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(TV) Pontrelli's masterpiece of the week



The Reducers--Let's Go

It is only available in record form through the Reducers' web site (although
there is a compilation cd that includes 7 of the 11 tracks but not Maximum
Depression):  http://www.thereducers.com/
Roaring their way out of the boring landscape that is New London,
Connecticut, the Reducers were one of the great underrated bands of the
'80s. The band recorded, in just under two years, three albums of punk- and
pub-rock-inspired rowdy rock & roll, chock full of wiseass ruminations on
life and love.  The Reducers were post-punks with a formalist approach to
rock & roll: two guitars, bass, and drums that echoed mid-'60s British
Invasion and American garage rock. What made them different from the average
retro-rock bar band was being hip, funny and smarter than most, plus having
two ace song writers in Hugh Birdsall and Peter Detmold, who wrote wry and
comically desperate songs like "Let's Go" ("Let's go to London/where all the
music's good/Let's go to Paris/they've got a lot of nice food"), "Rocks" (as
in "New London hardly ever"), and the brilliant "Maximum Depression."
Ultimately, what may have sunk the Reducers, or at the very least, limited
the breadth of their audience, was their almost willful lack of pretension.
There were absolutely no gimmicks, false pretenses towards stardom, or slick
attitude; they were the real deal, working-class guys who played rock and
roll because it meant the hope of a better life and (maybe) a ticket out of
New London. This fire and determination, while not making them stars, made
even their weakest songs still sound like they meant it. The title of their
third album, Cruise To Nowhere, was unintentionally prophetic, as the band
slipped into a crack in the earth by the end of 1986. A CD compilation of
their "greatest hits" was released in the early '90s, but all three Reducers
albums belong in the home of any self-respecting rock fan who shares an
affinity for  Dr. Feelgood, the Sex Pistols and ? and the Mysterians, and
lives in a place like New London. - John Dougan
A nearly forgotten record, Let's Go may well be a roots-rock (demi)
masterpiece. Sounding like The Count Bishops meeting The Sex Pistols, the
Reducers grind through some great material, including the insistent,
life-affirming title track, and never remove their feet from the
accelerator. There's a liberating quality to this music, and the feeling of
exuberant release the band puts across is almost palpable. Don't pass this
by. - John Dougan

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