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The Dream Syndicate Signs to Anti-Records
Anti- Records is pleased to announce the signing of influential Los Angeles indie rock pioneers The Dream Syndicate.
Originally active from 1982-1988, The Dream Syndicate reformed in 2012 after a lengthy hiatus. Founding member Steve Wynn explains, "The Dream Syndicate and I are very excited to be part of the Anti- family. I like the way they embrace artists with a rich and lengthy history who believe that their best and most relevant work is still ahead of them."
The Dream Syndicate was formed by current members Steve Wynn (guitar, vocals) and Dennis Duck (drums), along with Karl Precoda (guitar) and Kendra Smith (bass). The band blended the exploratory guitar duels of Television with post-punk and psychedelic garage rock influences, tossing in bedrock elements like Bob Dylan, the Velvet Underground and the Stooges, paving the way for much of the indie rock explosion in the years that followed.
Read moreposted: 2017-05-12Dream Syndicate will release its first album in nearly 30 years
From the LA Times:
The Los Angeles band the Dream Syndicate was hardly the city's most successful rock band during its existence in the 1980s, but for a few brief years, it was one of its most accomplished.
Best known for its 1982 debut album, "The Days of Wine and Roses," the Dream Syndicate tore its own ragged hole in the city's music scene, even if it never achieved the success of, say, the Bangles, Black Flag or the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
On Thursday, the band's stubbornly original guitarist, singer-songwriter Steve Wynn, announced that the reformed Dream Syndicate will release its first album in nearly 30 years through the respected L.A. label Anti- Records.
Joining Wynn will be original drummer Dennis Duck, who has carved his own fascinating path as a central figure in the improvisational collective of the Los Angeles Free Music Society...moreposted: 2017-05-12Out of the Bunker
And that's it. The first Dream Syndicate album in almost 30 years is finished, the last mix being wrapped up by the amazing John Agnello around midnight on Friday at Water Music in Hoboken, NJ.
Dennis, Mark, Jason, and I are so excited. It's mind-blowingly good and we can't wait to get it out there. The last step that remains is finding the right record label to get it into your hands. Hopefully, that will happen quickly and we can get out there and start doing some shows for this killer record.
posted: 2016-08-29The National Anthem
posted: 2016-07-28The Baseball Project will rock you out to the ballgame in Florida
Combining their duel passions of baseball and music, the members of the indie-rock super-group the Baseball Project have released three albums of original songs related to America's pastime. Sample tracks include Sometimes I Dream of Willie Mays, Buckner's Bolero and The Ballad of Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson. A side project comprising Steve Wynn, Scott McCaughey, Linda Pitmon and formermoreposted: 2016-03-03The Grapefruit League Tour
Anybody else going to be in Florida in March?
Come on down and take some batting practice with us. But don't sprain an oblique.
posted: 2016-02-27Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn makes good in Norway
You’ve been spending a lot of time in Oslo. How did you get associated with “Dag”? “Dag” is a dark comedy about a misanthropic couples counselor who is well-curated in impeccable music taste. And the one piece of art on his wall is a cover of “Days of Wine and Roses” by The Dream Syndicate. So it seemed like amoreposted: 2016-02-11THE YEAR THAT WAS, AND THE YEAR AHEAD
Well, that was fast. 2015 was an exciting, whirlwind blur. About 100 shows in all—two European runs of the Solo! Electric! machine (about 50 shows) and three US tours with the Baseball Project (adding up to around 30) as well as a few here and there with the Miracle 3 closer to home. And then there was the Summer Of Dag—scoring the 4th season of my favorite TV series, the Norwegian comedic saga of a misanthropic, acerbic marriage counselor. It was a new skill, mostly learned on the fly but I hope I get a chance to do it more often in the future.
Oh, and the year ended with the one and only 2015 show by The Dream Syndicate in 2015—in Richmond, Virginia just a few weeks ago. And about 12 hours after walking off stage we went into the studio to make our first album since 1988. We're all pretty thrilled with the results. I'm not going to say too much except that it's very much in keeping with What We Were as well as What We Might Have Become with some surprises, both big and small. I hope that we get it out in the 2nd half of 2016. Stay tuned.
Ah, 2016. Don't know if I'll hit triple figures on live shows again but I might not have forecasted that in 2015 either. I do know that I'll be down at the Todos Santos Music Festival in January for the fifth year in a row. And I'll be doing some gigs on the West Coast in February as well as another Solo! Electric! (sorry, I kinda dig those exclamation points) over in Europe in April (dates announced next month).
And finally, big thanks to dg at Rexruff, our patron saint of the website for revamping the entire digital store at www.stevewynn.net. More titles and higher bit rate are available now for your listening pleasure including Solo! Electric Volume 1 and Up There: Home recordings 2000 to 2008 for only $5 Bucks each. Hoping for more treats and updates on the site as well so keep your eyes and ears peeled.
Big big thanks to all of you, everyone who came to any of those 100 gigs, anyone who had a hand in putting them on, everyone at Yep Roc, Blue Rose, Belmont Bookings and Raji World as well as the Dag team and anyone who joined me on stage or in the studio this year. It's been one of my favorite years. Let's see what comes next.
STEVE WYNN
Jackson Heights, NYposted: 2015-12-30Reunited Dream Syndicate to Strange Matter
Richmond is like a second home to Steve Wynn. “I’ve always felt a real connection to the place,” says the guitarist and songwriter based in New York City’s Queens borough.Not only did Wynn’s influential ’80s band, the Dream Syndicate, perform often in area venues like Twisters and Flood Zone back in the day, he’s got a lot of friends here.moreposted: 2015-12-01The Days of Wine and Roses
Read Steve's notes on the reissue
posted: 2015-06-09Pop Matters
These 10 songs comprise as strong a collection of music as any Wynn has recorded since fronting Dream Syndicate. moreposted: 2014-08-13Steve Wynn Shares His Musical Memories
Steve Wynn has been a busy guy of late. Not only has he revived Paisley Underground legends the Dream Syndicate, he's doing double duty taking the field in the all-star unit known as the Baseball Project. When we had Wynn on the phone recently to talk about the Dream Syndicate jamming with Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones as well asmoreposted: 2014-04-10A Chat with the Dream Syndicate
Young bands on their way up in a local music scene can have a kind of ego and brash self-assuredness that in the right group and in the right hands can be very appealing and a lot of fun to watch on stage.It helps when they can back it up by making great music.The Dream Syndicate had just formed asmoreposted: 2014-02-26Dream Syndicated interview
Steve Wynn is bringing the Dream Syndicate back at a time when the band's primary inspiration is being eulogized. "When Lou Reed died (on Oct. 27), I was depressed and stunned," Wynn says. "I spent the first year of my musical life being compared to him, and fighting that, but I realized later it was an honor. It meant amoreposted: 2013-11-21Dream Syndicate plays Cleveland
Steve Wynn, frontman of seminal Los Angeles indie band the Dream Syndicate, has two significant memories of Cleveland from the 1980s."The first time we drove into Cleveland on tour we had this really great experience," says Wynn, calling from his home in New York City. "We had the radio on WMMS and we just happened to hear our song 'That'smoreposted: 2013-11-19For the rockers of the Baseball Project, it's all about the game
There is, they say, nothing more terrifying to a writer than the blank page. Steve Wynn knows this, and the solo artist and onetime frontman for semi-legendary 1980s jangle-poppers the Dream Syndicate appreciates how easy he's got it with the Baseball Project."It's a great band to write for because everything is very definable," says Wynn. "When you have your band,moreposted: 2012-07-05Steve Wynn at Bowery Electric
Rumpled old set lists, handwritten in ballpoint pen, are the true collector's items; the neat printouts in big BLOCK LETTERS can come from anywhere. But people scoop them up after gigs, all the same. And to anyone privileged enough to stand by the foot of the stage before the show starts, printed set lists are a double-edged sword: Sure, youmoreposted: 2012-07-01Dream Syndicate Reforms for 30th Anniversary of The Days of Wine and Roses
Steve Wynn of Steve Wynn & Miracle 3, and The Baseball Project has just announced a temporary reformation of his first successful band - The Dream Syndicate - for a short tour commemorating the 30th Anniversary of their seminal album The Days of Wine and Roses.Hard to believe that it's been that long since that album was released, although Stevemoreposted: 2012-06-28L.A. Times Music Blog
Steve Wynn's amalgam of Lou Reed's streetwise brashness, Neil Young's openheartedness and Bob Dylan's oblique poetry is pretty hard to resist, and who'd want to try?L.A.'s veteran indie rocker is on a tear in his third outing with the up-for-anything Miracle 3 — guitarist Jason Victor, drummer Linda Pitmon and bassist Dave DeCastro — fusing Wynn's penchant for Americana rock,moreposted: 2011-11-30Phoenix New Times
Sorry I ever doubted you, Steve. Like a lot of folks, I sure did love the first couple of Dream Syndicate records, especially the iconic Days of Wine and Roses, a record that may have summed up American indie rock (of course, it wasn't called that back then) in the early 1980s better than any other.But I all but ignoredmoreposted: 2011-11-29The Big Takeover
After nearly three decades in the music business, Steve Wynn once again reaffirms his mastery of straight-up rock & roll on Northern Aggression, his latest LP with the Miracle 3. The former leader of the Dream Syndicate doesn’t push any envelopes when it comes to writing or arrangements no jazz chords or tricky time signatures or genre-fucking here. Butmoreposted: 2011-11-18Relevant
Das "Chelsea" in Wien, das Kölner "Blue Shell" oder das "Knust" in Hamburg: Kleine Clubs, in denen Steve Wynn & The Miracle 3 auftreten, sind die typische Umgebung für Nischen- und Kultkünstler. Der 50-Jährige und seine drei Mitstreiter werden dort auch in diesem November (Tourneestart: 6.11.) vor einigen hundert Leuten zwei Stunden lang aus Gitarren, Bass und Schlagzeug alles herausholen."Diemoreposted: 2011-11-11Boston.com
On paper, the idea sounds questionable: four rock vets with more than 100 years of tenure among them knocking out original power-pop songs about baseball. But the Baseball Project works.“You do this kind of stuff all the time — getting together with other musicians and vowing to do this record or that tour and then getting sidetracked for years,’’ Wynnmoreposted: 2011-04-01AOL Music
Click link above for Video interview with Steve and Scottmoreposted: 2011-04-01The Bulletin
With the 2011 Major League Baseball season kicking off this week and temperatures warming up in Bend, this is an ideal time to talk about The Baseball Project, a pop-rock supergroup coming to Silver Moon Brewing & Taproom on Thursday (see “If you go”).The concept is simple: Four veteran musicians (three underground, one not so much) play catchy songs thatmoreposted: 2011-04-01Detroit Free Press
Mark Fidrych is being celebrated in the nostalgic new song "1976," which recounts the former Tigers pitcher's fabled rookie year -- the song's title -- and his death in 2009.The track appears on "Volume Two: High and Inside," the second album from the Baseball Project, a group made up of alternative rockers who share a love for America's pastime. Themoreposted: 2011-03-30Chart Attack
Scott McCaughey (Young Fresh Fellows, The Minus 5), Steve Wynn (The Dream Syndicate, Gutterball), Peter Buck (R.E.M.) and Linda Pitmon (Zuzu's Petals, Golden Smog) return for another album full of great songs about baseball. It may fall a run short of the 2008 Volume 1: Frozen Ropes And Dying Quails debut LP, but this team's combination of talent, passion, knowledgemoreposted: 2011-03-30
Steve's Tour Diary
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Oostende, Belgium
2012-11-12: Last night was the first show of my 17-city tour of Belgium with comedian (and my longtime friend) Piv Huvluv. And guess what? It worked. Really well, in fact. It's almost like we were somehow combining Vaudeville and the United Nations. He did his very funny comedy routine (click here to see clip--it's even funnymore -
Dream Syndicate Tour Diary
2012-10-15: Funny how these things work out. Early last summer, my friend Mikel Renteria asked me if I would return to play the second annual Walk On Project (WOP) charity festival that he was putting together in Bilbao. I had a great time there last summer and he raised a lot of money for his cause so I was definitely upmore -
Our Work Here is Done
2012-04-29: Well, that's it. The Dig It Up festival is over. All of the bands have scattered in various directions. Some are still touring. The Hoodoo Gurus, Redd Kross and Fleshtones played in Perth last night. But Linda and I remain, like some stubborn settlers, holding firm on our new land like settlers here in timesmore -
Southern Aggression
2012-04-25: It's good to take some time and look at the map of Australia. Everybody open your textbooks to page 32. Very good. Notice how a 2-city tour of this country (and both of my tours of this country have indeed been limited to the two biggest cities), firmly places you in a pretty small quadrant, name themore -
Battle of the Bands, Indeed
2012-04-23: I will say this for the Hoodoo Gurus. They really put together a festival of bands that know how to put on a live show. There are many bands who are great on record (and plenty more that aren't) who don't know what to do once they hit the stage. But it seems that every band onmore -
The Cure For Jet Lag
2012-04-21: And, really, there are many ways to adapt to a new environment and time zone. I've always chosen to just hit the ground running, spit in the face of chemistry and immediately bend to the new reality. We're staying in a neighborhood of Sydney called Surrey Hill on what my pal Robyn Hitchcock would call the "groover's strip,"more -
Somewhere Over the Pacific Ocean
2012-04-20: The last time I toured Australia was back in 1986. I was in the Dream Syndicate and we had just finished a tour of Europe which meant our flight from London to Melbourne was a whopping 27 hours (with stops in Dubai and Malaysia). 27 hours! As at least a few members of our band found out,more -
Bowery, Buckfest and other Surprises
2011-11-30: Bowery ElectricSteve Wynn & The Miracle 3 | New York City | Friday, December 2 - 9pmYes, I'm writing my own concert preview. It must be the retired rock critic in me (--granted, I haven't been a rock critic since I was 19, but you have to stay in shape). Nonetheless, the Miracle 3 and I don't playmore -
Battling the Elements--The Road to New London
2011-08-25: It's easy to talk about The Baseball Project using metaphors from the game itself. We had a Spring Training tour last March, a regular season tour in May and now it's time to embark on--what else?--our Pennant Race tour. Yes, six months after the release of "High and Inside" and about 60 gigs into 2011 and we're stillmore -
The Road to Madison (first pitch, final shows)
2011-06-10: There's nothing like celebrating a birthday on the road. The party is right there and waiting for you. You're with your pals, you're in a bar, you get to play some music and strangers will make a fuss over you. And that was the story on Wednesday for Linda as she rang in a new year inmore
Other Writing from Steve
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Steve Wynn Talks Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' Hypnotic Eye
July 2014: After 35 years, you might think you have Tom Petty figured out, but this portrait of modern malaise is worth spending time with.You put together a long, productive career and catalogue and eventually every new release comes down to some variation on your past. Every release is reduced to either "a return to form," meaning you hit the mark ofmore -
Why Don't You Just Try Making Music
July 2008: There's a story from the filming of "Marathon Man" that I love and often repeat (I hope it's actually true and not just a cinematic urban legend). It seems that Dustin Hoffman was in the process of trying any method acting trick he could come up with to get inside his character. He stayed up for threemore -
Music, Friends, and Good Times: Remembering Bryan Harvey
January 2005: I first met Bryan Harvey when he and Johnny Hott moved to LA and played an amazing show at Raji's. They were amazing. I couldn't believe all of the sound and energy and fury that came from just two people. I was instantly a fan and would not have imagined that I would eventually be in a band with them.Imore -
Doing a second playlist for Delta Airlines
September 2002: ALEX CHILTON -- The Replacements RADIO FREE EUROPE -- REM PLATEAU -- Meat Puppets I HAVE FAITH -- The Dream Syndicate LOS ANGELES -- X MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL -- Hüsker Dü BLISTER IN THE SUN -- Violent Femmesmore -
Doing a playlist for Delta Airlines
September 2002: When the programming director for Delta Airlines in-flight radio and magazine contacted me to host an hour-long show about anything I chose, I wasn't at a loss for ideas. I was a DJ when I was in college (and still dabble now and then--have me up to your station when I come to town!) and this kind of stuff ismore -
72 Hours in New York City
September 2001: Hi Everybody, I have been so touched and grateful to receive letters from so many of you asking to see if the band and I are okay. I am thankful to say that, for the most part, this horrible tragedy hasnít directly hit us or our families but as citizens of New York, themore -
On Signing the National Anthem
May 1992: Lets face it ...............it's a lousy song.The melody -- singable by possiby .01% of the population -- careens around aimlessly like your Uncle Jerry after a few dips in the Christmas punchbowl. The words suggests that the best thing to say about this country is that we kick butt on the battlefield.How did we get stuck with an anthem asmore
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