What's the Word

Hey, so welcome to our new and improved website. That's such a weird slogan for marketing. "Hey, try our NEW and IMPROVED toothpaste, cause that last batch was seriously rank!!!" Is that what they're really saying? Well, our old website was a valiant effort, some good friends have put in some serious time and effort to help us, so....WELCOME to the NEW and IMPROVED, DOWNBEAT 5 web site.

Since it's the year end, let's just take pause to reflect on the 2007's effect on the band. The new year started one night, shortly after midnight. It was dark and cold but a restless shimmer of hope huddled below the surface. Now there's a load of rubbish......now for the real story.... We kicked off the new year playing at Hot Stove, Cool Music, an annual charity event organized by World Champion Boston Red Sox owner, Theo Epstein. Sharing the stage with some of the Sox, Theo and the immortal Peter Gammons was a rush for things to come. January and February we readied our latest CD packaging for the printers. A Philadelphia based label, Steel Cage Records saw the band live and wanted to capture what they heard and put it put. We obliged. We threw a big party, bribed friends with free beer and pizza and subjected them to an afternoon of chaos and rock n roll.

March 7th, Steel Cage released, Smoke & Mirrors The Downbeat 5...LIVE....We celebrated at a CD release show with Holly GoLightly and a few days later we flew to Texas for SxSW. We played a show with the Cynics and Eve and the Exiles at our fave record shop, Antone's. Later that night we showcased with our friends from Boston, Muck and the Mires, and we hit the stage just before the Hoodoo Gurus. That was a long day and night but, it was a great gig, and a lot came out of it.

April and May were spent doing some great local shows. We did a string of dates with the Knitters which allowed us to dig into our heap of country tunes we sort of save for the right nights. We also played a very interesting show with Richard Lloyd which was most memorable, for us at least, Not sure what Richard remembers.

June was highlighted with the Annual Boston Rock Garage Festival held down on the tip of Cape Cod. Nocturnal clambakes, daylight Flea Markets...about 15 bands...right out of a Beach movie.

In July we played at Boston's legendary Fenway Park for another Red Sox Charity To Be Named Later benefit.

The fall saw us hitting the local joints again. In September we paired up with the Hoodoo Gurus for a huge hometown turnout. November has us with the Woggles at TT the Bears in Cambridge. December is lined up solid with parties and guest appearances. The year ends with The Downbeat 5 playing Boston's First Night Celebration for local channel WBZ' countdown, with us playing at midnight live on TV. That'll keep ya drinkin'.

We just found out that our CD, Smoke & Mirrors has made it into leading New England music retailer, Newbury Comics Top Ten of 2007 of highest retail sales for the year, for local bands. The CD just went into a second pressing and we're getting a lotta hits on You Tube with our cover of "Shake".

Ok...that brings ya up to speed on all that I'm supposed to mention. Stay tuned to this corner for reviews on what we're listening to, what were reading and seeing in the theaters. Find out exactly what it is our pets are gnawing on, and why the mail has stopped being delivered to the house.

- the guy on the guitar