FM
History
One of the most celebrated bands to come out of the Los Angeles' Paisley Underground scene of the '80s, the Dream Syndicate clearly adored the intricate wordplay and edgy energy of Highway 61 Revisited-era Bob Dylan, as well as the noisy guitars and bracing darkness of the Velvet Underground. Dream Syndicate leader Steve Wynn's initial influences may have been clear, but he was a strong enough songwriter to give the group material that stood on its own, and over the course of their run, the Dream Syndicate took their music in a number of challenging directions. After the stark, nervy sound of their first album, 1982's The Days of Wine and Roses, they crafted a darker and more ambitious follow-up, 1984's Medicine Show, that moved them into a dustier and more rock-oriented sound. 1986's Out of the Grey and 1988's Ghost Stories stripped down their approach and embraced a wiry, energetic attack, but they were released just as the group was winding down. On 2017's How Did I Find Myself Here?, Wynn introduced a revamped Dream Syndicate with an approach that was, as always, dominated by strong guitars and literate songwriting, but this time with an experimental bent that dovetailed into psychedelia on 2019's These Times and revealed ambient and prog influences on 2022's Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions.
Steve Wynn was a student at the University of California, Davis when he formed his first band, a five-piece outfit called the Suspects; they were one of the first new wave bands in the area, and the membership included vocalist Kendra Smith (they met in a Rhetoric class), guitarist Russ Tolman, and Gavin Blair on drums. The band was short-lived but released one single in 1979, "It's Up to You" b/w "Talking Loud." (After they broke up, Tolman and Blair would later form True West.) Wynn's next project was another band that quickly faded out, 15 Minutes, which included members of another UC Davis band, Alternate Learning (led by future Game Theory and Loud Family frontman Scott Miller); like the Suspects, they left behind one single, 1981's "That's What You Always Say" b/w "Last Chance for You." Wynn left Davis for Los Angeles, and after a short stint with a project called Goat Deity (bandmates Kelly Callan and Kristi Callan would later form Wednesday Week), Wynn decided it was time to start a band of his own. He placed an ad looking for a bassist and got a reply from Karl Precoda, who was also a powerful guitarist. Wynn and Precoda became the band's guitar players, Kendra Smith was recruited to play bass and lend occasional vocals, and Dennis Duck (born Dennis Mehaffey), a veteran of the Pasadena group Human Hands, completed the quartet on drums. Borrowing their name from one of John Cale's pre-Velvet Underground projects, the Dream Syndicate made their debut on February 23, 1982 at a Hollywood club called Club Lingerie.
