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CD review: the Service Industry
“Keep the Babies Warm” (Sauspop)
It’s hard to take seriously a guy who yearns for the return of the McRib sandwich and rhymes Thom Yorke with dork, but Mike McCoy (ex- Cher UK) is a pretty terrific songwriter, with strange, funny lyrics hoisted by delicious hooks. I’m a melody man f’real and McCoy gets my heart humming.
The band, including former Spoon bassist Hunter Darby, Andy Thomas (Rockland Eagles) and Robbie Araiza (what was the name of his ‘80s punk pop band?) knows its way around barroom riffage. So-named because its members work in restaurants and bars, the Service Industry is that rare tongue-in-cheek band that knows songcraft like the Dog & Duck menu.
Unlike previous album “Ranch Is the New French” (2006), “Keep the Babies Warm” is less a series of diatribes about day job mundacities than a collection of songs about general disillusionment. With great songs like “Churchy,” which I could hear on an old Faces album, and the head-bopping mid-tempo rocker “Liquid Meat,” TSI has shirked the joke band albatross.
The main problem with “Babies” is that it doesn’t crunch enough. The sound mix is somewhat leaden, as if it was recorded on a barkeep’s budget. More snare please. More layers of guitar.
There’s nothing wrong with the songs, that sound both British and Midwestern, as if Pink Floyd came up in Kansas City (where they once opened for Chainsaw Kittens). And thanks for “Smithville,” fellas and Julie Lowery. Have no idea what it’s about, but it jolts like ice cubes in the face.
The Service Industry plays tonight at Emo’s with Summer Wardrobe, featuring the great fuzzman Jon Sanchez on guitar, who also have a new CD.
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By Raf
March 5, 2009 7:33 AM | Link to this
Robbie was in The Wayouts. He’s also in The American People, The Fire Marshals of Bethlehem, The Doenuts as well as The Service Industry. His career goal is to play for The The.