(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
The Electric Eels, fronted by John Morton, lasted for six concerts and one single. They never managed to enter a recording studio: everything that remains of them was recorded either at home or live in concert. Toward the end Paul Marotta replaced the guitarist and Nick Knox took over on drums, but the group was always Morton's creature, an old-fashioned fan of glam rock (Alice Cooper, Kiss).
Their first single, Agitated (Rough, 1978), was still a naive attempt to imitate their idols. The second single, Spin Age Blasters (Must), released posthumously in 1982, was a scarcely musical harangue. The wild and dreamlike nature of their sound is better documented by the recordings collected posthumously on The Eyeball Of Hell (Scat, 2001).
The repertoire from their golden years was anthologized posthumously on Having A Philosophical Investigation (Tinnitus) and God Says Fuck You (Homestead, 1991). These releases brought to light even more decadent numbers, such as Refrigerator and Anxiety, and displays of nihilistic exhibitionism such as Sewercide.
Brian McMahon released 17 Volts (Crab Pot, 1996), which collects 17 lo-fi little songs for organ and small rock combo, such as Her Umbrella, which in the end resume the discourse begun with Agitated.
Fiercely amateurish, the Electric Eels were never anything more than an idea. Their role was important in awakening the local scene, importing the latest vulgarities from New York City and London.
John Morton of the Electric Eels and Paul Marotta of The Styrenes formed Amoeba, but Bad Faggum From The Mysterium (Smog Veil, 2002) is mainly a revisitation of their new-wave roots.
