Electric Eel Shock | Profile Electric Eel Shock are rock and roll. That is for real, no holds barred, loud, fast, semi-clad, flying through the air, sweating, howling, veins popping, off the rails rock and roll. They have created an international stir by touring nearly non-stop since 1999, playing anywhere and everywhere that will have them and doing anything and everything to entertain while playing their often humorous punk metal songs. Their history is somewhat hazy, because it seems that they are likely to say anything in interviews, and that often what they say is not correctly understood by journalists. We do know that they started as an eleven piece band in Osaka before settling down in 1997 to their current three piece line-up of Aki Morimoto on guitar and vocals, Kazuto Maekawa on bass and Tomoharu “Gian” Ito on drums!?! Their first album Maybe..I Think We Can Beat Nirvana was released on the indie Double Peace label. In 1998 they released the live album Live Punctured. By this time they had managed to become a barely known indie punk band. However around this time it seems they upped the ante, set their sights on worldwide fame, and undertook a rock ‘til you drop touring schedule. Starting in April 1999, despite having little money, few contacts, and only a basic command of English, they began playing extensively in the US and Canada taking gigs as they could find them. While sometimes playing to only a handful of people, they were soon winning rave reviews for their raucous style, and by 2001 were playing well known clubs like New York’s CBGB’s and Toronto’s El Macambo. In 2002 the band again played in the States, touring extensively with the Danko Jones, the Datsuns and D4. In fact they toured so much, playing in 21 countries by the summer of 2004, that they were only occasionally in Japan, and over the course of three years only played in Japan three times. But they were playing summer festivals all over Europe and winning rave reviews in Kerrang!, NME and Rolling Stone, and many, many other periodicals, and had their show at the Viper Room in LA filmed by MTV. Electric Eel Shock frequently say in interviews “we are not famous in Japan” but it seems many non-Japanese journalists do not believe them. Actually at this point they are not so well known in Japan, even in indie circles, although this could change soon. In early 2004 they recorded Go Europe and had their album released on Demolition Records in the UK, Bitzcore Records in other parts of Europe, Music Farmers in Australia, and Gearhead Records in the States. Go Europe however was not released in Japan until Dec. 15, 2004. In December 2004 the band went into the studio with Grammy nominated producer Attie Bauw, who has worked with top metal groups like the Scorpions and Judas Priest, which at least promises to increase sound quality above their previous low budget affairs, and hopefully will properly capture their abundant rock and roll spirit. by Keith Cahoon
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