On November 14, Via will release their long-lost, self-titled EP on Dromedary Records, featuring liner notes by Chris Brokaw. Though short-lived, the Boston/New York band features Thalia Zedek (Come, Live Skull, Uzi), Jerry di Rienzo (Cell, Nuclear Theater), James Apt (Six Finger Satellite), Adam Gaynor (Nuclear Theater), and Phil Milstein (Uzi). The band played just two shows before disbanding in the late ’80s. Until now, their only recorded legacy has been a handful of 8-track basement recordings and live cassettes.

 Via is excited to release “1000 MPH,” the EP’s lead single, featuring Jerry di Rienzo on guitar and backing vocals. The track is available now on all streaming platforms.

Reflecting on the song, Thalia Zedek says:

“This may be the first song we wrote. It was inspired by the sensation of sitting on a parked train in a station next to another parked train—thinking the train you’re on has started moving, only to realize it’s actually the other train that’s moving while you’ve been sitting still the whole time. At the time, it must have felt like a metaphor for my life.”

During the summer of 2024, Dromedary Records’ Al Crisafulli recalls a conversation with Chris Brokaw at the Avalon Lounge in Catskill, NY:

“We were talking about bands from the Boston underground rock scene in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and Chris mentioned Via. He said, ‘Maybe Thalia’s best band. Jerry’s, too.’ That’s a pretty big statement. Of course, I’d never heard of them. But soon after, I had a folder of rough mixes emailed to me. And not long after that, I was sitting with Thalia and Jerry, again in Catskill, discussing releasing this music together.”

He continues, “Listening to it was like opening a time capsule, a group of 8-track recordings from 1987, before Come, before Cell, when these amazing musicians were just discovering themselves. The music was loud, aggressive, and actually ferocious in spots, these two brilliant guitar players coming into their own, with a rhythm section of James Apt and Adam Gaynor of the band Nuclear Theater and Phil Milstein of Uzi providing tape loops. I could instantly hear what Chris described to me months before.”

Via splintered after playing just two shows – one in Boston, one in New York after the band members moved there to be closer to Thalia, whose work with Live Skull was becoming a more full-time endeavor. The only documents left by Via are these six songs, recorded in Jerry’s basement studio in Somerville, MA, along with one gig flyer and some lo-fi live cassette recordings.  

Chris Brokaw states, “The music bears some cosmetic resemblances to Sonic Youth, but the songs are way more raw, primal, seething, coiled – inexorable. I still can’t get over it.”

With the release of their self-titled EP, listeners are finally able to hear this remarkable document from a pivotal moment in the Boston underground.