| :: Drugs, Stores by Action Makes by: $var (Saturday 3 short tracks. As fun as The Kinks, and as harmonic as The McCoys with riffs as groovy as The Velvet Underground. A perfect fit for any fan of The Apples in Stereo, Velvet Revolver or even The Killers, the collection of tracks use well thought out and modern sounding compositions that hold onto the elements of Rock & Roll that were most attractive in the first place: style, excitement and poignancy all masquerading as boys with shaggy hair and who like to holler, and yes, even shimmy shake. What first stood out was lead singer Clint Rogerson's formula of lyric writing. It's very much base in complexity, but that structure has potential to say more than any verbose string of sentences ever could. The first 2 stanzas in the title track, Drugs and Stores, contain 2 sets of the same lyrics, that contrast to illustrate some of the ideas you will find among the members of Action Makes. The lyrics are Drugs and Stores (x4)/ Is there anything else in the world?/ Misinformed (x4)/ Is there anyone else in the world? and then off into a Johnny Rotten paced rant about the world in which we live. The 2 questions are loaded with the concerned observency that fueled the social revolution of the early 70's. However, stupidity repeats itself and sometimes the light needs shone on the trends we catch ourselves in. The album mixed, in majority, by Noel Fenn has a clean production quality for something that I'm pretty sure was recorded in a private studio, perhaps a basement. The hidden track sort of reminded me of 'Suicide is Painless,' the theme song from M*A*SH. It's an acoustic jam, with pitch shifting industrial synth bass, and a certain odd intensity from Rogerson's sqeaks and hums. All and all, the instrumentation of the band is good, but not so technical sounding that you can't speak, for fear that you'd miss an intricate jam involving tonnes of solos... just good, groovy riffs with walking bass lines, and upbeat drumming. The album design, also done by Fenn, is a collage of imagery that can actually be classified as album art, like in the days when people bought records for the experience of the band. Drugs, Stores hit shelves April 9, 2005. The music is full of life and Action Makes is a band that any indierock fan should put on their list of bands to check out the next time you see their beautiful imagery plastered on a poll near you. |