor, especially me.

Hardly the affair's only hurler, I was forced to distinguish myself by falling three times--the last, directly into the porcelain deity (a highly uncommon vertical drop--don't ask how) while I was worshipping at it for the umpteenth time. Neither the career-defining hangover I had the next day nor the bruises I wore for a week or so after bothered me; that was all part of throwing, er, growing up. The hostess's musical selections--Skinny Puppy, Front 242, and the like--haunt me to this very day. I'm not anti-industrial in the slightest, but none of it seemed at all apropos for such a robust bacchanal.

It's in the latter department where the talents of Brian Shuey, Dave Gardner, and Misha Dashevsky would have been mightily welcome. Die Electric play classic house-party punk, perfect for imbibing with intent and all that follows. A person who wasn't too drunk could even fuck to it. Not that you're likely to catch them at anybody's basement kegger (unless you know someone with an awfully big basement); they've got far too many shows under their collective belt to pay that particular set of dues again. Guitarist Shuey hails from International Robot; Dashevsky used to play drums for American Monster; as a Selby Tiger, bassist Gardner turned his rock odometer over at least thrice.

None of that experience is wasted on Push Pull, the trio's debut EP. Gardner growls, Shuey yelps, and they take turns doing both on "You Tear Me Up." As on the rest of the disc, the song flows in the reliably utilitarian stream first fed by the Stooges and New York Dolls. Granted, these young dogs don't show off much in the way of new tricks. But when you're woofing up the right tree--as they are--that's not necessary.