The follow up to Brooklyn duo Lushes’ What Am I Doing is titled Service Industry, is out on Felte October 16, and is taller and louder than the 2014 debut in every way. Possible reasons being: the album was engineered and recorded with Sonic Youth’s long time sound fiend Aaron Mullan, the guest spots of ZS’ front-man Sam Hillmer, Justin Frye of PC Worship, and Jonathan Schenke (Parquet Courts’ engineer and member of Eaters), or maybe band-mates James Ardery and Joel Myers binged on XP and leveled up the gnar. By simply pressing play to Service Industry, there’s an urge to go buy a U-Haul of speaker stacks and go for round two. No song gassed that U-Haul like Service Industry’s indirect title track, “Circus,” which features ZS-aforementioned saxophonist, Sam Hillmer.
“Circus” carries a tongue-buried-in-check theme as Lushes plugs in throughout the record, touching on routine, pre-cut paths, normalcy, and emotional labor. “Circus” touts the latter; the fake smile for real tips trade off; “the customer is always right;” depressive all service industry jobs live by. Ardery’s deadpan, Stephen-Malkmus-dry dive into soul-sucking bullshit with lines like “Just leave a mess and I’ll clean it up/ It’ll only take me a day,” lives with Hillmer’s sax hysteria and Lushes’ post-shift vent. He sits, jaded behind the smiles, and “sirs” and “ma’ams,” becoming complacent (“‘Cause I’m in a circus and I don’t ever want to leave”) and cynical to the world around him (This whole thing is a service industry”). Some days blow.
Service Industry is out October 16. You can/should totally pre-order is on Felte.
• Lushes: http://www.lushes.us
• Lushes: https://lushes.bandcamp.com
• Felte: http://felte.net
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