The Down-Fi - America Now

At some point I'm gonna find out the chronology and history of this young man, but here is another band from Craig Bell (ex-Rocket From the Tombs), this time originating in Indianapolis, Indiana, his current town, so I take a logical stab that this was his band before Deezen. Here Craig is on guitar along with another current Deezen-ite, Sam Murphy, and Jason Bambey on bass and Mike Theodore on drums.

This opens with a clever, catchy chord progression leading into a power-pop classic (at least in a better world than this one), "Let It Go". In "Tears in Her Eyes" it sounds to me like the Velvets doing a rockin' pop tune with drivin' drum work by Theodore. Their car song, "'62 Hawk" reminds me of a punky-blues in the vein of Jayne County and then they slow things down for the melodic ballad (nice bass work from Bambey) "Don't Keep Me Waiting" that includes some strong dynamics. "You Be You" is a plain rocker and the Bell revisits his past with a RFTT number "So Cold" that later became the basis for Pere Ubu's "30 Seconds Over Tokyo" - a powerfully dark and dramatic number that builds into a cool guitar workout for Sam's excellent playing.

Back to the upbeat pop for "Today" and then, based on the movie, "Network" is a pulsating, loud, shout-along tune. Punk-rock jungle drums mix with rollickin' bass on "Shit City" and then the CD finishes with a flourish with the anthemic title cut that kinda reminds me of the heavier parts of "Heroin".

Bell always has some cool tunes, mixing garage, pop, new wave and punk and always seems to fund good players to work with and this is no exception. I'm waiting for Deezen to record, but this is pretty damn close!

(I have found out that the Down-Fi is still active and will have new recordings out soon! Stay tuned!)