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This is a hastily-drafted history of Crossfire Choir and not meant to be an exhaustive (or necessarily even accurate) chronology.
History of Crossfire Choir
Starting out from South Florida, Jay Pounders formed Crossfire Choir with Eddie Freeze, Brad Peet and Dennis Ambrose and headed towards New York in hopes of conquering the world with the band's self-labeled "slavic funk" sound. The band settled in New Jersey and started gaining a reputation for their punk attitude and eclectic mix of synth-driven guitar-based pop/rock songs.
photo by Robert Knickman
Within one year, Crossfire Choir had teamed up with famed owner of CBGB's Hilly Kristal who managed the band and made them essentially the house band opening for every big group that came through CBGBs (The Replacements, Lords of the New Church, etc.). Crossfire Choir was soon being courted by several major labels in New York. After a brief bidding war, the band agreed to a two-record deal with Geffen Records that was rumored to be one of the biggest deals ever offered to an unknown act at the time.
The Choir toured with many of the big groups at that time, Culture Club, The Thompson Twins, Midnight Oil, Love & Rockets, Siouxie and the Banshees, Wang Chung, Berlin, Flock of Seagulls, The Alarm, etc.
After several meetings with producers that the label had suggested (Russ Titleman, Tom Dowd, and others), the band's number one choice, Steve Lillywhite, was brought to New York to see the band play live and agreed to produce the first record. The band was hugely influenced by the group, XTC, and Steve had produced several of their records, as well as Peter Gabriel, U2, and others.
Returning from London, where the album was recorded, the initial reaction from the label was positive, but after a shake up with the A&R staff, it was decided to re-record several tracks with an American producer to somehow address the "British" sound that the execs thought was a problem.
Geffen did release a promotional 12-inch single featuring 2 of the Lillywhite recordings "What's It To Ya" (including the un-bleeped "motherfucker" in the chorus) and "Nation of Thieves". The band designed the black and white cover which includes "Breakfast of Champions" style hand-drawn picture frames with the photos of Sacco and Vanzetti (the song and cover art being inspired by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.).
After a 6-week stint of "pre-production" that was the novel idea of new producer, Stefan Galfas (a paid vacation in Cape Cod), the band recorded what it thought were the finishing touches on their debut record in New York and then went on an exhaustive tour through the Northeast during a bitterly cold January. Returning from the tour sick and tired, the band had a message from Hilly (Geffen had dropped the band).
With the help of Eddie's brother, Robert Knickman, who had been with the band from the beginning as the group's road manager, the band was eventually able to release the recordings done with Lillywhite mixed with some of the sessions in New York on Passport Records and it became the debut album of Crossfire Choir. It received good reviews and a lot of airplay on college radio, but failed to catapult them to success as envisioned.
    
Listen> Nation of Thieves Listen> What's It To Ya Click to hear Disappointment Click to hear Canary Song Click to hear Seven Four
Adding Paul O'Hara, a friend who played saxaphone/vibes/keys, to the band, Crossfire Choir then secured a recording contract with a new Independent label based in Seattle, Track Records. The label had two then-waning funk acts, (Average White Band and Ohio Players) and wanted a "rock presence". Crossfire Choir had recorded a track, Canary Song, essentially live in conjunction with a radio station's promotional idea during the "New Music Seminar" in New York. The idea was to show a song being recorded from beginning to end over the course of a week. WLIR broadcast live from the studio in Long Island and for the final night, the band invited listeners to join in on the chorus from the parking lot of the suburban studio, resulting in an impromptu crowd of several hundred listeners having to be disbursed by the police (not before talking the police into re-enacting their arrival and crowd control efforts for the band's video director, Richard D'Alessio).
 
photos by Paul Sky
The second release from Crossfire Choir was produced by Ed Stasium (Ramones, Living Colour, Smithereens) in about 5 weeks in the studios of the short-lived Track Records. By the time the record was to be released, the label began to experience financial difficulties and as a result the second album is very difficult to find, though it does show up at vintage vinyl stores, etc.
At that point, the band went through its first major line-up change with Eddie Freeze and Paul O'Hara leaving and being replaced with original CC bassist, Ron DeSaram (also an old high-school friend of Jay's) who now joined Crossfire Choir as a guitar player. The band went back to its roots and a more aggressive guitar-oriented sound and began playing regularly again at CBGBs and opened shows for several up and coming groups including Goo Goo Dolls, Spin Doctors, Alex Chilton, That Petrol Emotion, Joan Jett, etc. The band then released what was its third release, Dominique, (named after manager, Hilly Kristal's dog who was a regular contributor to the recording sessions as the tracks were recorded during the afternoons at CBGBs) and received heavy rotation on several college and indie stations. Signing a publishing deal with Jerry Love's Famous Music (a division of Paramount), the band's prospects again began to look promising. The band was signed to a development deal with Epic Records, but in the end was unable to capitalize on the ever-elusive "second chance".
 
Crossfire Choir (the later years) Manager Hilly Kristal
Crossfire Choir released what would become the band's final recording (a 3-song collection called "Jesus") which is mistakenly carried by Christian playlists from time to time (maybe the use of the tilted "X" for "cross" fire was a mistake? :-). It features 2 songs produced by Donny Fury (Helmet) with a stripped-down version of the group's sound (no reverb) and one song produced by the band (LOTS OF REVERB) called "Neverending Stair"
The band continued to play in and around New York and New Jersey and went on to record one final disc as a three-piece featuring just three of the original members (Jay Pounders, Brad Peet and Dennis Ambrose). Calling themselves "The Pounders", the band tried to distance itself from the sad-luck story of Crossfire Choir before finally disbanding in 1998.
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