This Day in 1981: The Dream Syndicate Jam for the First Time

35 years ago today, the original lineup of The Dream Syndicate had their very first jam session together.

This is not to say that the band played their first proper show on this date, mind you. That wouldn’t happen until a little bit into 1982, and when it did, it took place at Club Lingerie in Hollywood, California. No, this was just the first time that all of the players – Steve Wynn, Kendra Smith, Karl Precoda, and Dennis Duck – got together in the same room and played music as a single entity.

Wynn and Smith had known each other for a fair while, having both not only attended the University of California, Davis but also played together in a band called The Suspects. Wynn spent some time keeping his musical options open, also recording a single as part of a trio called 15 Minutes, but when he moved back to his home turf of Los Angeles, he was just starting up with a new band called Goat Deity. Those plans changed when he met Karl Precoda and decided to start a new group, at which point Smith re-entered the picture, bringing Duck into the fold as well. Funnily enough, the last man aboard was actually the one who suggested the name of the band: Duck pitched “The Dream Syndicate,” which was a reference to an early experimental ensemble led by Tony Conrad.

Obviously, that first jam session panned out pretty well: before the end of 1982, The Dream Syndicate had recorded and released their debut album, THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES. If you’ve never heard it, give it a spin. You’ll wonder what took you so long.