The Dipsomaniacs
The Life You're Faking (Face Down/Jam)

originally published in Space City Rock, Fall 2003

The Life You’re Faking ends with an unedited version of the song that kicks off the album, which is just the type of all-things-to-all-people pandering that typically pisses me off. It says that the Dipsomaniacs know that a shorter “Everyday” has a better likelihood of being played on the radio but they’re too cheap to send out a separate promo disc and too pleased with the song to ax one of the two versions. In this case, though, all it really does is just save me the trouble of pressing “play” to hear it again.

That was an instinct that dogged me in the opening stages of my love affair with the New Pornographers’ Mass Romantic , and indeed, the Dipsomaniacs sound a bit like the Vancouver group but without Neko Case and the cerebral-hemorrhage creativity. The Dipsomaniacs don’t break any new ground, but at least they crib from quality sources, appropriating the cream of at least three decades of power pop. “More Than A Machine” sounds like it was composed in a “What You Do To Me” haze and “Valerie Valerie (NJT)” could have been cut from the limestone of Being There -era Wilco, but the Dipsomaniacs’ sharp guitars, punchy drums and efficient harmonies keep their own sound consistent and concrete from start to finish.

That’s the case even when their touchstones are made a bit more explicit. “Everything” culminates in a fadeout chant of “Someday I’m gonna ride it/Someday I’m gonna ride that wave to you/A million miles away” that not only doesn’t bother avoiding the inevitable Plimsouls comparisons but meets them head on, while “Rubber Soul” is backed by harmony vocals straight out of “You Won’t See Me.” That’s the song’s only resemblance to the Beatles album, though, and “Shane MacGowan” likewise sounds nothing like the Pogues, relying instead on Cheap Tricky guitars (I’m thinking “Downed” in particular), although I swear I hear enough hints of “Mr. Milk” in there to think that someone in the band is a You Am I fan. Derivative but enjoyable, The Life You’re Faking gives no reason to think that the Dipsomaniacs are interested in anything higher-minded than screwing around and having a good time. Careers are built around less noble pursuits every day.

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