Sunday, July 3; Launchpad (All-ages): You like synth-pop. Don't lie about it. Even if you were a teenager in the '80s (when the stuff was almost too popular to be hip), it's hard to deny that there is something singularly stellar about the material decade's signature sound. You like Tears for Fears. You like the Cars. You really like Depeche Mode. If this is true for you, Action Action should be your new favorite band. Spit in the wind these days and you'll hit some sort of revivalist, but Action Action is one of the few who actually get the feeling right and expand on it. Don't Cut Your Fabric to This Year's Fashion, their February debut, is great for a lot of reasons—dark songs so catchy you might never notice the darkness, for starters—but the production work stands out. William Wittman, Cyndi Lauper's exclusive producer, turned the nobs and gave guts and depth to songs a lesser producer would have turned into indie mush. Check out “Eighth-Grade Summer Romance” to hear what I mean. Wittman can't take credit for the songs, though. That goes to former Reunion Show vocalist and songwriter Mark Thomas Kluepfel, Action Action's prolific principal songwriter. He already brought his new band to Albuquerque once this year, opening for the All American Rejects at the Sunshine Theater. This time they get the fat time slot all to themselves, headlining Sunday at the Launchpad. Check it out and fill up your senses with all the plastic zen your '80s-loving ass can handle.
