If you’d told me in 1992 that I’d still be listening to Delaware, the debut record from Boston’s Drop Nineteens, I would’ve likely agreed with you (and you would’ve been right). If you’d told me I’d have to wait 30 years between their last record and a new release, I would’ve laughed.

And you’d have gone 2-for-2.

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Greg Ackell (guitar/vocals) & Chris Roof (drums) met at school, and formed the band in 1990. They recruited Paula Kelley, Mitohiro Yasue, and Steve Zimmerman, and Drop Nineteens was born.

The music field in the early 90s was a crowded one, but the band did their part, releasing a killer record out of the gate that still sounds good. As a shoegaze band (a term they grew to resent), Delaware has reverb to spare but never blooms into a monolithic wall of sound.

Think less MBV and more Ride.

Their CV reads like a 90s music box-checking exercise:

• Met in college- ✅

• Recorded the record in the same building as Pixies Doolittle- ✅

• Had a video see some traction on MTV’s 120 Minutes- ✅

• Did a random cover- (take your pick- Madonna’s “Angel” or the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right”)- ✅

• Played Glastonbury & Lollapalooza- ✅

• Caught grief from people for not “paying their dues”- ✅✅✅

The band burned bright but fast, putting out two LPs and two EPs and going through multiple lineup changes before finally imploding in 1995. Roof left in 1992, replaced by Pete Koeplin. Kelley left in 1994 landing in a couple of other bands (Boy Wonder, Hot Rod), before setting out on a solo career. Everyone went their separate ways with frontman Greg Ackell going on to do, well, anything but play music.

And so it went for the next three decades.

Flash forward to early 2022, and Ackell is teasing some new songs and a (possible) new record on the horizon.