Electro City

Celebrating its 12th anniversary, the OC Music Awards kicked off on January 8th with eight weeks of free showcases at different venues across the county. 35 local artists will compete for the titles of Best Live Band and a performance slot at the 2013 OC Music Awards, March 9th at the City National Grove of Anaheim.

Electro City aren’t remotely electro. The “open and free” indie garage rock band laugh when I ask that question, telling me that the name was just the best out of a list of bad band names.

Other options were the White Elephants (already taken), Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test (too long) and the Aristocrats (just not right.) And with lead singer Edgar Exciter’s “Ian Curtis” dance moves, the name is sort of fitting, his body a live wire to the high-voltage grind of the music. His last name is perfect; he’s definitely a crowd “exciter.”

The dance moves have been ingrained in him since his older sister snuck him into dance clubs when he was five, but he didn’t always feel comfortable enough to move in the band at first. “It’s hard to imagine now,” says Electro City.

Exciter is joined by bassist Edgar Treto, drummer Julian and guitarist Alex Morr and have known each other since their time together at Saddleback High School. As a band, they’ve only been together about three years, but they’ve developed a system in that time to make their 9-5 lives fit in with their rock ‘n roll schedules since the band admittedly plays a lot of shows.

They call their songs “baby –making music” and their shows have “a lot of excitement, a lot of crazy dancing, a lot of hand jiving, and foot stomping.”

Electro City doesn’t necessarily think they fit into a set genre, their first song will sound very different from the last but “has the same vibe,” although they joke that their music is “dark porno grooves.”

This comes after a conversation about their wildest show, a bachelor party where they were basically paid in a Dodge Ram truck filled with beer and, well, the chance to watch strippers. They took their gear out of their instrument bags, filling up each bag with beer so that they had “beer for a week.”

When asked what they’d request on their rider when they became famous, Electro City named the usual “red and purple skittles,” but when I told them it had to be weird, they replied midget strippers and “just beer, more beer. Why would you put anything else?”

All joking aside, Electro City are a serious band that have serious goals like saving up enough money from selling their CD to go on tour and doing what they love, “even if you have to fake an illness.”

Mostly, Electro City is just having a lot of “fun just hanging out with these chodes,” and they consider themselves a strong musical family.

“Pretty much brothers from another mother,” said Electro City.”We have our fights, but we jam and get over it.

–Nadia Noir, KROQ Los Angeles - Kroq

Next up was Electro City, who brought the largest and most vocal audience; it matched their equally large, eclectic sound and their bigger-than-life stage persona. - Kroq

For those who have never seen Electro City perform, the first, second and third thing that need to be brought up are Edgar Exciter's dance moves. Kid's got talent. His ability to gyrate, salsa, booty-shake as though he were Shakira, and sashay across the stage was without unparallel to anything we've seen recently on a local level. Energy notwithstanding, some of the songs early in the set sounded a bit too similar. The indie-ish, Santa Ana-based garage outfit were tight, technically sound and, despite losing guitar for a snip on their fourth song, showed serious promise with their last tune, which Exciter says, "It's so new it isn't out of the box." I don't know if "Lemme Ride the Soundwave" is the name of the new song or not, but I want more of what's coming out of that box. - OC Weekly

Santa Ana’s Electro City clearly has a strong following, because the floor filled up quickly in the interim between BCSJ’s and their set. I spent that break trying to get the attention of the bartender, hoping to procure an overpriced drink, so I didn’t have the chance to watch the boys set up and make any preemptive judgments (you’re welcome, Electro City).

I turned around just as the music started, and initially was pleasantly surprised. The garage rock band has great musicians – guitarist Alex Morr is a standout talent among the bunch, and their songs are fun, fast, and catchy.

And then there’s lead singer Edgar Exciter. This guy was a real enigma to me – like Paul Banks and Fred Schneider had a baby, and then enrolled him in the Mick Jagger School of Dance. His voice didn’t sit right with the rest of the band, but I have to hand it to him: the man is a natural showman (with an awesome, probably fake last name, I might add).

The fans ate it up; a few even joined him onstage to sing some backup vocals, and by the end of the set he’d won me over. So hear this, music lovers: give Electro City a second chance. If they weren’t your thing upon first listen (like me, or fellow MIP-er Kayla), give ‘em a couple more songs. It takes a minute, but they get there eventually. - Music In Press