Reunited US shoegaze forebears Drop Nineteens are in town tonight for their first show in Toronto in over 30 years (December 1993, apparently) and you’d think I’d be there but I won’t be – not because I’d already bought tickets to see UK guitar god Richard Thompson months earlier, though I did – but because my kid is sick and my wife is out of town, so I’m just gonna have to let this pitch go by.
But the outfit continue to make news, even beyond last year’s Hard Light and the fitful legs of touring to support it. Their 1992 debut Delaware was reissued not once but twice – an unsanctioned but legal edition from Music On Vinyl came out in January but was quickly deleted as the band put out their own version this Summer. And last week, they released the first video for arguably their most popular song from the record, “Kick The Tragedy”, featuring fan-submitted video footage of themselves just kicking around.
In an interview with Far Out last December, frontman Greg Ackles provided background on the song, which references a childhood friend who died shortly after the album came out in 1992.
“This line of ‘Fucking Phil, he’s off on his board somewhere, and I’m just sitting here getting more and more lost with everything’ has taken on tremendous poignancy ever since he’s been gone, which has been the last 30 years.”
Greg Ackell, Drop Nineteens
Drop Nineteens to release new fan-involved video for ‘Kick the Tragedy’ @ Far Out
The new clip features old video footage of his friend skateboarding intercut with the fan-submitted footage for a 10-minute nostalgia trip.
And in further news, the band has announced an archival release entitled 1991 coming out next year, on February 7.
This LP comprises the band’s first two demo sessions which were mailed out via cassette to labels in 1991 finding their way to the UK music press and generating instant buzz and an ensuing feeding frenzy to sign the band. After signing with Caroline Records Drop Nineteens decided to write an entirely new record, Delaware, for their first official release, leaving the songs on 1991 behind, frozen in time.
Swells of layered guitars and buried vocal harmonies adorn these tracks, displaying Drop Nineteens when the comparison to their UK contemporaries like Slowdive and Ride were apt. 1991’s songs, recorded with a low fi charm, show an ambitious young band capable of writing songs filled with texture and hooks, on the eve of their breakthrough with Delaware.
Drop Nineteens / 1991 @ Bandcamp
The lead track from the record, “Daymom”, has been released as the first preview; it has no video, but maybe they’ll get around to it in another 30 years or so.
