Labels: self released
Review by: Andy Malcolm
It has been some time since I heard the strains of Action & Action (still named after a Get Up Kids track), so it was nice to settle down with this 7″, a whisky, and the accompanying letter from Ambrose as I set about trying to write this review at midnight on a November’s Friday evening.
Action & Action give us a song here called “Wright”. It is a fine mix of tunefulness and energy, bounding into shouty moments of exuberance after pacing itself with pleasant indiemo waltz parts that build up into the louder bits. The guitars twinkle effectively and the vocals do a good job of variance, and particularly avoid the common pitfalls in this genre, namely:
a) trying to be Chris Simpson
b) trying to be arena rock
So fair play to Action & Action, this is a highly competent effort and I remain a little surprised that this band doesn’t quite seem to get much recognition in the “scene” I inhabit. Spy vs Spy meets those rare occasions when the Chris Leo got over-excited and started shouting on the Van Pelt LPs would be a fair description. Dashed fine effort, maybe an album will be forthcoming at some point.
Just used a crane to turn over the ridiculously heavy vinyl, and I am confronted by the irritatingly named ‘The Psyche Out Musikland Big Band’, who also pretentiously have a geocities website. Nobody seriously has a geocities site in 2007, so I feel safe in that accusation. It starts off with noodly rock guitars and I am a little concerned as to where this is heading. It picks up mightily after that techy introduction, and rumbles off into Small Brown Bike territory, all strained, gruff vocals and duelling guitars before it goes all post rock and a bit boring, with horns. It’s an odd combo. Strange that a band nails a really rocking thing for a minute or so, and the rest of the time just farts about inconsequentially.