Re: (TV) Pontrelli's masterpiece of the week

[eric s gregory <esgregory@uswest.net>]

i love that record...haven't heard it in years.
they always reminded me of rockpile at their finest but with
lots more bite.....
a truly & sadly overlooked american group...

"Pontrelli, Paul Jay" wrote:
> 
> 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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