Committed to smashing capitalism, racism and queerphobia, Rhode Island’s Downtown Boys have admirable, if ambitious, aims. But if their social agenda is progressive, their music isn’t. They take almost all their cues from 1977-era punk, and for a band that sets such store by its politics, their lyrics are oddly opaque. There’s no sloganeering as memorable as Fight the Power here, although there is a song with a metaphor about building tables (Violent Complicity). Still, there’s a compelling quality to Victoria Ruiz’s vocals, and the welcome brass embellishments recall X-Ray Spex’s Lora Logic. They peak with the bilingual Somos Chulas (No Somos Pendejas), which translates as We Are Cool (We Aren’t Stupid). It’s hardly Strange Fruit.
