Brooklyn-based Andrea Scanniello says she has spent her entire adult life laboring in the service industry. A multi-instrumentalist, she found enjoyment after hours, playing in local club circuit bands including High Waisted, Stuyedeyed, TVOD, and Russian Baths. After enjoying exhilarating moments on stage for little or no money, she had to return to the ennui of her paying jobs.
Sitting behind the desk at a bowling alley, where she sprayed sweaty bowling shoes in exchange for a little bit of money and quite a bit of beer, Scanniello turned to writing a painstaking personal inventory of her adult life. She analyzed the habits and patterns that no longer served her as she approached the sunset of her 20s. She reflected on her many hours serving badly-behaving customers at odd bar jobs. She also reevaluated her participation in the millennial culture: the drinking, the late nights, and the shallow friendships born over too many beers and cigarettes. She revisited a past relationship and its demise. These ruminations turned into songs. She gathered her brother, guitarist Larry Scanniello, along with guitarist Yukary Morishima and drummer Jono Bernstein (also of High Waisted). Together, they developed the songs and became the core of Dropper, a new band hitting the club circuit.
Dropper performed at Union Pool on the official release date of the band’s debut album, Don’t Talk to Me. Adding local musicians to the fold, Dropper performed the album’s nine songs over 40 minutes. Unlike in her previous bands, Scanniello did not play any instrument. Instead, she was the focal center and sang her original compositions in fine voice, contrasting the somewhat garage-rock sound of the arrangements. The two guitarists and keyboardist provided a wall of sound and the rhythm section delivered the strong drive. The indie-pop repertoire was buoyant and the performance was peppy and effervescent. Approaching the end of the set, Scanniello smiled as she looked at the familiar crowd under her and graciously thanked several audience members by name for their support.
“Don’t even try it,” Scanniello told the audience at the end of Dropper’s performance, suspecting that her many friends in the audience would cheer for an encore. “We do not know any other songs,” she explained. Instead, she and the other musicians mingled in the crowd, with Bernstein working the merchandise table.
