Austin INsite Magazine (Austin, TX) feature article
Oct. 2006

What’s in a name? For Austin’s Full Service, living up to their moniker is a lot of hard work.

Throughout life we are consistently told to lower our expectations: “you can't please all of the people all of the time” “don't try to do too much” “focus on what you're good at.”

Thankfully, for a pair of brothers who grew up in a household of humble, overachieving geniuses, their parents didn't let them off the hook that easily. For Bonesaw and Hoag Kepner, the founding members of the band Full Service, the question has never been about narrowing their focus. Instead, their life mission is guided by the question: What could we attempt to do if we knew that we could not fail?

You start by having your band's name reflect your outlook on the music business. With a moniker not as artificially edgy as "Guns n' Roses" or "Deathcab for Cutie," Full Service simply remains committed to the old school integrity of truth in advertising. This foursome is as comfortable playing tracks like the Beatles as they are playing tributes to Megadeath or Mastadon. At the outset, Full Service refers to the fact that at any given show you go from soothing rhythm to hard rock to heavy funk to . . . well, a combination of all three. The brilliance is in how it is all woven together in a way that nobody has done before.

"A few weeks ago," says drummer Hoag, "we played a 3-year old's birthday party on a Friday night, then went to Houston and played a straight-up heavy metal show at Fitzgerald's with some of Houston's heaviest bands. It was BONKERS!"

When a band boasts the name Full Service because they can play any genre of music, the gut reaction is that they would be better suited to play weddings than headlining the Austin Indie Alliance's SXSW shows and playing INsite nights. Then again, what sort of genre do you classify overachieving musicians? Does one really think that a couple of brothers with Ivy League educations that spent their lives juggling three sports, straight A's, and running their own business as teenagers can settle on being good at only one style of music as adults?

The current radio industrial complex loves to package bands into neat compartments for easy marketing. The consumer then knows what to expect from a boy band or an Emo band, with all of the bubble gum pop and fabricated angst that occurs on cue. Certain bands are relegated to their pre-approved time slot on the appropriate radio station, and the target market segments with the demographic-specific commercials make everybody at the record label happy and well fed.

And along comes these guys. In their most ambitious project to date, Full Service's new album "Recess" exemplifies why Best Buy will also have a hard time classifying the band. From the opening rap "Freezing Dub"-- which sounds as if Snoop himself laid the vocal track-- to lullabies for children of the hip-hop generation on the track "Ramona," it's easy to forget that you're listening to a couple of white suburbanites from Philadelphia (in keeping with their truth-in-advertising integrity, they remind you of their whiteness in their homage to Public Enemy on “Black is Back”).

Full Service's previous albums have been easily delineated. While they can play any style of music, each specific album was easily classifiable as hard, metal-hands-in-the-air rock (3 Will Ride Forth) or soothing, Nantucket beach-scene acoustic (Irie Love). With the 2005 release of Sawngs, the band has begun melding the two to create their signature sound. Recess is a testament to the fact that the band has created a new genre of what can only be described as Crunchy Groove Metal.

“With Recess, says Bonesaw, “we wanted to do a LOT of songs from all pockets of our repertoire. Since we never play with a set-list live, always just reacting to what the crowd wants, we just chose the songs that people have been asking us for and mashed them up onto one album. Slayers to swayers, they’re all on there.”

The more I've listened to the band the more I've come to realize that the riveting guitars and the catchy baseline are strangely melodic in ways unlike any other band has mastered. Everything is upbeat without feeling forced. The music seems to echo Full Service's outlook on life with the integrity that is lacking in most of today's music. To listen is to appreciate their perspective on life.

Ironically, their choice of music only begins to scratch the surface of the hidden depths to their name. Full Service may also refer to the band's ability to handle the music industry with the same deft aplomb as they have with their SATs or varsity sports. Choosing to self-produce rather than sign with a label, the band has recorded close to a hundred tracks in the past five years. This isn't by accident. In the midst of a regimented 2 hour daily practice session, Full Service treats their music with the same respect as their previous full time teaching jobs. Anthony "Twink" Pitt and Elliot "Smell" Larden typically play the role of Public Relations, Tim "Bonesaw" Kepner acts as manager, and the rotatation shifts regarding booking agent between him and his brother Dave "Hoag" Kepner. Quite simply, the four are always working.

In a town flooded with as many musicians as West Hollywood is with frustrated actors, very few artists can support themselves solely on their music in Austin. Tim and Dave bridged that gap earlier this summer when they launched DaveandTim.com, humbly billed as "the most fun guitar and drum lessons ever." Thus, not only do fans pay for their albums and at the door, they also pay to learn their chops.

Then there’s the relationship between their name and their live performances. Remember the last time you went to a concert? Why even bother with the "Doors open at 8, show starts at 9" hackneyed lie? At 6:00 p.m. you're excited. At 7:00 p.m., you're not productive because you're getting ready to go and can't wait for the start of the show. By the time you're at the club, you've been waiting for 2 hours listening to house music and you're starting to get annoyed. Do you really want to hear the 5 roadies say "check" on the mic for 45 minutes more?

Full Service doesn’t either. Watching the band set up is like watching an Indy racing team at a pit stop. From the moment the stage is theirs, there is no chit chat, there is no meandering, there is no wasted second. Instruments have been tuned before taking the stage. Wires and mikes and amplifiers are plugged in seconds. Within a few minutes, all four members are on stage making last minute adjustments. After a few quick glances among band members, it’s on. Once these guys take the stage, people don't leave. It is all business from the first chord. There is no chatter, no self-important inside jokes - just straight up rocking out song after song after song.

“I f’n hate waiting for bands to set up at concerts,” says Bonesaw. “When I was 14 my dad took me to Guns n’ Roses and they took 2.5 hours after the opener before they started. It sucked, except that they filled the time showing girls take off their shirts on the big screen the entire time. Since that isn’t happening at an FS show yet, we want to get to jamming as soon as we can.”

Perhaps the most important view of the band's name refers to nothing about music but more about the nature of the industry itself. In a profession where unhealthy lifestyles are touted as table stakes, it’s hard to see Full Service in the same venue as the pasty, underweight emo band that opens for them. For one, they are perennially happy when they are onstage, even when they are singing about love and loss and regret. Second, they look like they just finished playing a game of pickup basketball before taking the stage. The band exudes the same healthy, raw energy that you see when you go to a college game. Third, there is no pretentiousness. Whereas some bands try to emulate famous rock stars by dressing like them, Full Service isn’t on stage to create a fashion trend. Sometimes you can pan an audience and observe a sea of imitators; hundreds upon hundreds of people dressed alike. One of the most unusual and purposeful things to notice about a Full Service show is how different the audience is from one another. Families with teenagers are standing next to the goth girls in front of the jocks behind the yuppies. Anywhere else, there would be an uncomfortable chasm between the groupings. But they all come to watch a band that is so very comfortable in its own skin that it makes you comfortable and confident and yours. After spending an hour memorized by this foursome, you realize how beautiful it is to watch another human being’s talent and hard work come together in such a giving performance. You don’t want to emulate the band; you leave the concert wanting to emulate their passion and their commitment to what you love in your own life. You want to stop procrastinating; you want to stop doing things half-assed. After you watch four people put so much of themselves on the line – you cannot help but want to witness that feeling again.

Ultimately, that is Full Service.