GO FAST- Great American Get Down

"Go Fast ... [is] the answer to the prayers offered to the rock gods, and ... their debut CD on HTS Recordings is the new bible for hipsters everywhere.   There's plenty of screaming guitar, thunderous bass and big rock drums to get it up, and just enough bad boy ballads to get it on.  Diffee's lyrics are from a time and place where hot rods ruled the land and beer flowed like honey."
-Vintage Guitar, 7/00

"This grizzled rock outfit makes no secret of their redneck chic influences.  But here's the key - they do it very well.  From track one, Great American Get Down delivers its guitar driven foundation with heat.  Scott E. Diffee and Kevin Kerby blister in less time than it takes to warm up a set of Fender tubes.  "700 Miles" belts out Malcolm Young string-plucking with abandon, and damn if it doesn't work.  Lyrically, Diffee practices enough "this is who we are" and artist myth-building to make Hemingway blush.  But what never falters is the love for the genre and a very real sense of pistol-in-the-boot rock'n'roll.   [Great American Get Down] is held fast by the consistency of the music and dead-on production of Barry Poynter, all lovingly packaged with the Kustom Kulture art of '60s legend Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.  By the close of "Like This Before," you are sure you've been road-drinking with these boys, and you're ready for the next town.
-Britt Strickland, Southeast Performer, 5/00

"Channeling the Rolling Stones by way of The Supersuckers, which is to say good old fashioned sleazy, beer-soaked, turned-up-to-11, sweat and motor-oil stinking Rock and Roll, Go Fast makes you feel guilty even as your hand uncontrollably shoots up in the air with index, thumb, and little finger extended.   This is hard rawk, State-Fair-mainstage-worthy, mullet-friendly, and featuring a lead singer who is unashamed to belt out lines like 'hey little mama, get your motor runnin'!'  John Mellencamp has recurring nightmares about Go Fast gaining on him in a souped-up Camaro, nightmares from which he awakes screaming, his silk sheets clinging to him with cold sweat."
-Will Robinson Sheff, audiogalaxy.com, 4/00

"County Fair, 1978, you’re nine years old.   You have accidentally wandered off the midway.  You turn the corner and see it.  Behind the porta-potties, a sixteen year-old girl is giving head to a carnie.   Music from the grandstand roars in your ears as you turn and bolt to the safety of funnel cakes.  The band on the PA is Go Fast.  There was a day when this was the sound of all of the great greasy experiences of one’s life.  Southern fried power chords ripped the air of carnivals all over the country for two months of the year. It was about tits and ass and driving fast down narrow highways with a six pack disappearing from the center console.  And how does one Go Fast?  Take this much Exile-period Stones and this much AC/DC and this much Steve Earle and make that mixture work out of Little Rock, AR long enough to get voted best local band, and you get an outfit that oozes Big Dumb Rock charisma with the chops to carry it off. This is the type of balls out rocking that of late only comes from L.A., and is, as a result, too shiny and handled to really be believable.  In the surprisingly Long Ryder-ish "Mad Hatter," the whole album comes together in a perfect snarl of dashboard braggadocio and what can be seen as Go Fast’s philosophical imperative, if bands like this can have one of those:  'What ever you say I did, I did/ My name is Grandpa you’re the kid.'  So maybe a hundred bands across the country could have made Great American Get Down.  But guess what?  They didn’t."
-Geoffrey Woolf, CDConsumer.com, 3/26/00

"In the growing tradition of great recordings by central Arkansas bands, Go Fast has broken in with a winner.  Great American Get Down is as hot as anything has a right to be these days, and there's none of that attempt to throw in some rap or hip-hop.  This is rock 'n' roll, and you get the idea that the band intends to play what it wants, trends be damned.  Singer-guitarist-songwriter Scott E. Diffee has the snarling attitude that a great rock singer needs, as well as the guitar licks.  Bassist Matt Floyd and [drummer] T. Drex Baker lay down a solid foundation and Mulehead guitarist Kevin Kerby is also aboard here.  Indeed, you might think you're hearing a great lost Aerosmith album from their glory days.  Ace producer Barry Poynter has again created magic at Poynter's Palace studio.  There's some furious energy here....  And the surprising ballad, "Judy," is a nice change of pace.  This thing rocks along nicely, a power pop-punk package that's never less than threateningly good.  A [rating; A-to-F scale]."
-Jack W. Hill, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/24/00

"Their name fits the sound; a super-charged All-American rock performance."
-Jim Harris, Arkansas Times, 3/24/00

"L.R.'s answer tae a redneck's wet dream, Go Fast [is] barroom rock [with] genius [and] attichewd....  Barry Poynter [did] an impressive production joab.  It's aw loud guitars, thumpin' bass, dumped drums and bad singin'.   It's fuckin' rawk and roll!!!!"    
-"Scottish" Brian, Little Rock Free Press, 3/22/00

"[Great American Get Down] sounds like a lot of things mixed up.  But not too much.  Stones.  Georgia Satellites.  Social D and other Southern fried punk rawk.  Crunching Gibsons rocking on riffs....   Titles like "Honky Tonk Slide" and "Rock Star Ready."   Super slinky guitar solos in all the right spots.  ...  On stage, Go Fast can handily relieve the boredom of a beer-fueled weekend night.  And being on stage, the performance is really what it's all about with them.  Great American Get Down captures that....  Oh, and they managed to score some hot rod cover art by artist Ed "Big Daddy" Roth.  Readers of Juxtapoz will recognize the rat-fink style."
-Andrew Morgan, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/17/00

"[R]oars from the opening note."
-Jim Harris, Arkansas Times, 3/24/00

"Best Local Band:  Go Fast, those shit-talking, tattoo havin', hard grinding skulduggerers, get a big Yeehaw as we offer them our firstborn as sacrifice.  Go to your local truck stop or titty bar for a secret sighting."
-Little Rock Free Press, 11/24/99


Scott E. Diffee on Go Fast:

"Matt [Floyd] and I started Go Fast, and we played a couple of local gigs, took a demo to Magic 105, which led to us getting an opening-act slot for Lynyrd Skynyrd..., so we were playing for 5,000 people and loving it.  ...   We're kind of like the Vino's kids done good.  I grew up around there.  I was in the first band to ever play there, Tragic Magic, and we opened for Bad Habit.   I was the first guy to get thrown out of Vino's, too, in classic rock 'n' roll style.  ...  [In high school, I was an] oddball, long-haired rock 'n' roller dude in a sea of preppies....  I got my first tattoo when I graduated and I had a big ol' funky perm, and it's kind of fun to think I'm still doing what I said I was going to do."
-From an interview with Jack W. Hill, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 3/24/00


LISTEN

700 Miles

Judy

Mad Hatter

Go Fast