Some Notes on Underwater Getdown:

Bryan Marscovetra - Sings softly, plays guitar, knows a lot about mortgages, eats slowly.

Audra Freitas - Sings forcefully, plays keyboards, designs interiors.

Michael Duffy - Controls all things electronic, plays guitar, sometimes plays bass and keyboards, sometimes designs buildings.

Josh Davit - Plays drums, tone def, watches too much Discovery channel.

Gabby Quijada - Plays French horn, speaks a bit of Spanish, eats quickly.

Underwater Getdown makes earnest, powerful music as if it were assembled in a dilapidated factory in the middle of an overgrown forest.  Their songs are at the same time direct and offbeat, composed of interlocking patterns and atmospheric washes.  The band is decidedly modernist in their approach to music; attempting to abandon stylistic references in order to pursue a unique language of their own.

Underwater Getdown self-released their debut album, Supersymmetry, in April of 2007.  Recorded at Audioconfusion Studios in the band’s hometown of Phoenix, AZ, the album proved to be a formative experience with many of the songs being torn apart and then rebuilt in the studio.  A series of shows stemmed from the album’s release, with the band sharing stages with the likes of Okkervil River, Asobi Seksu, Celebration, Born Ruffians, Cadence Weapon, The New Year, The Pinkertones, Aids Wolf, and Monotonix.

“The instrumentation throughout the album.... is startling in its unconventional flow and layers... There are clear indications that this band’s got some serious songwriting chops.”   Niki D’Andrea, Phoenix New Times

"There's an ambiance about Underwater Getdown that's both smooth and sorrowful. A concrete sound bridging the gap between silence and noise that can only be picked up under immense concentration."  Nick Fulton, Einstein Music Journal

With positive reviews coming in, the band garnered comparisons to such diverse acts as TV on the Radio, Neutral Milk Hotel, Ride, Radiohead, and Arcade Fire.  Shortly after the album’s release, however, members of Underwater Getdown found themselves restlessly expanding beyond much of the material on Supersymmetry.  Singer Bryan Marscovetra called the album “More of a turning point and a transition than any kind of definitive statement.” 

This “transition” has become a permanent state of growth, with the band continuosly honing their assemblage-like approach to composition.  Marscovetra’s vocals have found a new home in this mechanism, adding a fine layer of rust with their bittersweet sepia-tone.  And let’s not forget about Audra Freitas, whose powerfully serene voice acts as a sort of anti-corrosion agent hellbent on making sure no parts of the apparatus stop moving forward.

With a pair of EP’s scheduled to be self-released in the summer of 2009, Underwater Getdown aim to push their ideas forward.  Some may call it pop music, others may call it experimental, but in the argument of form versus function, perhaps it’s best to just say the two are inseparable.