The Dream Syndicate

Born in Los Angeles in the early 1980s around Steve Wynn, Kendra Smith, Karl Precoda and Dennis Duck, The Dream Syndicate belonged to the Paisley Underground scene while developing a sound more taut than merely retro, between alternative rock, post-punk, neo-psychedelia and stark guitars inherited from the Velvet Underground, Neil Young and Television. The band drew early notice for stretched-out tracks, a taste for improvisation, and songwriting that mixed melody, nervous energy and saturation, documented on the The Dream Syndicate EP in 1982 and on the album The Days of Wine and Roses the same year. After Kendra Smith left and was replaced by David Provost, The Dream Syndicate continued with Medicine Show in 1984, then reconfigured around Wynn, Dennis Duck, Mark Walton and Paul B. Cutler for Out of the Grey in 1986 and Ghost Stories in 1988, before splitting in 1989. Reforming in 2012 with Steve Wynn, Dennis Duck, Mark Walton and Jason Victor, The Dream Syndicate resumed regular live activity and relaunched its discography with How Did I Find Myself Here? in 2017, These Times in 2019, The Universe Inside in 2020, and Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions in 2022, in a vein still founded on taut guitars, psychedelic atmospheres, and a form of urban rock that is expansive yet direct.