The Mendoza Line is back! Well, sort of. This indie cult favorite has reissued the out-of-print We’re All In This Alone on its 20th anniversary (out now digitally on Bar/None, with vinyl to come). From 1996 to 2007, the Mendoza Line was a band that MAGNET championed; we were fans not only of the group’s great string of albums but also its often-shambolic live shows. How do you not love a band with three distinct, first-rate songwriters (like a reverse-gender Fleetwood Mac, minus the fame and fortune), a drunken penchant for self-sabotage (a la its heroes the Replacements) and a final album that almost seemed to eerily document the divorce of two of its principals (think Richard & Linda Thompson; read more of the ML history/herstory here)? We saw ourselves in the members of the Mendoza Line, and they provided us the perfect soundtrack to life’s tragedies, both big and small. But while we were just listening to it, they—Timothy Bracy, Peter Hoffman, Shannon McArdle and a revolving cast of others—were living it, and we’re happy they made it to the other side. Even if it’s only via a reissue, we like it when the Mendoza Line is around.
