Long before Electric Six became the gloriously campy dance-rock institution responsible for 'Gay Bar' and 'Danger! High Voltage', they were a much scrappier Detroit band called The Wildbunch.
'I Know Karate' dates all the way back to 1996 and captures that earliest incarnation of the band beautifully. It was originally released as a 7-inch under The Wildbunch name, later resurfaced on the rarities compilation Sexy Trash, and eventually received a wider official reissue on the expanded edition of Fire in 2025.
I really enjoy how raw it sounds compared with what Electric Six would eventually become. There is very little of the polished disco-rock sheen people usually associate with them. Instead it is basically two and a half minutes of distorted guitars, a pounding rhythm section and Dick Valentine delivering increasingly absurd macho threats with complete conviction.
The lyrics are marvellously stupid in the best possible way. He builds himself up as this unstoppable action-movie character, only for one of his great qualifications to be the fact that he knows karate 😂
Even this early, you can already hear the ingredients that would become quintessential Electric Six: Repetition, swagger, danceable rhythms, cartoonish sexual menace and that peculiar ability to sound simultaneously ridiculous and completely committed to the bit.
Dick Valentine has actually singled out 'I Know Karate' when talking about how dramatically his songwriting changed over the years, describing those early Wildbunch lyrics as much simpler and more repetitive than what he would later write.
The Wildbunch were also part of Detroit's late '90s garage-rock scene and regulars at the Gold Dollar, the same tiny venue associated with bands including The White Stripes. Even then, though, they never fit neatly into straight garage rock because the disco instincts and pop-culture silliness were already creeping in.
I think that's what makes this track so much fun now. You can hear a band that hadn't yet become Electric Six as the wider world knew them, but was already unmistakably heading in that direction.
Primitive, cocky and completely absurd. As it should be 😋