While attending the University of California, Davis, Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith played together (with future True West members Russ Tolman and Gavin Blair) in The Suspects. Moving back home to Los Angeles, Wynn recorded a single called "15 Minutes" (as in 15 minutes of fame) as his intended farewell to music. Instead, while rehearsing in a band called Goat Deity, Wynn met Karl Precoda, who had answered an ad for a bass player, and the two joined to form a new group, with Precoda switching to guitar. Smith came to play bass, and brought in drummer Dennis Duck, who had played in the locally successful Pasadena-based Human Hands.

Duck suggested the name "The Dream Syndicate" in reference to Tony Conrad's early 1960s New York experimental ensemble (better known as the Theater of Eternal Music), whose members included John Cale.

On February 23, 1982, The Dream Syndicate performed its first show at Club Lingerie in Hollywood. A four-song EP was recorded in the basement of Wynn's house and released on his own Down There label, and the band quickly achieved local notoriety for its often aggressively long, feedback-soaked improvisations. Obvious sources were The Velvet Underground (the Dream Syndicate could be called early VU revivalists) and Television, but echoes of the Quicksilver Messenger Service and Creedence Clearwater Revival could also be discerned. "It was an overnight thing," Wynn recalled of their success. "There was no dues paying. It was very weird, and it screwed us up in some ways."[citation needed]

The band was signed to Slash Records, whose subsidiary Ruby Records released its debut and by far best-known album, The Days of Wine and Roses, in 1982. The next year saw the UK (Rough Trade Records) release of the album's anthemic lead track, "Tell Me When It's Over," as the A-side of an EP which also included a live cover of Neil Young's "Mr. Soul."

Kendra Smith left the band and joined David Roback, formerly of the band Rain Parade, to form Opal. She was replaced in the Dream Syndicate by David Provost.

The Medicine Show, recorded in 1984 in San Francisco with producer Sandy Pearlman (Blue Öyster Cult, The Clash), was the right step forward for the band and a genuine rock classic in its own right. But the commercial failure of the album was the beginning of the end for the band, and contributed towards its temporary breakup. They opened tours for R.E.M. and U2 and released the 5-song EP This Is Not The New Dream Syndicate Album - Live (1984), the last record to feature Karl Precoda on guitar (who soon after left to pursue a career in screenwriting) and the first appearance of bassist Mark Walton. The band left A&M after the label rejected its demo for "Slide Away" (later released on the semi-official It's Too Late To Stop Now).

In 1985, Wynn and Dan Stuart of Green on Red wrote 10 songs together which were recorded with Dennis Duck, among others, and released by A&M as Danny and Dusty : The Lost Weekend.

After a brief hiatus, Wynn, Duck and Walton joined with Paul B. Cutler (of the proto-Goth 45 Grave) to form the final version of The Dream Syndicate; they recorded two more studio albums, Out Of The Grey (1986), produced by Cutler, and Ghost Stories (1988), produced by Elliot Mazer (producer also of several Neil Young albums, including Harvest and Time Fades Away). A live album, Live at Raji's, was recorded (also by Mazer) before Ghost Stories but released afterward. There is disagreement among fans as to which lineup was the best, but in every permutation the band produced guitar-driven rock music at a time when Lou Reed, David Bowie, Miles Davis, and many others were experimenting with drum machines.

Posthumous releases include 3 1/2; The Lost Tapes 1985-1988, a collection of unreleased studio sessions, and The Day Before Wine and Roses, a live radio performance recorded just prior to the release of the band's first album.

Steve Wynn has continued on as a solo artist. Mark Walton went on to play with the Continental Drifters.

[edit] Albums

    * The Dream Syndicate EP (1982)
    * The Days of Wine and Roses - Ruby Records/Slash Records (1982)
    * Medicine Show (1984)
    * This Is Not the New Dream Syndicate Album......Live! (1984)
    * Out of the Grey (1986)
    * Ghost Stories (1988)
    * Live at Raji's (1989)
    * 3 1/2; The Lost Tapes 1985-1988 (1993)
    * The Day Before Wine and Roses (1995)


about the album
So-called because it mostly consists of sessions and takes recorded in between Out of the Grey and Ghost Stories, 3 1/2 makes for an entertaining coda for the dedicated Dream Syndicate fan and has some points of interest for the general listener. While Precoda is understandably missed, Cutler was no slouch as a replacement guitarist, and the recordings here generally have a good, rootsy feeling to them. Most were recorded during mid-1987 with Vitus Matare manning the boards and Green on Red mainstay Chris Cacavas guesting on keyboards and vocals. Cutler throws in some okay feedback squeals and blasts, while Cacavas adds a further barrelhouse/bar band jam touch to the material, especially on the cover of Rodney Crowell's "I Ain't Living Long Like This." Wynn's in OK voice and everything sounds pleasant, though frankly less of the hot-wired inspiration of the band's early years appears -- it's reverential without being revelatory, where a band like the Walkabouts took many similar influences to wider conclusions. Most of the remaining tracks come from earlier recordings in 1985 shortly after the band was reactivated with Cutler as the new guitarist. Hearing him play distinctly non-chaotic/goth music so soon after 45 Grave's dissolution is perversely amusing, but the real point is that he brings a fine sense of performance to Wynn's material, especially to the disc-concluding "Blood Money," a solid rocker. One final ringer is an outtake from the Live at Raji's album, a nice version of "When You Smile," introduced with an amusing admonition for the crowd to scream so "we can run a loop of that whole thing" throughout said record's length. In general, 3 1/2, while nowhere near the real heights of the Precoda years, is listenable and intriguing if not deathless. ~ Ned Raggett, All Music Guide 

tracklist
Here on Earth as Well    	 	
I Ain't Living Long Like This 	 	
Killing Time 	
Lucky 	
Weathered and Torn 	
The Best Years of My Life
Running from the Memory 	
When You Smile 	
It Hits You Again
Blood Money 	

TRACKLIST