DUH. THIRTY SEVEN FUCKING YEARS LATER

I really didn't expect to become excited again about Dream Syndicate. Seriously, the last album I was apeshit about was their first, The Days of Wine and Roses. After that LP, bassist Kendra Smith split and it just didn't seem the same. Shortly after Karl Precoda, carrier of the feedback torch when it needed carrying, left. That's when my interest waned. Paul Cutler, no slouch himself, took over guitar, but it might as well of been Clapton taking over guitar duties in the Jimi Hendrix Experience as far as I was concerned. Just not right. I made a half effort to give their ensuing releases hoping for a return to form, then I just plain stopped checking. It had been a long wait, that first LP came out in 1982. The wait ended last night.

I ran into a post of recently recorded covers, The Lagniappe Sessions: The Dream Syndicate at Aquarium Drunkard. That still didn't completely rope me in. It was interesting, Pere Ubu's "Non-Alignment Pact", John Cale's "Gun" and the Stylistic's  "People Make the World Go Round", but it wasn't quite there. Then I decided to see what this current line up was made of. I stumbled on the track "How Did I Find Myself Here". Ho-ly shit. It may not be the semi-controlled chaos of Precoda's feedback, but if you want eleven minutes of distorted feeding back noodling, this is your song. The pace, particularly the drums, and the stony meandering makes it sound like an Exile on Main St. outtake. And the piano, though a Rhodes, doesn't hurt. I'm not going to front. I could very likely have been wrong. Who gives a shit? There's feedback!

~ NOTE: ALL MEDIA IS HOSTED BY THE BLOGS & SITES NAMED BELOW ~

Listen:
The Dream Syndicate - How Did I Find Myself Here (streaming) at YouTube
From the first LP (1982)
The Dream Syndicate - Halloween mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
The Dream Syndicate - Tell Me When It’s Over mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
The Dream Syndicate - Then She Remembers mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
The Dream Syndicate - Until Lately mp3 at Now That's What I Call Bullshit
Video:
The Dream Syndicate with Kendra Smith - Kendra's Dream (Live, 2017) at YouTube