Debut CD a Friendly Gesture but Lacks Substance

The Friendly Indians come off as nice fellas who would rather ingratiate themselves than tear your ears off. And ingratiate themselves is what these Orange County pop-rockers do, to an extent, on their first CD.

Catchy melodies, vocal harmonies and vigorous but never dissonant lead guitar etchings are the goodies being carted around on the Friendly welcome wagon. Sometimes the band tries to be funny and clever, but its would-be witty stuff is a threadbare approximation of those fine Canadian cutups, Barenaked Ladies.

Mostly, the band’s two songwriters, lead singer Stev Franks and lead guitarist Tim Meltreger, produce unassuming and unremarkable wistful or mildly ironic love songs that are pleasant but slight on character development and emotional resonance. “If I Were Gay,” a breezy acoustic strum number, raises the interest level a tad with its humorous but respectful appreciation for stereotypically gay preferences in pop culture.

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The foursome spends a lot of time jangling along R.E.M.’s beaten path; they can bring to mind the BoDeans and the Gin Blossoms, but the somewhat creaky-sounding Franks can’t muster the front-rank singing that carries those bands. He’s at his best affecting a Jaggerish drawl. The Friendly Indians are at their best when they cut loose for a rollicking finale, “Pump Room,” a fond appreciation of O.C. barroom squalor that sounds like a sequel to the Pontiac Brothers’ scintillating “Doll Hut.”

In fact, the Friendly Indians would do well to listen to a whole bunch of stuff by the Pontiacs and their successor band, Liquor Giants, to see how wit, heart and hooks are supposed to mingle to give this pop-rock thing some depth and staying power. That goes for everybody else too.

(Available from The Friendly Indians, P.O. Box 1358, Sunset Beach, CA 90742, or via e-mail: fndlyinjun@aol.com)

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Ratings range from * (poor) to *** (excellent), with three stars denoting a solid recommendation.