A few nights ago a lonely tweaker in my neighborhood decided he needed a
fix, and fast damn it! After a few moments of prowling around the block,
the crackhead eyed my fuel-efficient early nineties Asian sedan and swooped.
Unfortunately, though it looks like my driver's side door is locked, the damn thing is broken. Thus the delinquent (let's call him Indiana Jonesing) catches a break and begins rummaging through my meager belongings looking for valuable items that can be readily turned into fix-cash. Wow how convenient, five new CDs, a pair of Dragon optical lenses, and eighty more random and burned CDs in a zip-up carrier. Long story short, since the CD I'm presently reviewing was "locked" inside my player, it became the only CD I had for about two days. So listen I did - and this is what I have to say about Action Action and their tediously titled debut.

I should first explain that I live a very fast-paced lifestyle and I had no time to get any other CDs from my house. Besides I was a bit paranoid about the possibility of a sequel to Indiana Jonesing. When I first started listening to Action Action the bright pink CD sleeve was so loud that I had to turn it over to avoid a migraine - luckily for me it was stolen and I saved a fortune on Tylenol. Once the visual distraction was removed I was able to better concentrate on Mark Thomas Kluepfel slamming synths. Upon first listen I thought this was The Cure on a synthesizer crazed high. It pretty much sounded like Kluepfel put on his "I Love Disintegration" t-shirt, fired up a dozen Casios and the Flux Capacitor, in an attempt to bring us all back to 1985. For being Action Action's first album it has the confident, legs ajar accessibility of Paris Hilton after a half dozen shots of Tequila. It aint too bad, and maybe they'll be lucky enough to generate as many downloads. I'd have to say that Action Action is following close behind The Killers as the new masters of keyboard rock with overly dramatic singing

"Don't Cut…" isn't too cheesy and sports 13 tracks that get on you and ride - covering topics as diverse as love and it's evil twin, to darker more socially relevant ranting. I'd favor you with a few of their lyrics, but darned if Jonesy didn't make off with the case. This being the case, you'll just have to take my word for it - from what I can make out, it doesn't sound too bad.. I must also confess that after
about the third or so listen, the album's opener, "This Year's Fashion"
became stuck in whichever lobe of my brain takes care of that sort of scientific phenomena. Found myself humming it, as a matter of fact. You do what you gotta do to cope with the pain of significant CD theft. Actually there are two different
versions of this song on the CD, track one and a quicker sneaky one near the end. That's how they get you - it's all subliminal. Since I'm being so open and forthcoming I'll just go ahead and admit that the faster remixed version grabs my heart and doesn't let go.

Overall Action Action is about reminding one that the 80's weren't all bad. "The Short Weekend Begins With Longing" and "Drug Like" (Indy's favorite) come at you in a big wash of funk-friendly synths that reminded me that, at least, Jonesy hadn't stolen my New Order cassette. All in all I could've been stuck with much worse, and if I ever cross paths with Indiana Jonesing there's going to be some serious Action Action. Bastard. I hope you're reading this and that you understand. You're a rotten bastard. There's a thing called "Karma" - and the more Karmas you break into the harsher will be your payback. For now you'll just have to live with the knowledge that you're an Asshole.