Over the summer, Brooklyn based duo Lushes collaborated with OMG Everywhere, a nonprofit that connects kids with working filmmakers in weeklong workshops around the world. The kids listened to the track and came up with the concept, directed, starred and shot the film along with band members James Ardery and Joel Myers in one day.
It's as if Lushes exposed the children of OMG Everywhere to the grueling prison-like futures that await them in this bleak fucked up world. Will we ever escape this mental indentured servitude?
A plate shatters to the floor. Someone’s drunk at table 9 and now you have to get the cleaning supplies. How are you feeling? How’s your day been? How much longer can you stand this job?
With their sophomore album’s first single, Lushes suggested you just quit. But with “Circus,” featuring a manic sax solo from Zs frontman Sam Hillmer, we dive into the emotional space we all deal with – but rarely admit in public.
Ardery explains, “We push on, weigh on, linger on, fall on, drown in these degrading jobs. There’s a fine line where the commentary is not supposed to be entirely about the job being bad, but about how poorly you are treated by customers. It’s cultural commentary on the people who go into sterile restaurants and make a fucking mess, tip nothing and walk out.”
The album, aptly titled Service Industry, out October 16, 2015, is a rollercoaster through the maze of modern living. It was recorded and mixed by Sonic Youth’s long time engineer Aaron Mullan at Echo Canyon, during a period of intense money, work and life stress.
The sound also came out of the tension between the duo – with singer/guitarist James Ardery having grown up listening to punk and rap, and drummer Joel Myers raised on classical music. But the tension comes into balance with every song, ejecting the band’s music from the cultural hype machine out onto our daily lives.
First single and opener “Low Hanging Fruit” captures the feeling of hypnotic desire for empty instant gratification, with its angular guitar riffs and softly menacing bass line.
Service Industry extends the tensions begun with Lushes’ debut album, What Am I Doing. In their first album, the themes of anxiety were often held back in pursuit of serene moments, brief escapes from our mundane lives. With Service Industry, Lushes give you something more raw, more guitar-and-drum driven, more primal.
The album throws a wrench in things. It stands as a map of a crisis, a bleak and gorgeous snapshot of our world, and a question: why continue living like we do?
You can pre-order Service Industry now at felte’s webstore. Tour dates below and more to come.
TOUR DATES:
10.01 Brooklyn, NY @ Trans-Pecos
10.16 Brooklyn, NY @ Union Pool (CMJ Festival @ 8:30pm)
10.20 Brooklyn, NY @ Alphaville
10.21 San Francisco, CA @ Hemlock Tavern
10.22 Sacramento, CA @ Colonial Cafe
10.24 Covina, CA @ The Yolanda Courthouse
10.25 Los Angeles, CA @ Origami Vinyl In-Store (4pm)
10.25 Los Angeles, CA @ Broken Flowers
10.27 Long Beach, CA @ The Prospector
10.28 Fullerton, CA @ The Continental Room
10.30 Los Angeles, CA @ Non Plus Ultra*
11.26 Paris, FR @ Espace B**
11.28 Oberhausen, DE @ Druckluft (Pressure Air Festival)**
11.29 Berlin, DE @ Comet Club**
12.01 Copenhagen, DK @ Musik Loppen**
12.02 Hamburg, DE @ MS Stubnitz**
12.03 Amsterdam, NL @ Bitterzoet**
12.04 Brussels, BG @ AB-Box (Autumn Falls Festival)**
12.06 Rotterdam, NL @ Rotown
12.07 London, UK @ Shacklewell Arms (Eat Your Own Ears)
* w/ SEXTILE
** w/ Raketkanon