The Reducers Information

The Reducers made their belated CD debut in 1991 with the 29-song retrospective Redux, which gathered most of the band's vinyl output into one handy package. In addition to belatedly dragging the band into the digital age, the collection launched a wave of renewed interest in the band. 1995s Shinola, their first album of new material in a decade, covered some impressive new creative ground, while maintaining the qualities that had originally endeared the band to its admirers. In 2000, the band responded to years of fan requests for a live Reducers album by assembling the rough-and-ready Fistfight At Ocean Beach, a limited-edition CD-R release available only as a premium for donations to WCNI, the non-profit local radio station where Birdsall and Detmold have served as DJs almost continuously since 1979, carefully avoiding self-promotion and sharing their favorite old and new rock 'n' roll tunes with listeners. A more formal live CD, 2003s Old Cons, found The Reducers celebrating their 25th anniversary with a career-spanning on-stage retrospective that documented the band's intensity and versatility, as well as their longstanding love for early rock 'n' roll, vintage soul, British Invasion pop and '70s punk and new wave. Their 25th anniversary also coincided with the mayor of New London's official proclamation of August 23, 2003 as Reducers Day, and with the premiere of the career-spanning documentary The Reducers: America's Best Unsigned Band, which won critical acclaim for its compelling retelling of the group's unlikely journey. The following year, a request from a group of Japanese Reducers fans-who had already bought out the backlog of vinyl LP stock that had been gathering dust in Peter's basement-resulted in the band's first-ever overseas tour, a ten-day run of rapturously received shows in Japan. Such acknowledgements demonstrated how these humble outsiders had ended up as unlikely rock 'n' roll heroes. The title and musical contents of The Reducers' 2008 studio effort Guitars, Bass and Drums underlined how The Reducers' unpretentious musical agenda remains as compelling as ever. "Guitars, Bass and Drums sounds to me like what we wanted to sound like 30 years ago," Birdsall says. While household-name status has managed to elude them, The Reducers nonetheless occupy a special place in the hearts of their fans-not just those who still turn out in droves for the band's gigs in and around New London, but for the others across America and around the world, who've been touched along the way by their music. "I've heard from people in Germany, France, Spain and Japan," says Birdsall. "We seem to be their favorite secret band, whose record they put on at parties and their friends go 'Hey who's that?' I kind of like having that status. In a way, it's even better than being really popular." Having entered their fourth decade, The Reducers continue to keep the faith, bonded together by their love for the music and for each other. "It was never about money or fame," states Birdsall. "It was always about the music, and the camaraderie, and getting people to dance, and having cool vintage equipment. And while at this point in my life I don't see the romance in touring the country in a van, playing rock 'n' roll in a hot, sweaty club is still just a little bit of heaven to me." "None of us ever had any delusions about getting rich off of this band," Detmold adds. "When we started, we were full of piss and vinegar and just wanted to show what we could do. We were four friends with a common vision, and our goals were to play around our area, maybe play New York City and Boston and maybe make a few 45s, and make a name for ourselves. That turned into something much bigger, and we had more success than we could have ever imagined, and it's continued much longer than any of us would have guessed. Now I guess the motivation is to keep doing it, and to do it as well as, or better than, we used to." "We still get together every week to rehearse and write songs every week, whether we have a gig coming up or not," Birdsall points out. "I think that in a lot of respects, the band hasn't changed that much. We're still learning about music in public, still discovering about melody, harmony, rhythm, and the things that someone with limited technical ability can do on a guitar, a bass or a set of drums. The thing that originally made us obsess about pop music when we were kids is still the thing drives us today." Share this: