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The Boston Globe - April 26th, 1997
Reproduced below is an article that was published in The Boston Globe newspaper.By Jim Sullivan, Globe Staff
(Originally published in The Boston Globe 4/26/97 on page c3)
This may be a punk rock record: The Reducers, a quartet from New London, Conn., have played together 18 years. The same four: singers/guitarists Peter Detmoldt and Hugh Birdsall, drummer Tom Trombley, and bassist Steve Kaika."We've never stopped gigging or broken up," says Detmoldt, from a New London record shop where he clerks. "We slowed the pace, but we still have a blast playing, which is why we're still doing it. When I think back to the early days, it makes me feel old, but we don't feel it when we get up and play. I don't accept the idea that it's a young man's game and at certain age you have to leave. I don't think I want to be relegated to the golf course because I'm over 30. People my age don't go out, they play golf and get up early for a tee time. Or they play darts and go bowling. But playing guitar is just as valid as one of those."
The Reducers released their latest album, "Shinola," last year - their first compact disc as opposed to a long-playing vinyl relese. They have four full-length records and a compilation. They also just contributed a track, the snarling "Something Better Change," to a Stranglers tribute album.
A melodic band favoring punchy, compact songs, the Reducers probably hit a peak in the mid-'80s. It was a time, Detmoldt says, when the band was able to make a living through music. (These days, Detmoldt works as a clerk/bartender; Birdsall's a teacher; Trombley works in a hospital and Kaika is a contractor.) But don't pity the Reducers for never grabbing the brass ring.
"In a way," Detmoldt says, "it's a blessing we didn't get signed [to a major label]. We saw a lot of friends and peers, the Neighborhoods being the first example, get chewed up by that whole thing. We learned to live without a major label and financial success and enjoy it for the sake of doing it."
The band plays most frequently around its hometown and ventures to New York or Boston upon occasion. What they've got going for them is that classic tension/release equation, something, says Detmoldt, that's rare these days. "In the mid-'80s, that was going on every weekend and in every club. Most of those bands broke up or died, and I miss those days. But we're still on the same vibe and dig it."
The Reducers are working on material for a new album on their own Rave On label. They play the Linwood Grill with the Johnny Black Trio tomorrow night. And they landed the opening slot for a Dave (the Kinks) Davies solo gig in New York at Tramps May 13.