by Federico Guglielmi
issued on Rumore #34 (December 1994)
Among the myths of the American music of the eighties, that of The Dream
Syndicate is certainly one of the most deeply heart-felt by all who saw in the
"creative" recovery of the roots, the only way out for a rock otherwise
condemned to self-celebration: backed up by a musical inspiration of rare brightness and
by an interpretative disposition, shameless at the right moment, indeed, the LA band
succeeded in praising its devotion to Velvet Underground, blues and acid psychedelia into
a sound quivering with vitality and passion, evocative at its evident calls to past but
enough modern to escape trap of barren revival.
The recordings of this compact, made on Sept. 5th 1982,
live at the studio of KPFK Radio, date back to a period in which the quartet still showed the
original line-up (Steve Wynn on vocals & guitar, Kendra Smith
on bass, Karl Precoda on guitar, Dennis Duck on drums) and assaulted the stalls with a
repertoire much more rough and visionary than the one that their next incarnation would have
produced; The Day Before Wine And Roses
probably offers the most exuberant and
effective sample of it, aligning Some Kinda Itch,
Sure Thing,
That's What
You Always Say,
When You Smile,
John Coltrane Stereo Blues
(still entitled Open
Hour
), Mr. Soul
by Buffalo Springfield, Season
Of The Witch
by Donovan, Outlaw Blues
by Bob Dylan and a wild, hallucinated The
Days Of Wine And Roses:
nine extraordinary episodes (only three of them already issued
on the undiscoverable UK 12inch Tell Me When It's Over
by now) out of magnetism and
violence, and a wonderful concert we wish we were at.
Lost this occasion for ever, it would be really a pity you miss the opportunity of
listening to it too.