![]() ![]() Songs like “Out of My Head” and “80 West” burst with clanging, dissonant guitars and sneering Wynn vocals, suggesting that the band’s strident left-of-the-dial attitude hasn’t mellowed too much. Opener “Filter Me Through You” may book ahead at just a hair slower tempo than its rough analogs “Tell Me When It’s Over” and “Still Holding on to You,” but it’s darker and more tense, and the guitar sound is beefier and more gnarled than ever, with Wynn and guitarist Jason Victor’s dueling solos spiraling to the sky. That helps a sweet, glimmery song like “Like Mary”-with its gentle, strummy chorus and ethereal guitar leads-sound warmer and more melodic than it might have back in the day.Įven on that song, however, Wynn doesn’t omit Reed-like barbs like “She had pictures of her children/She remembered all of their names” and “He loved her like a sister/He loved her like a mom.” How Did I Find Myself Here? is just as noisy, heavy, and cantankerous as the Dream Syndicate’s original four albums. In the ’80s, he was doing the world’s most obvious Lou Reed impression but here he sounds like a slightly more grizzled Tom Petty. With the exception of a guest appearance by original bassist Kendra Smith, the only remaining original members are drummer Dennis Duck and frontman Steve Wynn, whose solo work has often trended in a poppier, garage-ier direction. The album assuredly follows the template of the band’s first two classic albums, 1982’s The Days of Wine and Roses and 1984’s Medicine Show, both of which alternated wiry, caustic rock songs with hazy, slow-burning jams.Ī lot, naturally, has changed since then, including the band’s lineup. From the sovereign authority invoked by Young’s music, to the “paranoiac” politics of Flynt, to the immanent control modeled by Conrad’s films, each avant-garde project examined reveals an investment within a particular structure of power and resistance, providing a glimpse into the diversity of the artistic and political stakes that continue to define our time.The Dream Syndicate’s first album in 29 years, How Did I Find Myself Here?, is the best kind of nostalgia kick: It effortlessly recalls the band’s much-too-short original run while also settling into a lived-in, comfortable groove. This exploration of Conrad and his milieu goes beyond the presentation of a relatively overlooked oeuvre to chart multiple, contestatory regimes of power simultaneously in play during the pivotal moment of the 1960s. ![]() ![]() Such an approach simultaneously illuminates and estranges current understandings of the period, redrawing the map across medium and stylistic boundaries to reveal a constitutive hybridization at the base of the decade’s artistic development. Neither monograph nor social history, the book takes Conrad’s collaborative interactions as a guiding thread by which to investigate the contiguous networks and discursive interconnections in 1960s art. The Velvet Underground Who are they The early Rolling Stones, more often than not, improved upon the old blues songs they either. And there's also a wonderful 4CD box set of The Days of. Yet Beyond the Dream Syndicate does not claim Conrad as a major but under-recognized figure. The Dream Syndicate will tour the UK in March along with a duo acoustic version of Rain Parade (Matt Piucci and Steven Roback) opening the shows and Vicki Peterson of the Bangles and Continental Drifters joining our combo as a sub for Jason Victor. ![]() Creator of the “structural” film, The Flicker, collaborator on Jack Smith’s Flaming Creatures and Normal Love, follower of Henry Flynt’s radical anti-art, member of the Theatre of Eternal Music and the first incarnation of The Velvet Underground, and early associate of Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler, and Cindy Sherman, Conrad has eluded canonic histories. Tony Conrad has significantly influenced cultural developments from minimalism to underground film, “concept art,” postmodern appropriation, and the most sophisticated rock and roll. ![]()
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