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While most bands these days can be summed up in three words or less, Action Plus is happily resistant to this syndrome. Imagine Stereolab crossed with Davey Allan & the Arrows, or Astrud Gilberto & A.C. Jobim collaborating with the B-52s.

Ursula Blind's witheringly satirical lyrics are a tribute to/parody of Eurotrash ennui and French New Wave films, evoking a world where every fellow is named Ramon, Dmitri or Jean-Louis. Unlike most bands who do "funny" songs, [Blind and percussionist Sally Dana] sing with heart­­and with a cool, passionate detachment that Jarboe or Siouxsie will never understand.

Listening to "Sweetness" or "Pernod," you can place yourself in a favorite Godard film, or at least a Continentally-set episode of It Takes a Thief. With "Scorpio 66," you can practically see Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra on the horizon, headed for trouble. "I Don't Like Roses" is the best song Petula Clark never did; "Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo (The Car Alarm Song)" is the music heard in the discotheque scene in a 60's spy movie: some girls are dancing in suspended cages over the crowd as Dino or James Coburn makes his way through the crowd to meet his "contact." Car alarms become sexy with this tune. The Morricone-inspired "Zazelle" will be in a forthcoming film with a title like High Plains Grifter; whether or not anybody actually gets around to making the movie is entirely beside the point.

-Mark Keresman, East Bay Express

If "Rock Lobster" seduced "Girl From Ipanema," what would their offspring sound like? Veteran guitarist Joe Gore (PJ Harvey, Tom Waits) and vocalist/keyboardist Ursula Blind formed Action Plus to plumb the darker side of popular music and find out. The 12 lovechildren on their debut release have been called everything from "heavy listening" to "bad-mood music." I call it EZ with claws.

There's a lot more going on here than first meets the ear-just when you think you've got these guys pegged, they do an about-face and come lurching at you from an entirely different direction. The opening cut, a guitar spy-jazzy "Scorpio 66," is followed by a deft zigzag to the feather-light "Airwaves." "Pernod" is drenched in Holiday Inn lounge; "Bongos 4 Sale" sketches a whimsical acoustic lost-love story; "Vamoose" is hard-driving quintessential 60's-Bond-soundtrack guitar pop. Both "Datura" and (especially) "Zazelle" bear delicious echoes of Beefheartian influences.

But lest you begin to think Action Plus takes itself too seriously, give a listen to "Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo Woo (The Car Alarm Song)." I'll lay odds you can sing along with the chorus on your first listen, although, like me, you might be scratching your head and wondering where the hell THAT one came from.

As of this writing the band doesn't have a distribution deal, so if you want to hear their work (and you do), just write, call or e-mail Joe or Ursula. It doesn't really matter how you reach them. Just DO it.

-R. Preston Peek, Exotica/Et Cetera

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