Saturday, April 30, 2011


Paisley Underground Series, #5: The Dream Syndicate- The Days of Wine and Roses (1982) MP3 & FLAC


"It's not fair to put you against all the years behind me."

One of the most enduring and darkly brilliant albums to emanate from the Paisley Underground scene, The Dream Syndicate's The Days of Wine and Roses takes up residence in the fertile and far too infrequently explored intersection between the darker side of late-sixties psych-rock and the brooding atmospherics of Post-Punk. Drawing on diverse influences such as The Byrds, Jimi Hendrix, Television, Velvet Underground, Joy Division and The Clash, the original incarnation of The Dream Syndicate were very much a band out of time and place in the early-eighties; as such, their debut, full of Karl Precoda's striking feedback-drenched guitar-work coupled with Steve Wynn's deadpan vocals, was quite a contrast to the synth-heavy approach many Post-Punk bands were adopting at the time. The Days of Wine and Roses begins with one of the most memorable songs of the Paisley Underground: "Tell Me When It's Over," an anthemic piece of dark Jangle-Pop featuring some great guitar interplay between Wynn and Precoda and Wynn's vocal approximation of a young Lou Reed. Another standout is the insistently sprawling title track, a White Light / White Heat-style epic, which gives Precoda plenty of room to stretch out and coax some amazing sounds from his notoriously cheap guitar. Neo-Psychedelia doesn't come much finer than this- one of the truly essential Paisley Underground albums.

The Days of Wine and Roses (2001 Remastered and Expanded Edition)
 1. Tell Me When It's Over  (3:33)
 2. Definitely Clean  (3:30)
 3. That's What You Always Say  (3:13)
 4. Then She Remembers  (4:08)
 5. Halloween  (6:10)
 6. When You Smile  (4:16)
 7. Until Lately  (6:51)
 8. Too Little Too Late  (3:28)
 9. The Days of Wine and Roses  (7:34)
-Bonus Tracks-
10. Sure Thing (The Dream Syndicate EP)  (4"02)
11. That's What You Always Say (The Dream Syndicate EP)  (4:22)
12. When You Smile (The Dream Syndicate EP)  (3:10)
13. Some Kinda Itch (The Dream Syndicate EP)  (5:32)
14. Too Little, Too Late  (3:40)
15. Definitely Clean  (3:36)
16. That's What You Always Say ("Down There" Single)  (3:57)
17. Last Chance for You ("Down There" Single)  (2:39)


23 comments:

  1. Very good review for this awesome album. Thank you for remembering this band!

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  2. Indeed one of the Paisley masterpieces.

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  3. Makes for an excellent Paisley weekend! Thanks much for posting. Essential listening. Kurt

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  4. I love this album ... Thanks for the post!

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  5. Dave, I have many more Dream Syndicate and Steve Wynn posts coming over the course of the series! Stay Tuned :)

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  6. Sounds as vital as ever. Thanks for the expanded version voix. Saludos.

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  7. One of my favorite albums of the Paisley scene.

    I'm very curious to hear the EP & other bonus tracks.

    Thanks a lot !

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  8. Lon, I'm glad I could post this :)

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  9. Thanks for this! This is really great album!

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  10. Great, thanks for this. The Dream Syndicate is one of those seminal bands that I never got around to familiarizing myself with. This album has the best long-title-track-building-up-to-an-exhilarating-level-of-intensity this side of "Marquee Moon".

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  11. wolfspider, this is only the tip of the iceberg with The Dream Syndicate, but nothing they recorded later was a good as this

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  12. Can't believe this is out of print. Just bought the CD used a few weeks ago to replace crap mp3s. For your paisley series, please don't forget about Green on Red, particularly the Chris D. produced Gravity Talks.

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  13. PiltdownLad, yes, that Green on Red album is coming up very soon :)

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  14. Awesome. I'm pretty much camping out on this blog (and PPP) right now.

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  15. Piltdownlad, I really appreciate all the comments; it's good to have you with us. I'll post a lot more Dream Syndicate stuff as the Paisley series unfolds. It will probably continue for the better part of a year

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  16. Thanx for introducing me to this band. I never heard of them before and wow!!! I can't get enough of your blog. Thank you again

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  17. happy, I'm a big Dream Syndicate fan, so it's nice to hear that you have discovered them. I posted another of their albums in the Paisley series a few weeks back and I will be posting many other Dream Syndicate-related albums in future Paisley series posts (including albums by vocalist Steve Wynn and guitarist Karl Precoda)

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