Electric Touch

(Justice)

Consummately professional, inarguably marketable, and instantly forgettable, this Austin-based quartet’s debut proves them masters of the cheap hook, lazy rhyme, and other rock clichés that make the career of a band graced with drive but not inspiration. Electric Touch owes a vague yet obvious debt to the slick 1980s nostalgia of the Killers and Interpol, but with the help of the Bubble’s Chris “Frenchie” Smith, the band has given the album an eternal sheen all its own by diligently polishing away any trace of spontaneity, even managing the formidable task of turning lively showboat drummer Louis Messina Jr. into a bland timekeeping robot. Meanwhile, frontman Shane Lawlor, lately of British expatriates IV Thieves, makes whatever use possible of the cocktail-bar come-on, spouting empty promises in a vocabulary helpfully tailored to tipsy clubgoers. (5:15pm, Austin Ventures stage.)

*.5

This article appears in September 26 • 2008.

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