#drop nineteens

[sungrowscold]

Drop Nineteens during Drop Nineteens in Concert at CBGB'S - 1992 at CBGB'S in New York City, New York, United States. (Photo by Steve Eichner/WireImage)

[xxguerrillaxxoperatorxx]

DROP NINETEENS

[deadforevr]

[detentionplayback]

Music Recommendation #5

Shoegaze is quite a good genre. To me, it's like a slow pick up, it's a slow grey day, and you dont want to rock your ears off, you know? Drop Nineteens - Kick The Tragedy ♫ "There's not anything particular about it either, and I think that the whole thing gets vaguer every second But I am too and there's nothing wrong with that It's even funny when you stop to realize I'm just nineteen And how serious can anything be anyway? Not very" ♫

[justinamaxina]

Visit Original Link

Drop Nineteens - Daymom (1991, 2025)

[dustedmagazine]

Drop Nineteens — 1991 (Wharf Cat)

The Drop Nineteens were still college sophomores at Boston University when, on a quick trip to London to see a girlfriend, Greg Ackell walked a demo around to labels — Creation, Fiction and 4AD. The New England shoegazers hadn’t yet played a show when 4AD’s Colleen Maloney forwarded their cassette to Melody Maker, who promptly named “Mayfield” their Single of the Week. Though hardly even a band yet, Drop Nineteens were already getting called “the American Slowdive,” a band that none of the principals had, at that time, ever heard.

1991 gathers the material from that first home-dubbed cassette release, the one that got Drop Nineteens started. Following close on the reissue of the band’s landmark Delaware ahead of the Drop Nineteens first album of new material in 30 years, these songs capture the swirl and echo and sway of a band about to make an impact.

“Mayfield” opened the door, erupting out of a wind tunnel here, with scrambling drums, a wall of three guitars, and vocals that slip in and out of the noise-storm, hitting an ethereal harmony or a yearning chorus, then sinking back into a mass of static and hum.Yet other songs were arguably even stronger, the wheeling, spiralling “Shannon Waves,” the dream pop delicate “Kissing the Sea” which turned the mic over to Paula Kelly. A formidable guitarist and the group’s only female member, her haunted vocal sweetness plays counterpart to Ackell’s more conventional Brit pop romanticism. 

A second cassette demo, called The Summer Session, is also included here, this one with Hannah Yampolsky singing (Kelly was out touring with another band). Here, a few months after the Mayfield demo, the band’s attack is sharper and more assured, but the singing dissolves into the ether. “Daymom,” follows a clanking, ominous bassline, not so different from the one that propels the Cure’s “Fascination Street.” The vocal sound is pretty but frictionless; all atmosphere no forward motion.“Soapland,” too, showcases some driving percussion and slashing guitars, but doesn’t really cohere into a legible song. The band was missing Kelly—and she rejoined soon after this second set of demos.

These demos were never reworked into album versions.The band started fresh when it recorded its best-known album Delaware. As recently as a year ago, hardcore fans were still trading tips about bootlegs copies and YouTube versions of this material, so it’s great to have it in a readily accessible format. Yet ultimately, the songs have a provisional quality, provocatively lovely but elusive and unfinished.If you love shoegaze or the Drop Nineteens or both, though, this is well worth checking out.

Jennifer Kelly

[kickerofelves]

Fools — Drop Nineteens

About "Fools" from band leader Greg Ackell:

“Fools” originated with some beautiful heavy chords Steve came up with. I think he was trying to trick me into bringing a bit more gaze than we have since Delaware. And it worked. It’s a snake let in under the door. And as snakes do, it coils into itself. More than writing it, this song happened to us. And so that’s what the subject of the song is about, itself. Chris McLaughlin (Kendrick Lamar, Beyoncé, Bon Iver) totally understood all of this and delivered a searing mix that’s both metallic and oozing with warmth, which is not easy to achieve. We are ecstatic to have him and his bag of tricks on hand for the next album.”

[twunkthoughts]

I think I might’ve stumbled upon one of the best shoegaze albums ever.