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The New London Day - December 15th, 1991

Reproduced below is an article that was published in The Day, a local newspaper in New London County, CT.

True Grit

The Reducers going strong after 12 years

by Susan Holmes (Special to The Day)
(Originally published in The Day 12/15/91)
Merry Christmas from The Reducers!

OK, so this rough-edged band doesn't exactly inspire images of sugar plums dancing in your head, but as luck would have it, The Reducers' 29-song CD comes out just in time for the holidays.

Never mind that most of the songs appear on previously released albums; this is not a greatest hits collection. Every tune has been reproduced to enhance its gritty appeal. "The Reducers Redux" is the outcome of 12 years of consistent, trend-defying rock and roll. Formed in 1979, The Reducers are still Peter Detmold, Hugh Birdsall, Tom Trombley and Steve Kaika. The four local boys met through their shared interest in music.

"Some kids play football," said Detmold, singer/guitarist and band spokesman. "Some kids play guitars." Hardcore Reducers' fans would call it fate.

Reducers fans are loyal, and faithfully follow their favorite band from club to club, Boston to New York. But home base is still New London, and the El 'N' Gee is the heart of the Reducers' scene, where for many people the band provides comfort in consistency and an outlet in dancing.

"It's a security blanket," Detmold said bluntly. "A comforting thing that we haven't changed."

The local love affair with the band is a New London phenomenon, Detmold assures. Many of the fans have been trailing The Reducers since the group formed. Annie McGowan, a New London resident, has been following the band for 10 years. "My first impression? I was floored by the people dancing. I thought, 'My God, what are these people doing?' I'd never seen anything like it in my life. The beat was so steady." That first show was enough of a hook, and now she claims she remains in New London because of the band.

Reducers fans are longterm fans, many having seen the band even before they were old enough to go out to mightclubs. Ashley Powell saw The Reducers as a freshman at Connecticut College in 1979, and fell instantly in love.

"They were doing a lot of covers, and I was really into Blondie and the Ramones, the Clash. It was finally like I'd found a niche, a band I liked. And it's funny, but I'd do anything to go see them, even if I didn't have a car. We'd get a ride somehow."

Big on campus

Detmold said the band used to court the students at Conn College, and advertised the shows heavily on campus. A Reducer show was "an unusual cross-over between the college crowd and the local crowd," Detmold recalled.

Today he does not feel the same connection with the college as in the early days of the band. Questions posed to several Connecticut College students regarding their knowledge of The Reducers elicited polite, yet blank responses. "Sounds familiar, but I don't know them," said Ed Freiberg, a senior from New York City. "Are they a band from the area?"

Despite the ignorance of a younger generation, The Reducers still provide a reliably rockin' good time. A sense of belonging pervades the El 'N' Gee Club when the band plays, and it often turns into a nostalgic reunion for friends you haven't seen for a long time.

Annie McGowan explained that there are certain people you know you will see at a Reducers show, people you wouldn't see anywhere else. Powell, now a librarian at Connecticut College, introduced her older sister to The Reducers, and says her sister will be coming to town with her husband from their home in New Hampshire just to see the band play on New Year's Eve.

There's a terrific draw to the double offering of The Reducers and the El 'N' Gee Club. Not everyone has stayed in New London. Susan Horwitz and Mary Dunham were both pulled to town for the annual post-Thanksgiving Reducers show. Horwitz, a graduate of Connecticut College and now a lawyer in New York, returns frequently for many of the same reasons Annie McGowan stays.

"They're the best band in the world," she said. "It's true! They're my favorite band, ever, or anybody." Swathed in black lycra and a leather jacket, Horwitz talked about her corporate image in New York and her ability to "dress normal" whe she returns to New London. Dunham recalled her early Reducers days. "I used to go and see them when I was 16, with my sister's license." Both empasized what nice guys The Reducers are. "They're not pretentious," said Horwitz affectionately. "That's why people are so loyal to them."

The loyalty of Reducers fans is unwavering. They know every song, and will dance to the death when The Reducers play. Bloddy noses, wrenched knees and slam dancing are not unheard of occurences at the club, but that deters few. In fact, it's all part of the fun.

Powell calls it "high energy." McGowan caught an elbow in the nose once and refused to stop dancing despite blood loss. The Reducers played "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight" in tribute to her stamina.

That kind of loyalty can be heady, but The Reducers don't let this lull them into a false sense of security. "That doesn't mean the same thing 25 miles out," said Detmold. "We kind of always hoped to be more than a New London bar band. There's only so much satisfaction from that. It's real satisfying and it's real cool. But then you start thinking, it'd be real satisfying to do it in Baltimore, or Atlanta, Georgia."

It's been five years since The Reducers last release, and this CD is hopefully a resurgence in a career that's been pretty low key.

The Reducers consider themselves more of a live band than a recording band, and will play three or four times a week when they're most active. Right now, Detmold says, playing out has been limited.

"We've been really involved in getting the CD out," he explained. "Once the CD is out it'll make more sense to start travelling."

Their goal is to see the CD distributed across the United States and possibly even into Europe. They are negotiating now with regional and national distributors to ge the disc out to a wider audience. For now, the disc will be available at The Mystic Disc, Paperback Booksmith and University Music, but, said Detmold, "I'm hoping it's going to be available everywhere."

"The Reducers Redux" offers some of the best-loved Reducers tunes. "No Ambition", the anthem of bad attitude; "Fashion of the Times," a denouncement of costly trends; and the sesonal "Nothing for Christmas" are a few of the ample offering, and there are four previously unreleased title including one cover tune, "Tiger".

Despite the majority of old material, this CD is a new direction for the band. "The idea with the CD is our way of grudgingly accepting technology. We've resisted it for a long time," said Detmold. "We hope the release will excite enough interest that somebody will back us so we can bash out the next CD, which we could do immediately."

The band has a lot more new material that has been held back in hopes of another album forthcoming: It all comes down to money.

"Studio time," CD producer Richard Brukner said, "is very expensive," to the tune of $75 to $100 an hour. "And you don't get anything done in an hour," Detmold agreed. "You're talking days and weeks, thousands of dollars. It's time-consuming and complicated."

Average playing time for a Reducers song is 2:45 minutes, perfect for dancing, but what about our listening pleasure?

"Everything we've recorded," said Detmold, "is stuff we've been playing out. By nature it's got to be danceable. We'd rather be writing more interesting or more complex song structures. If we could spend more time in the studio we'd be a much different band."

Detmold thinks their recorded work is "weird to sit home and listen to. It's made to play out live with lots of people milling about."

But this CD is a great opportunity, as Annie McGowan faithfully put it, "to let people in on this Secret Soceity of Reducers fans. It's definitely going to be a treasured part of my CD collection."

If all plans pan out, this CD is just the beginning of a new wave for The Reducers. Brukner is concerned about the amount of time between releases. "People are very fickle about bands. They forget who they are. This CD is not so much a gentle reminder as a slug in the head."

Brukner wants to see this small town band hit the top, and he's already talking about the next release with the certainty that it's only a matter of time. "Their next album is going to be a killer. They've had a whole lot of time to put this new stuff together. It's going to be devastating."

As far as New London fans are concerned, the band is already killer, and devastating is just another night at the El 'N' Gee. Maybe "The Reducers Redux" will be the end of this well-kept secret.

Copyright 1991 by The Day