The Service Industry
Keep the Babies Warm. (Sauspop)With its second album in less than a year and third overall, Austin’s premier proletarian pop sextet goes beyond the garden-variety indignations of the workaday spanking machine to explore working-class angst from a more philosophical angle. Which isn’t to say the Service Industry has lost its ability to channel the unique brand of irreverence found behind kitchen doors. Vocalist Mike McCoy renders “Liquid Meat (Into a Form)” as a poignant cautionary tale of tainted food and genocide before crying out, “Oh, bring back McRib!” at song’s end. “Smithville” is a retort on behalf of those left at the dock when the SS Smart Growth set sail, while “All in One” takes a poke at gadget heads who have to be first in line. Borrowing a riff from the Byrds, the elegiac “Filing Deadline” stoically chalks it all up to “common human greed.” Maybe so, but the Service Industry’s loyal opposition offers catchy commiseration that keeps the glass half full.
This article appears in November 7 • 2008.
