Action Action

Undoubtedly the dandiest band on Victory Records’ tough-guy roster, Action Action is like a hot-pink handkerchief in the pocket of an unsmiling gangster’s basic black suit. Its debut disc, Don’t Cut Your Fabric to this Year’s Fashion (named, in typically geeky fashion, after a Gene Hackman quote from the DVD commentary track of The Royal Tenenbaums), whizzes and whirs with Moog and mellotron melodies, effects-pedal-warped riffs and propulsive dance beats. Like its recently reunited ancestor Duran Duran, which popularized repetitive names and stylish synth-pop, Action Action buries some seriously addictive songs under all the fashionable flash.