History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned: The Days Of Wine and Roses Expanded Edition By The Dream Syndicate Is Here!
By Donzig
The Dream Syndicate and Fire Records finally give proper due to the band's classic 1982 album The Days Of Wine And Roses with a voluminous reissue package documenting the band's formation, early recordings, and breakout debut. The set, out now, is called, History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned: The Days Of Wine and Roses. Seminal albums such as The Days of Wine and Roses do not spring forth spontaneously, but are developed over time based on a band's talent, determination, and circumstances. This new set reveals some of these factors in the group's early history.
Fire Records perviously gave this exhaustive treatment to the band's 1986 transition album Out Of The Grey, which debuted a new lineup. That set and the band's part in the Paisley Underground scene were both discussed here. But The Days of Wine and Roses is the album that put The Dream Syndicate on the map and a major reason their subsequent releases have gained attention.
The Fire Records press release details the contents of the new set:
"54 songs from the original line-up, including 10 hard-to-find rarities and 31 never released recordings
An exceptional early '80s guitar-powered gem, remastered in full and includes a wealth of unreleased material. This newly expanded 4-CD collection includes tracks from main protagonist Steve Wynn's earlier combo 15 Minutes, the debut EP, astounding cover renditions (Johnny Cash, Janis Joplin, The Who), recordings of the band's first ever rehearsal, along with several visceral live concerts from the pre-album era.
Celebrating the album's 40th anniversary, this beautifully housed bookback edition also includes 30 pages of liner notes by band historian Pat Thomas, new interviews with Kendra Smith, engineer Paul Cutler and producer Chris D, rare photos, gig posters and more."
Rhino Records previously issued a CD compilation of The Days Of Wine And Rises with early singles. A live concert from this era has also been released: The Day Before Wine And Roses (Live at KPFK), an influential show attended by most members of the nascent Paisely Underground band scene. A documentary is also streaming now on Amazon Prime entitled The Dream Syndicate: How Did We Find Ourselves Here? These are valuable resources, but the new 4-CD set, comprising the Rhino material along with demos, outtakes, many live cuts (including 2 from Live at KPFK) and voluminous liner notes, provides a fuller picture of the band's formation and early performances than has ever been available before.
Fire Records is also pressing a new 2-LP package with the same material as the earlier Rhino release, but this is a case in which the cost advantages and ease of pressing CDs allows for a more complete document of an historic group's beginnings on this format than the more popular LP. A digital release including all 54 tracks will also be available from The Dream Syndicate's Bandcamp page, but downloads seldom include liner notes, which are quite useful and informative here.
History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned: The Days Of Wine and Roses (4xCD Expanded Edition) is out now via Fire Records.
[Photo: Fire Records]