FIFO was a “band” consisting of my late brother Joseph & me, & anyone else we could coerce into joining us. we were “active” from the late 80s to the early/mid 90s. our “gigs” were exclusively at Something Else, a Lewis University basement’s monthly(?) open-mic coffee house. Joseph came up with the name (First In, First Out), i think, because he got terrible stage fright & wanted to get the performances over with asap, & also possibly because we were big R.E.M. fans, & he liked the idea of an acronym band name (this is all conjecture, of course; Joe’s motives were sometimes difficult to discern…). we played covers (other people’s songs) with exceptionally rare exceptions. we had our moments, but generally speaking, we were a bundle of nerves (i’ve dealt with my share of stage fright, too – especially back then), which we attempted to mitigate with alcohol. & that helped – up to a point. if we exceeded the effective dosage, our performances could be almost as shaky as we were. but i like to think that the somewhat unusual material we played there, as well as our sometimes unorthodox instrumentation for a coffee house, was unique for that audience & made us “stand out” a little more than most of the other acts. by way of example, i have to believe that we were the only act to use a drum machine part (saved to a cassette tape & played back on a boom box!), & utilize a xylophone in that venue!

When Joseph died, in 2019, one of the many tragedies about losing him, which hit me, personally, the hardest, was the fact that his music died as well. Joseph was a self-taught, amateur musician who wrote many little imaginative ditties on guitar (among other instruments) that i thoroughly enjoyed, marveled at, & ultimately, failed to help him “get down on tape”. but he also bought a lot of portable recording gear that i hoped would contain examples of his compositions. &, from these, i hoped to produce an album to present exactly those ideas.

unfortunately, i found that precious little of his music survives – certainly not enough for a full album of complete songs. i was dejected. i didn’t know what to do next; i’d had it set in my mind to do an album of his songs, & then i found the material didn’t exist.

i wondered what could be done for months. but, finally, one day, i was hit with a moment of clarity (it happens occasionally). i had forgotten all about FIFO!

a FIFO record would scratch my itch, not offend Joseph, & perhaps give me a bit of closure. of the fragments of Joseph’s left-behind material, i could fashion full-fledged songs, add in a couple of things i wrote, & end up with an homage to Joseph that featured his own writing.

& that’s what this page is all about: the first & only FIFO record, to be released on Joseph’s birthday, October 9th 2024!

on one of Joseph’s myriad digital recorders, i found an almost-complete cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Bleed To Love Her”. since FIFO was a cover band, & the album i’m planning will be original material, i thought this song would make a great “teaser” single for this project. i arranged it & had some friends help me record it – all of whom were FIFO members at some time(s), except for Dave & Ally (sorry you two; you would’ve gotten the call if we’d known you then!).

& i’m compelled to mention that none of these fine musicians were paid for this recording – they all generously donated their time for this. i tend to think they all recognized the special nature of this project & agreed to do it based, in part i imagine, on their ability to tolerate my preoccupations. here’s the line-up:

JOSEPH BELLA – guitar & vocals

ALLISON FLOOD – backing vocals

BARRET HARVEY – drums

KEITH TULK – congas & xylophone

jeffrey michael bella – bass, vocals, guitar, & Omnichord.

the newest of my good friends, & audio genius, DAVE FRANCIS helped me produce & arrange the fleshing-out of this song, including editing Joseph’s tracks, engineering all further recording, & mixing & mastering it. beyond marvelous!

the “B-side” of this single contains the source material Joseph left behind so that you can hear the before-&-after of this track.

thanks for reading this far! more content will be posted as it’s created!

– FIFO