The members of Codeine were amused when writers started referring to their music as “slowcore.” They weren’t aware that their stark, emotive take on guitar-based rock even had a name.

“I would say that the people who got it, really got it and liked it right away,” drummer Chris Brokaw said this week. “We weren’t the first band to play slow, stripped-back, challenging rock music, but maybe there were elements that we added. It felt very confrontational during the first year, and I’d say audiences were a little freaked out. We were on the Sub Pop label and people came to see us expecting something like (grunge pioneers) Mudhoney — which was the complete opposite of what we were.”

Formed in New York in 1989, Codeine was originally together less than five years. Brokaw has lived in Boston since then, and the original bandmembers — him, singer/bassist Stephen Immerwahr, and guitarist John Engel — last reunited in 2012, behind a box-set reissue of their albums. Last year brought the release of the album “Dessau,” recorded in 1992 but not released at the time  — and the band is making one more run of shows. Their show Wednesday at the Sinclair (with another alt-rock hero, Barbara Manning opening) will be their first local show in more than a decade.

Everything about Codeine’s sound including the glacial tempos was very deliberate, Brokaw says. “And I wouldn’t say it was an easy process, especially at first. When we set about arranging the songs and recording them, we would argue endlessly about every single note. What was the role of bass guitar in a song, even the role of the ride cymbal? It was very surgical in a way. As a drummer, playing very slowly and precisely is not easy, but after awhile that came more naturally.” The music’s darker emotive quality was also no accident. “That’s based on the songs Steve was writing, they really had this emotive quality to them. One band we all really admired was (famously downcast post-punk band) Joy Division, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with saying they were as important as the Beatles or the Rolling Stones to us.”

Brokaw is also known for playing a different instrument (guitar) in a very different band: He formed Come with singer/guitarist Thalia Zedek in 1990, and they too have returned to promote reissues of their albums. “The way that band wrote songs turned out to be very different. Thalia and I had this impulse that largely went unspoken, but we were both interested in doing a more traditional, more romantic rock and roll kind of thing. We were interested in the Rolling Stones, and that was a natural element of how we played together.”

He expects to be busy in the coming year: Codeine is headed to Australia, Come still does occasional dates, and he still plays around town in different solo and small-group contexts. “I don’t think it makes sense for either band to go on tour all the time, or even regularly. But speaking personally, all of that music feels not only important to me, but also valid and active. It’s difficult for me to imagine either Codeine or Come writing an album of new songs — though I suppose stranger things have happened.”