| Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | September 14, 2004 | |||
| Recorded | January–March 2004 | |||
| Studio | Pie, Glen Clove, New York; General, Long Island, New York | |||
| Genre | Indie rock, punk rock | |||
| Length | 50:19 | |||
| Label | Victory | |||
| Producer | William Wittman | |||
| Action Action chronology | ||||
| ||||
Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion is the debut album by the Long Island band Action Action, released on September 14, 2004, shortly after the band formed.
Action Action formed in early 2004 out of the demise of the Reunion Show, Count the Stars, and Diffuser, with a line-up of frontman Mark Thomas Kluepfel, bassist Clarke Foley, guitarist and keyboardist Adam Manning, and drummer Dan Leo. [1] William Wittman served as the producer and engineer for the band's debut album. Leo recorded his drums on January 15–17, 2004 at Pie Studios in Glen Clove, New York with Dylan. Overdubs were then made in two separate stints, the first between January 19 and February 9, 2004, and the second on March 15, 2004, at General Studios in Long Island, New York with engineer George Fullan of Three Year Later. Additional tracks were taken from Kluepfel's demos, which he recorded on a laptop. Wittman and Fullan mixed the recordings at Allaire Studios in Shokan, New York with assistance from Matt Cullen. Ue Nastasi then mastered the album on April 5, 2004 at Sterling Sound in New York City. [2]
Musically, the sound of Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion has been described as indie rock and punk rock, reminiscent of the work of the Faint, the Killers, and the Rapture. [3] Its title is culled from a Gene Hackman interview on the DVD release of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). [4] Vocalist Mark Thomas Kluepfel has been compared to the Cure frontman Robert Smith. [5] Wittman did sequencing on "This Year's Fashion", "Photograph", "The Short Weekend Begins with a Longing". Kris Baldwin contributed guitar to "Photograph", "Bleed", and "A Simple Question". [2]
The album's opening track "This Year's Fashion" recalled the work of Depeche Mode and New Order, and is followed by "Drug Like", which sees Kluepfel looking for substance in his life. [5] "Photograph" features keyboards in the vein of the Cars and Def Leppard-styled guitarwork, evoking the sound of Kill Your Television -era (2002) the Reunion Show. [4] [6] "Basic Tiny Fragment" begins with at a slow tempo with Kluepfel's voice against a guitar, eventually building up into screaming from Fullan. [2] [7]
The next two songs, "Bleed", which features Eddie Reyes of Taking Back Sunday on guitar, and "Instructions on Building a Model Airplane", also with screaming from Fullan, continue this structure. [2] [7] "Eighth-Grade Summer Romance" features EBow from Baldwin and a guitar solo from Gary Bennett of Kill Your Idols. [2] The guitar-centric "Broken", with vocals from Doug Robinson of the Sleeping, is followed by the Coldplay-esque ballad "Four Piece Jigsaw Puzzle". [2] [3] [5] "Don't Cut Your Fabric" repeats the same set of lyrics heard in "This Year's Fashion" at a faster pace. [4]
On June 21, 2004, the existence of Action Action was made public. Alongside this, Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion was announced for release in three months' time, with the artwork and "Drug Like" being posted online. [8] Action Action embarked on a tour of record stores throughout the release month. [9] In November 2004, the band went on a US tour with the Beautiful Mistake. [10] They ended the year touring with Bayside; in January and February 2005, the band toured with Lovedrug. [11] [12] They supported Straylight Run and the All-American Rejects on separate headlining US tours between February and April 2005, and appeared at The Bamboozle festival. [13] [14] [15] They supported Midtown on their headlining US tour, and played a few shows in June and July 2005 with labelmates Spitalfield and the Forecast. [16] [17] They went on a headlining tour until August 2005, with Spitalfield and Gatsbys American Dream; Down to Earth Approach appeared on the first half, while Waking Ashland featured on the second half. [18] They appeared at a Victory Records showcase at CMJ Music Marathon in September 2005. [19]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [20] |
| High Voltage Magazine | 8/11 [7] |
| Orlando Sentinel | [5] |
| Ox-Fanzine | 7/10 [3] |
| The Providence Phoenix | [6] |
| Punknews.org | [4] |
Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion was met with mixed reviews from music critics. AllMusic reviewer Rick Anderson said that if listeners enjoy the work of Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs, "you'll get a big kick out of this album". He added that the majority of the tracks "stick with you pretty tenaciously, though, and this is a very promising debut overall". [20] Manuel Possible of Ox-Fanzine said the indie rock songs were "broken up again and again with punk rock numbers that are a bit too cheesy". Though it was "missing the common thread somewhere, it turned out to be a nice and multi-faceted album". [3] The staff at Impact Press was initially sceptical to its synthesizer-based sound during the first track, but for the remainder, saw it as "accessible pop-rock songs with emotional vocals". [21] High Voltage Magazine 's Jennifer E. enjoyed the first two tracks but did not like Kluepfel's yelling as the album progressed; she mentioned that the band seem to be "trying for too much diversity within the same tune, leaving me enjoying.. hesitating.. forgiving.. finally uncertain". [7]
Punknews.org staff member Brian Shultz wrote that while it was a worthy effort, it suffers from the "confines that recording administers, not to mention dragging in places thanks to its overambitious push (it clocks in around 50 minutes)". [4] Orlando Sentinel writer Jim Abbott said on occasion "all the pieces come together memorably, but occasionally one wonders if it's all worth the effort", calling it "so derivative at points that it sounds more like a tribute band than something genuinely revealing". [5] Ashley Megan of Soundthesirens echoed a similar sentiment, stating that while the "music that results is refreshingly different," the majority of the album was "overwhelmingly bleak and moody with little song variety". [22] The Providence Phoenix 's Mikael Wood compared the band to the Killers, stating that Kluepfel was "nowhere near the tunesmith head Killer Brandon Flowers is, but he’s almost as shameless in his wholesale appropriations of cheesy ’80s pop moves". [6] Julie Gerstein for Punk Planet said Kluepfel came across as "so self-obsessed that it's amazing he found three dudes to play with him. Don't Cut isn't the worst thing ever, but it does sound pretty self-involved". [23]
All tracks written by Mark Thomas Kluepfel. [2]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "This Year's Fashion" | 3:59 |
| 2. | "Drug Like" | 4:56 |
| 3. | "Photograph" | 3:34 |
| 4. | "Basic Tiny Fragments" | 2:46 |
| 5. | "Bleed" | 4:11 |
| 6. | "Instructions on Building a Model Airplane" | 2:28 |
| 7. | "A Simple Question" | 4:10 |
| 8. | "Eighth-Grade Summer Romance" | 3:23 |
| 9. | "Let's Never Go to Sleep" | 4:13 |
| 10. | "Broken" | 4:24 |
| 11. | "Four Piece Jigsaw Puzzle" | 2:39 |
| 12. | "Don't Cut Your Fabric" | 3:06 |
| 13. | "The Short Weekend Begins with a Longing" | 6:30 |
Personnel per sleeve. [2]
Action Action
Additional musicians
| Production and design
|
Straylight Run is an indie rock band based in Baldwin, Nassau County, New York. The band released two albums, Straylight Run and The Needles the Space, as well as three EPs, Prepare to Be Wrong, About Time, and Un Mas Dos. In 2010, the band announced that they would be going on indefinite hiatus, but might reunite in the future. Two of the members, John Nolan and Shaun Cooper, previously played in Taking Back Sunday and have since rejoined the band.
Watch Out! is the second studio album from Canadian post-hardcore band Alexisonfire, released on June 8, 2004. The album debuted at number 6 on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 6,580 copies in its first week of release, and was certified Platinum by the Canadian Recording Industry Association (CRIA) in 2007.
Disconnection Notice is the fifth official album by American punk rock band Goldfinger. This was the band's last album to feature former Ünloco guitarist Brian Arthur; original guitarist Charlie Paulson returned after Arthur's departure.
Life in Dreaming is Hidden in Plain View's first full-length album, released on February 22, 2005 by Drive-Thru Records.
Almost Here is the debut studio album by American rock band The Academy Is..., released on February 8, 2005 by Fueled by Ramen.
Trainwreck is the second studio album by Canadian rock band Boys Night Out, released on July 26, 2005 through Ferret Music. After some line-up changes, the band took a short break; guitarist Jeff Davis wrote a short short which would serve as the direction for their next album. Recording took place at iiwii Studios in Weehawken, New Jersey, The Machine Shop in Hoboken, New Jersey and Harariville in Weehawken, New Jersey, with producer Machine. Trainwreck is a concept album about a character known as The Patient murdering his wife, being hospitalized and trying to convey the music he hears in his head. Its emo and pop rock sound incorporated elements of progressive rock, post-hardcore and dream pop.
Straylight Run is the self-titled debut studio album by American indie rock band Straylight Run. It was released on October 12, 2004, through Victory Records. The band was formed by guitarist John Nolan and bassist Shaun Cooper, after both of them left Taking Back Sunday in early 2003. They recruited Breaking Pangaea drummer Will Noon and John's sister Michelle Nolan, to complete the line-up. The band recorded some demos and toured throughout the remainder of 2003 before beginning work on the album. Straylight Run tracked it at Apple Head Studios in Woodstock, New York, between March and June 2004, with producers Michael Birnbaum and Chris Bittner.
Prepare to Be Wrong is an EP by Straylight Run, released on October 4, 2005 by Victory Records. The song "It Never Gets Easier" was originally titled "Costello".
Discovering the Waterfront is the second studio-album by Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein. The album was promoted with three music-videos for the tracks "Smile in your Sleep", "Discovering the Waterfront", and "My Heroine".
Northstar is an American band formed in 1997 in Huntsville, Alabama.
JamisonParker were an American emo duo in the early to mid-2000s, consisting of singer/guitarist Jamison Covington and guitarist/bassist/drummer Parker Case. While active, they released an EP titled Notes & Photographs (2003) and an album titled Sleepwalker (2005), and managed to play over 200 concerts across the United States.
I Am the Avalanche is the debut album by I Am the Avalanche and was released on September 27, 2005 on Drive-Thru Records. The release date marks the two-year anniversary of the break-up of singer Vinnie Caruana's previous band, The Movielife.
Nightmare of You is the debut studio album by American rock band Nightmare of You.
Ruiner, released on August 16, 2005 through Nitro Records, is the fourth full-length album from the Massachusetts-based melodic hardcore band A Wilhelm Scream, and their second album since changing their name from Smackin' Isaiah in 2002. It received mostly very favourable reviews.
...And the Battle Begun is an album by the Rx Bandits. It is the band's first album released by Matt Embree's label Mash Down Babylon. The album was released in stores on October 10, 2006, but was first made available in late June both directly from the band whilst on their 2006 summer tour and online via their website.
June was an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois.
An Army of Shapes Between Wars is the second album by the Long Island band Action Action, released in 2006 by Victory Records.
Rise or Die Trying is the second studio album from American rock band Four Year Strong. The name "Rise or Die Trying" comes from a lyric to "Go Long Dad", a song from their first album, It's Our Time.
Over It was a rock band based in Orange County, California. Originally from Alexandria, Virginia, the band formed in 1998 to play pop punk. Most recently signed to Virgin Records, Over It is currently unsigned and inactive.
...Is a Real Boy is the second studio album by American rock band Say Anything, released on August 3, 2004.
Citations
{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)Sources
