The Dream Syndicate - Same (EP, 1982)

The Dream Syndicate is an American alternative rock band from Los Angeles, California, originally active from 1981 to 1989, and reunited since 2012. The band is associated with neo-psychedelia and the Paisley Underground music movement; of the bands in that movement, according to the Los Angeles Times, the Dream Syndicate "rocked with the highest degree of unbridled passion and conviction."´Though never commercially successful, the band met with considerable acclaim, especially for its songwriting and guitar playing.

Dream Syndicate are at the foundation (alongside the Velvet Underground, the Stooges, and R.E.M.) of contemporary alternative music simply because at the time when most bands were experimenting with new technology, the Syndicate deigned to bring back the guitar.

Fronted by Steve Wynn and including Karl Precoda (guitar), Dennis Duck (drums), and Kendra Smith (bass), the band formed in Los Angeles after Smith and Wynn had relocated there from Davis, California. They debuted with a self-titled, unbelievably Velvet Underground-like EP on Wynn's own Down There label. The EP was recorded January 31, 1982 at Southwest Sound, Pasadena, California.

From the opening, icy arpeggios of guitarist Karl Precoda's "Sure Thing" to the six-string train wreck that brings frontman Steve Wynn's "Some Kinda Itch" to a close, the mark of the seminal pre-punk outfit is all over these recordings. A larger kit doesn't stop drummer Dennis Duck from locking the band into a rigid, primal framework à la Maureen Tucker and the White Light/White Heat-style recording tactics of the self-production only enhance the gritty sound of the group's twin-guitar attack. On "That's What You Always Say," Wynn lays down a ragged, metallic strum over which Precoda delivers his buzzing, atonal solo. The two then engage in an exchange of fractured chords and six-string shards against the stark rhythm section. Precoda speaks a similar language on "When You Smile," though here the notes seem to corrode to his guitar strings in a rusted mess. As derivative as the sound may be, Dream Syndicate were clearly onto something. Just months later, a similar combination of Wynn's deadpan vocals and the band's austere soundscapes would surface on the triumphant "The Days of Wine & Roses", the group's acknowledged masterpiece and a classic from the (paisley) underground.                 


Tracklist:

Sure Thing	3:57
That's What You Always Say	4:18
When You Smile	3:05
Some Kinda Itch	5:26

The Dream Syndicate - Same (EP, 1982)
(192 kbps, cover art included)