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The Days Of Wine And Roses

The Dream Syndicate

Release Date: 1982
The Days Of Wine And Roses

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Album Notes:


Reissue out on Omnivore Recordings 6/16/2015

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It's a standard rock interview (or rock fan) question. "What's the album that changed your life?" To which you're supposed to respond with your favorite title by the Velvets, Neil Young or the Monkees. But, for me, there's only one obvious answer. The record that changed my life was "The Days of Wine and Roses" by the Dream Syndicate.


I was 22 years old in September of 1982 when Kendra, Karl, Dennis and I went into Quad Tech studios in Hollywood. We were given 3 consecutive nights - all booked for midnight to 8am - to make our debut album. We tracked all 9 songs the first night, did vocals and minimal overdubs on the second and then mixed it on the third. After it was done I drove my Honda Civic across town to Westwood to begin my 10am shift as a clerk at the Rhino Records store. I played the cassette of the session mixes on the store PA and felt pretty sure the band and I had done something very special.


The record came out 6 weeks later. The critical response was immediate, universally positive and voluminous. A few months later I dropped out of college, quit my job and set out for my first US tour with the band. I had a new gig, the one I still have to this day. So, did The Days of Wine and Roses change my life? You bet it did.


I tell this story because Omnivore Records will reissue The Days of Wine and Roses on June 16. They've done a great job - beautiful packaging, stellar remastering and some pretty wild bonus tracks I didn't even know existed. Turns out that Dennis Duck had a cassette of a rehearsal from early 1983 in which the band tried out some new tunes - two of which ended up on Medicine Show and the rest long forgotten. How had I forgotten about this? The songs are wonderful, show where that original lineup might have gone and sound great for a boombox recording. They're an exciting addition to the collection.


33 years later (is it really that long? Seems like yesterday!) the record holds up, still feels fresh and oddly contemporary (those bonus tracks remind me of the Parquet Courts, one of my favorite new bands of the last few years) and still makes new fans with every year. I'm proud of the records I've made since - some of which, to be honest, I like even more - but nothing I ever do again will quite shift my world in the same way that those graveyard shift sessions did back in '82. Rediscover and enjoy.


--Steve Wynn

NYC 2015

Track Listing

Item 1: cd
# Track Title Play
1Tell Me When It's Over Tell Me When It's Over
2Definitely Clean Definitely Clean
3Thats What You Always Say Thats What You Always Say
4Then She Remembers Then She Remembers
5Halloween Halloween
6When You Smile When You Smile
7Until Lately Until Lately
8Too Little Too Late Too Little Too Late
9The Days Of Wine And Roses The Days Of Wine And Roses

Album Press

  • AceWeekly

    ...This tension creates a kind of cacophony of conflicting moods reminiscent of both Patti Smith and John Cale-era Velvet Underground.
    more
    posted: 2002-02-14
  • Scram Magazone

    ...Pure magic ....
    Completely different from hearing it played first time around, but just as great.more
    posted:
  • Whisperin and Hollerin

    Coming to critical prominence under that ever-so nebulous "Paisley Underground" banner in the early-to-mid 80s, Steve Wynn's DREAM SYNDICATE were quite possibly the most potent of all the post-punk LA crew,and that's quite something considering we're also talking about the likes of X,THE GUN CLUB and THE BLASTERS here.more
    posted:
  • AllMusic.COM

    The Days of Wine and Roses is a grand treatmore
    posted: 0000-00-00


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