Sound waves are created by the rarefaction and compression of air, which in turn offer solace for young love. Enter Action Design of San Francisco’s Bay Area. Follow an extended play with Never Say, ten songs that last a perfect thirty two minutes for a short bus, metro, bicycle, or car ride to your destination of choice In the disco funk power pop punk veins of Save Ferris, Dance Hall Crashers, and Motion City Soundtrack; guitarist Jaycen McKissick’s vibrant melodic cuts should force AC concert goer’s pogo bouncing to a sweat when Ten Feet of Snow and Empty Face play, and the persistent rhythm section of Jake Krohn and Matt McKenzie should slap the smiles off of dashboard bobble heads (Empty Face again, Pale Horizon). Though the auto-tuned never-off-key lead and backing voices of Emily Whitehurst are more than convincing enough to cover up the immature lyrical bits, synthesizer hooks are properly dosed for one of the years best distorted high school mirror ball soundtracks. A pastiche of Tsunami Bomb, Pipedown, and Calcutta Bazaar, if or when the major label music industry collapses, this is a glimpse of the fm radio future.
--David Ferron [October 5, 2008]
