That guitar feedback you hear? It's been ringing continually since 1978 - if occasionally in a figurative sense - and, for the privilege of listening to it, you can thank hometown heroes the Reducers.

It's now three decades into the Reducers' career as pub-rock visionaries, and that implies a significant ebb and flow in terms of energy, ambition and creativity. It probably wasn't surprising that, for a while there, the Reducers had settled into a comfortable, mostly symbolic existence - lying low except for ritual annual appearances at Sailfest, the Labor Day weekend show at Ocean Beach, and over Thanksgiving weekend. The band seemed to be enjoying what Frank Sinatra might have called “the golden, warm September of (their) years.”

But a funny thing happened on their way to the retirement home.

Two years ago, energized by an out-of-nowhere tour of Japan, where they were greeted with Beatles-esque adulation, the Reducers rediscovered themselves and the primal rock force that had originally ignited them - and have now released “guitars, bass & drums,” their first album of new material in more than a decade.

To hell with growing old gracefully: critics are saying “guitar, bass & drums” demonstrates the band is at the height of its creative and musical powers.

Hartford Courant rock critic Eric Danton wrote, “(This is a) veteran band that sounds more vital than it has in a long time … these 11 tunes sizzle … the melodies take unerring aim at that part of your brain that feeds them on to an endless loop for your continued and continual listening pleasure.”

And Christopher Arnott, in a review for the New Haven Advocate, said, “ … the band's stripped-down style, unencumbered solos and nods to rockabilly, punk and I'm even gonna say hardcore Henry Mancini that keep all this 30-year-old band's material on the highest plateau of hip.”

And in a catalog that includes their self-titled debut “Let's Go” (1984) and “Shinola” (1995), that's saying a lot.

”It's pretty hard for us to be objective about it. We're pretty close to it,” said bassist/vocalist Steve Kaika, seated on a couch in the band's rehearsal space above a storefront on State Street in New London. “I think recording quality-wise we're all pretty happy. I think it's the best-sounding recording we've made.”

It's a regular Friday night practice, which is something of a ritual for the band. Even when there are no new songs to work on - and at any given time they are ready to perform 70 songs or so from a larger repertoire of perhaps 200 - they get together and play and hang out, the way some old friends play poker or golf or go to the movies.

Seated next to Kaika are his bandmates: guitarist/vocalist Hugh Birdsall, drummer Tom Trombley and guitarist/vocalist Peter Detmold. They've occupied this spot for more than 10 years: a two-room “suite” with the larger being the actual performance area, where the four men set up in a loose circle facing one another when they play, and a smaller, office-style cubicle with a desk, spare equipment, and a miniature refrigerator stockpiling the group's beloved Budweiser.

”We're very pleased with how (the CD) is being received,” Detmold said. “Everyone seems to be pretty much liking it and that makes us happy. I know we're all sorry it took so long to come out; it shouldn't have taken as long as it did.”

Recorded during stolen moments with longtime and empathetic producer Richard Brukner, mostly at Trod Nossel studios in Wallingford, “guitars, bass & drums” introduces a batch of new original tunes and two new covers into the band's catalog. Over such amazing tunes as “Paranoid Blues,” “Don't You Wanna Rock” and “My Problem” (featuring guest lead vocals from home-state rock hero Mark Mulcahy), the CD is pure, distilled Reducers magic with those touchstones to such valued inspirations as The Clash, the Ramones, Cheap Trick and the Stones.

The process started four years ago - before the 2004 tour of Japan that materialized out of left field. When their first-ever single, “Out of Step,” was included on a compilation marketed in Japan, the tune took off, causing a riptide demand for Reducers merchandise and music, and ultimately resulting in the band's visit to the country.

Trombley says that tour was the jolt that provided the Reducers with a new sense of energy and purpose. “Japan was a big deal for us, for our confidence. To travel such a long distance and have that opportunity … It was great. We didn't know what to expect and they were such gracious hosts.”

Detmold added that the experience brought the guys closer as friends, too. “The response was way beyond what we expected. Maybe we recommitted to our little band. We realized what we mean to each other.”

The Reducers formed in 1978 after childhood pals Detmold and Birdsall toured the beer-marinated punk music clubs at the height of that era and thought it was a wonderful sonic twist on the English pub rock scene they were trying to emulate back at home in their garages.

They stole the Kaika/Trombley rhythm section from a country rock band - and the four of them have been playing together even since. Two years later, they released their first single and, as one of the first acts to embrace the do-it-yourself spirit, formed their own label, Rave On Records, and put out their own album.

Based on the reception to “The Reducers” and quickly issued subsequent efforts “Let's Go!” and “Cruise to Nowhere,” the band earned a national reputation, toured across the country, and seemed headed for a major label.

The only thing was, the Reducers were perfectly happy doing things their way - and if the price to sign with a major label was to compromise in any fashion, they wanted no part of it.

”It wasn't that we weren't willing to be stars,” Detmold said. “It's just that we decided to be true to ourselves and what we wanted. And it's turned out in a way that is perfectly fine with us. We do OK - and who's to say whether we'd be together otherwise? It's turned out pretty great, actually.”

That independent spirit and commitment was wonderfully captured in a development two years ago that provided another shot of energy: the release of a national documentary film, “The Reducers: America's Best Unsigned Band.”

In the wake of these events, efforts to write and finish what became “guitars, bass & drums” took on a new if gradual fire. As grown-ups, day-jobbers and/or parents with the attendant grown-up responsibilities, it wasn't just possible to take off a month or so and finish the album.

Brukner, who was also behind the board for 1995's “Shinola” and parts of the “Redux” collection, said the Reducers are so comfortable with what the band means that he knew the CD would be good.

”Maybe it's an odd way to put it, but they wouldn't put anything on a record they wouldn't want to hear another band play,” Brukner said. “I don't know whether this is their best album - 'The Reducers' and 'Let's Go' were amazing and will always be held as the definitive Reducers albums - but you can definitely say this is a great batch of tunes.”

While Detmold and Birdsall typically and separately provide the original sketches of each song, the songs undergo a rigorous sculpting process by the full band in rehearsal.

”No matter what Hugh and I bring into practice,” Detmold said, “it doesn't become a Reducers song until Tom and Steve put their parts in.”

As always, the band had way more tunes than would end up on the record. “They are their own toughest editors,” Brukner said. “There are probably two albums' worth of songs that will never see the light of day. They've got this innate idea of what makes a Reducers song. Even if they like it, they might say, 'Yeah, but this isn't a song for the band.'”

He pauses, thinking, then adds, “Frankly, I'm not surprised that they're making great records at this point in their lives. They're a band but they don't do it for the reasons many other people do: to get rich and be famous or whatever.”

What would happen if “guitars, bass & drums” suddenly took off? The reviews are great so far, and the band has been approached and is in planning stages for their first tour of Europe. Could this be - after all this time - the Big Break?

”Our big break?” Birdsall asked, laughing. “That would be a disaster right now. We could use a lot of little breaks.”

But 30 years after they began playing together, Europe appears to be beckoning - and “guitar, bass & drums” is a vibrant and important rock album that could easily have been made by a band at the start of its career or the peak of its creative power.

”There's a reason they keep doing this,” said producer Brukner by phone from Manhattan. “I don't think they'd want to do anything else. Rock is still fun for them and they enjoy each other and playing music with each other.”

R.KOSTER@THEDAY.COM

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