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]