Wednesday

dream syndicate

...taped at a los angeles radio station gig in late summer 82 this is the first and greatest incarnation of the dream syndicate, the only combo in the over-hyped paisley underground that understood the true meaning of psychedelic, they didn't blindly copy or play jangle power pop, they injected mind melting doom drones into a velvets chugging riff and overlayed some frayed buffalo springfield duelling licks to create a true meeting of NYC beatnik and LA acid rock, a meeting of socio-geographic minds and attitude through two decades of rock'n'roll distortion...the first half of the show sees the syndicate laying down frenzied crazed bursts of cerebral and moody guitar screeching drug rock, poet inclines of life unravelling, tumbling into empty room despair...the last half sees the jams getting longer and the intensity stretched, the internal wiring of the collective syndicate is set on fire with desire burning bright as a dead planet far deep in space...they roll'n'rock like the mythical mystery train speeding into the heart of darkness spewing rock'n'roll electricty and bringing the new dawn of acid rock...more than a few layabouts will get on out to flip city when they dig the belching narcotic stringbending thats getting let loose over wiggy velvets thud...frontman steve wynn does have some self conscious patter and hokey style humor thats nicely old fashion in the 21century, though his invocating wailings cant be faulted...
...tune in now...

...the first long player from the syndicate starts as it means to go on with a crashing guitar and backing thuds all slightly distorted as if seen through a gauze, a haze of chemical indulgence for the new psychedelic generation that was making itself felt in certain hep burgs around the head planet...the syndicate were part of the L.A paisley underground but stood apart due to the ferocity of their art attack(green on reds first E.P is about the only thing that comes near the original noise generated by the syndicate), most of the paisley combos didn't really have too much going for them after their first forays, the rain parade disks got blander with each effort,(their first showed much promise as well), 3 o'clock went downhill after the first E.P(their disk as the salvation army is an amazing blast of psyched out pop punk that stands alone even to this day)...this wax combined velvets up-tempo trance thuds with buzzing guitar noise post (early CBGB)television style with a strange joy division vibe replacing the buffalo springfield sounds they had when they got started, an unlikely meeting of manchester gothic punk and sunny california, this in itself was more signs the world becoming smaller by the day, influences flowing more free and easy than in the past, remolding instead of copying which had happened a decade/two decades earlier and on a smaller more roots underground level than before fuelled by independent records and the wide spread of fanzines(the mainly end result unfortunately of this flowing of influences has been the increasing hermogenity of rock'n'roll noise from local underground combos to corporate lackies)...liberal use of feedback and droning throw up more visions of prime era velvets that sit real cozy in the timeline of essential urban-drug-avant-noise which after the syndicate started having personel problems and releasing whack wax was taken up by the JAMC in glasgow in '83...kendra smith does her best to get her groove on with a cross between nico and marianne faithful but unfortunately shes only allowed to sing one tune(future personel problem bubbling right there)...proof of the greatness of this wax is easy to manifest by playing this and the first television disk back-2-back, they both flow into one another without a hitch, just a seamless progression...dig the bo diddley meets the velvets meets the great society on the title track, this alone is worth the price of admission, perfect symetry is obtained through the modal choogle drone...

2 comments:

planckzoo said...

Just say yes to Karl Precoda, in my mind the key to the greatness of the early Dream Syndicate.
These two disks are great, anyone who does not have them should grab them pronto.

spacedsaviour said...

he speaks the truth...