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The Day - April 9th, 1998

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

NL Shows Offering Something Old, Something New

by Rick Koster

(Originally published in The Day 4/9/98)
For a significant doese of time/space distortion utilizing two of Connecticut's most revered bands, one might simply pinball back and forth between New London's El 'n' Gee Club and T>A>Z Saturday night.

The Reducers, closing in on 20 years together, blast their punksterish voltage-pop at the El 'n' Gee, while up Bank Street at T>A>Z, The Absolute Zeros will be doing the same thing.

The Zeros, in fact, could pass - stylistically and physically - for the 'Ducers younger brothers, and catching both acts could be somewhat like time travel.

In fact, it might be interesting to check what time each band goes onstage: Can we be sure they're not the same group? The Absolute Zeros will be hosting a CD release party for their newest release, "Dreams Gone Sour," while the Reducers are in the midst of sorting through two decades of fan-supplied performance bootlegs with the ultimate goal of putting out a 20th anniversary live album in time for their official August birthday. Question: will any tapes of the Absolute Zero's T>A>Z show end up on the Reducers' summer release?

Just kidding. While both bands do perform spirited, snotty, guitar-heavy energy-pop, there are plenty of subtleties which clearly demarcate one band from another.

Early on, the Reducers worked the main vein of the Rameones legacy - they were contemporaries, after all - and early tunes such as "Scared of Cops" have that methamphetamine-and-airplane-glue philosophy which was adroitly expressed by Joey Ramone when he sang, "Gabba gabba hey!"

To their credit, the Reducers have aged painlessly; while later efforts like the acoustic-and-harmony-drenched "Baby, You're Gonna Lose" off their '95 disc, "Shinola," betoken a certain maturity, the overall flavor of the album is just as reckless and rocking as the stuff 20 years older - not unlike Iggy Pop's post-Stooges metamorphosis into the "Something Wild" period. You gotta love that resilience, and we'll probably all be hammering quarts of Guiness when the Reducers celebrate #30.

Meanwhile, the Absolute Zeros, who are in fact the creative offspring of songwriter/vocalist Steven Deal and his old band CHopper, dip liberally from the same punky spice rack as the Reducers, but use the seasonings on a stock more consitent with bands like the Romantics, Material Issue, or Green Day. Songs off the new CD like "Tiger Beat" and "Medium Cool" interlace power chords, sneering melodies, and motorboat rhythms to bring a dose of freshness to a weary, sweat-soaked genre.

The Figgs will open the Reducers show, while Bossman, $3 Depth Charge, and Superflies will kick-off the Absolute Zeros date.

Copyright 1998 by The Day