#Karl Precoda | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

weneverlearn · 6 months ago

Text

Dream Syndicate -- Demo Recordings, 12/27/81

Here's a cool thing I stumbled onto, like a couple years ago, then stumbled on again recently.

Steve Wynn -- singer/leader f one of my favorite bands, the Dream Syndicate -- posted this great sounding demo from the band's first rehearsal with forever drummer Dennis Duck. And you can hear from this demo that he fit like a glove from the get-go.

Below is Wynn's explanation of the demo from the band's 12/26/21 Facebook post, on the then-occasion of the band's 40th birthday, below; and below that, the demo! Check it all out!

--------------------------------------

December 27, 1981…….a memory from a Sunday evening, 40 years ago.

Karl Precoda and I had been meeting regularly and jamming in my father’s basement in West LA over the course of the previous months, having met when he showed up to try out on bass for a band I was goofing around with at the time. “I don’t like this band very much but you’re really good—we should get together and play again sometime.”

There was an immediate chemistry between the two of us and, most of all, we were just having fun jamming on one chord for hours or playing loose versions of CCR covers or fooling around with some new songs I had been writing. I called up Kendra Smith, my best friend at the time and band mate from when we had both attending UC Davis in the years before. Like me, she had moved back to LA and had just recently started playing bass. I knew she’d dig what we were laying down and she enthusiastically joined our aimless duo and before long we found a drummer named Randy who I believe I met at the Rhino Records store where I was working at the time. Randy was game and enthusiastic but as much as an inspired but limited amateur as me and Kendra and Karl which was just fine since we had no ambition beyond making noise in the basement.

One day Kendra said, “I was talking to Dennis Duck at a party in Pasadena and he said he might like to play with us sometime.” Now, you have to understand that Dennis was a rock star as far as we were concerned. He was 6 years older than the rest of us and had already made a mark on the LA post punk scene, drumming with his band Human Hands. They’d put out records! They’d been played on the radio! I had seen them play live several times including a great show at the Whiskey a Go Go where they opened for the Feelies and the nervous energy of both bands coupled with a 103 degree fever I was battling from the flu to make for one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen to this day (and interestingly enough, the topic of conversation with me and Dennis and the Feelies’ Glenn Mercer at a show we played together just a few weeks ago in NYC at City Winery).

Anyway, I was a little incredulous that Dennis would want to play with us. But I was also pretty cocky and full of beans about our cool little raggedy combo and on Sunday, December 27, I called him up on a torrentially rainy afternoon (it DOES rain in Southern California sometimes) and said, “Hey, we’re getting together to jam in my dad’s basement tonight. Wanna come over?” Dennis lived an hour away in Pasadena, it was pouring and he would have to load up his own drums to make the trek but somehow I was doggedly persistent enough to convince him to come out. I guess I made a good case or maybe just wouldn’t shut up until he said yes. To this day, he’s surprised he agreed.

Anyway, Dennis arrived, drums dripping from the rain outside, set up and started playing with us in the basement . He had brought along a boom box to record the rehearsal. We didn’t try to impress him or even say much about what we were doing. We just did our thing and he played along. At the end, he packed up and I helped him to his car. “Thanks for coming out and playing with us,” I said—I am nothing if not polite—and he didn’t say all that much in return. I figured he was probably wondering why he bothered to come out and play with kids like us and pretty much assumed we wouldn’t be hearing from him again.

A few days later I called Dennis to thank him for coming out and asked him if he had listened to the cassette he had recorded of the rehearsal. He answered, “I’ve listened to nothing ELSE since then. It’s one of the best things I’ve heard in a long time. I want to play with you guys.” And that was that. Three weeks later we made a quick four-song demo that became our first EP and only a few days after that we played our first show, opening for PIL spin-off band Brian Brain at Club Lingerie in Hollywood and we were off and running, only a handful of days after the first time we played together.

40 years ago. Hard to believe. Since then, Dennis and I have held the fort, first with Karl and Kendra and then, over the following years in the 80’s, with Dave Provost and Paul B. Cutler and Mark Walton and now for the last 10 years with the consistent lineup of me, Dennis, Mark, Jason Victor and Chris Cacavas. Our new album comes out next June with the first single being released in March. With any luck we’ll be out there on road for much of the latter part of the year.

But for now, happy 40th Birthday to the Dream Syndicate. Like many good and incendiary things, it all started in the basement.

Here’s a link to that first rehearsal, copied directly from Dennis’ cassette that he still has all these years later.

Dream Syndicate Live at Rehearsals on 1981-12-27

#dream syndicate #steve wynn #rhino records #David Arnoff #paisley underground #demo recordings

13 notes · View notes

daggerzine · 4 months ago

Text

BOOK REVIEW- I Wouldn't Say It If It Wasn't True (By Steve Wynn, 244 pages, Jawbone Press)

This book by The Dream Syndicate leader came out last year, but I just finished reading it. I wanted to write something about it as it's so good.

The story starts out with Wynn, an only child of divorced parents and usually living with his mom (and occasionally with one of her boyfriends, like one time in Bel Air, right behind Ed Asner's house). Being a dreamer gave a young Wynn a chance to drift off into his own world, as well as, walking around different parts of Los Angeles and checking out his favorite record stores as the music bug had bitten him pretty early on.

Eventually he left music behind in his teenage years to focus on .......sports writing!

He was drawn back into music in college at UC Davis where he met some friends who would greatly influence him (including his bandmate in his first band The Suspects, Kendra Smith). Eventually, he would leave UC Davis and head back to L.A. Here he formed The Dream Syndicate in 1981, finding bandmates Kendra Smith (there she is again), guitarist Karl Precoda, and drummer Dennis Duck. This lineup went on to make their seminal debut album, The Days of Wine and Roses. Things would change within the band (Smith left after the first album and Precoda after the 2nd album). The band had some ups and downs after that classic debut and eventually disbanded in 1988.

These stories are told by Wynn in rich, evocative language, at times hilarious and others heartbreaking, and his attention to detail is pretty astounding. I found the book to be excellent and hard to put down.

The book ends when the Dream Syndicate ends and Wynn mentions there will be a follow-up (especially as the band has been very active since they reformed in 2012).

3 notes · View notes

rutaalrocknoticias · 2 years ago

Text

STEVE WYNN, referente del rock alternativo norteamericano, de gira en octubre junto a Germán Salto

STEVE WYNN, gira española en acústico de la figura clave e inspiradora del pop- rock alternativo norteamericano

MIÉRCOLES 18 OCTUBRE- PAMPLONA - ZENTRAL* JUEVES 19 OCTUBRE- ZARAGOZA - ROCK AND BLUES* VIERNES 20 OCTUBRE- HOSTALETS DE BALENYÀ- TEATRE SÁBADO 21 OCTUBRE - LOGROÑO - STEREO* DOMINGO 22 OCTUBRE - LIÉRGANES - LOS PICOS* MARTES 24 OCTUBRE- SEVILLA - SALA X* MIÉRCOLES 25 OCTUBRE- MADRID - FUNHOUSE* JUEVES 26 OCTUBRE- OURENSE - CAFÉ POP TORGAL* VIERNES 27 OCTUBRE- SAN SEBASTIÁN - ALTXERRI* SÁBADO 28 OCTUBRE- BILBAO - SALA BBK LEGENDS* * CON GERMÁN SALTO Entradas: Heart of Gold

El cantante, guitarrista y compositor (The Dream Syndicate, The Baseball Project, Miracle 3 y muchos más proyectos) repasará sus cuatro décadas de vigorosa y respetable carrera en esta gira española

Su dirección de correo electrónico y su cuenta de Instagram responden al nombre de "cultartist". Nunca ha tenido una canción en el Top 40 ni ha ganado un premio Grammy.

Y, sin embargo, Steve Wynn ha forjado una carrera de cuatro décadas en las que grabó más de 400 canciones y tocó en más de 3000 shows para fans de todo el mundo que pueden nombrar y debatir cada canción en las docenas de discos que ha hecho en sus diversas formas musicales.

Sin duda, un artista de culto. Y, sin embargo, hablar con Wynn es un ejemplo de cómo mantener la ilusión intacta desde el principio.

“Claro, era fanático de los Beatles y los Stones, pero mi pasión siempre se inclinó hacia los que vivían por debajo del radar. La mayoría de mis obsesiones musicales eran bandas como Velvet Underground, Stooges, Modern Lovers, Gun Club, bandas como esas que nunca vendieron discos en su tiempo pero también hicieron grandes discos que crecieron hasta el estatus de clásicos con el tiempo”.

La primera banda que le viene a la mente a la mayoría de las personas que conocen la música de Wynn es The Dream Syndicate. Wynn fundó la banda en 1982 con Karl Precoda, Kendra Smith y Dennis Duck y su álbum debut "The Days of Wine and Roses" fue la piedra angular de la escena indie rock que se desarrollaría a raíz de ese disco.

“Hice muchos álbumes y, para ser honesto, me gustan todos y en su mayoría han sido muy bien recibidos, pero ese es el que siempre aparecerá primero con cualquiera que hable sobre mi música. Y estoy conforme con eso. Yo también soy fan de ese disco”.

Pero Steve Wynn no se detuvo en 1982. The Dream Syndicate continuó con tres discos más en los años 80 y luego se separó en 1988. 29 años después volvieron con "How Did I Find Myself Here", el comienzo de una trilogía de nuevos discos compuestos y grabados en Richmond, Virginia, que volvieron a poner a la banda en el centro de atención, retomando donde se quedaron y trasladando el sonido de la banda a una nueva dimensión.

Entre esas dos eras de The Dream Syndicate, Steve hizo 11 álbumes en solitario y realizó giras incesantes con sus diversas bandas en solitario, incluida la muy querida Miracle 3 con su esposa Linda Pitmon en la batería, Dave DeCastro en el bajo y también Jason Victor, quien terminaría siendo el guitarrista de Dream Syndicate Mach II. Wynn se tomó un descanso de los Miracle 3 en 2008 para viajar a Eslovenia y hacer "Crossing Dragon Bridge", que Allmusic ha llamado su "Obra maestra".

La mayor parte del material en solitario de Steve se reeditó en la caja de 11 CD "Decade", que recopiló todas las pistas que grabó entre 1995 y 2005, junto con 67 canciones inéditas.

Esas dos eras de creación de discos deberían ser suficientes, pero Wynn siempre ha prosperado basado en la experimentación y la colaboración, experiencias en nuevas ciudades y escenarios buscando inspiración y se ha desviado hacia varios proyectos paralelos, todos los cuales tuvieron sus propios seguidores, éxitos y giras.

Actualmente, sigue siendo un miembro activo de The Baseball Project, superbanda que ha hecho 4 álbumes completos sobre, lo adivinaste, béisbol. Sus compañeros de correrías en este proyecto tan especializado son Peter Buck y Mike Mills de REM junto con Scott McCaughey de Minus 5 y Young Fresh Fellows y, una vez más, su esposa Linda. Los dos primeros shows de la banda fueron en 2008 en la boda de Steve y Linda y luego, un mes después, The Late Show with David Letterman. La banda toca con frecuencia, a menudo en los partidos de las ligas mayores, convirtiéndose en lo que Steve llama en broma "mi única banda que toca en estadios".

También hubo un par de discos, cada uno con Gutterball y Danny & Dusty. El primero era una especie de supergrupo de los 80 con Bryan Harvey y Johnny Hott de House of Freaks junto con Stephen McCarthy de Long Ryders, Bob Rupe de The Silos y Armistead Wellford de Love Tractor. Y el último fue su proyecto de "fiesta de fin de semana" con Dan "Danny" Stuart de Green on Red y miembros de Long Ryders.

“Todos los proyectos que he hecho todavía están activos”, dice Wynn. “Algunos están más ocupados que otros”.

Es líder de la banda, guitarrista y cantante, pero Steve se considera ante todo un compositor. “No habría tenido ningún tipo de carrera a menos que hubiera podido escribir canciones”. Sus canciones han sido versionadas varias veces en vivo y grabadas por REM, Yo La Tengo, Concrete Blonde, Luna e incluso la ídolo del pop adolescente Allyssa Machalka, quien cantó su "Amphetamine" en la película "Bandslam".

Junio 2023: Inmediatamente después de "Decade", una caja en solitario de 11 CD y "History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned", una reedición extensa de 4 CD del álbum debut de The Dream Syndicate, "The Days of Wine and Roses", Steve Wynn se embarcará en una gira acústica europea en solitario este octubre con shows en Escandinavia, España y los Países Bajos. Steve tocará canciones de toda su carrera en solitario y también temas de sus diversas bandas.

0 notes

odk-2 · 4 years ago

Audio

The Dream Syndicate - Halloween (1982) Karl Precoda from: "The Days of Wine and Roses" (LP)

Paisley Underground | Post-Punk | Jangle Pop

JukehostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Steve Wynn: Vocals / Guitar Karl Precoda: Guitar Kendra Smith: Bass Dennis Duck: Drums

Produced by Chris D.

Recorded: @ The Quad Teck Studio during September of 1982 in Los Angeles, California USA

Released: on October 28, 1982

Ruby Records/Slash Records (US) Rough Trade Records (UK) Rhino Records (2001 Reissue)

#The Dream Syndicate #Paisley Underground #Jangle Pop #Post-Punk #Halloween #The Days of Wine and Roses #Karl Precoda #Steve Wynn #Kendra Smith #Dennis Duck #1980's #Chris D.#Rough Trade Records #Ruby Records #Slash Records #Rhino Records

1 note · View note

jlpn · 8 years ago

Audio

Los Angeles (CA), USA

#Dream Syndicate #Steve Wynn #paisley underground #garage rock #Kendra Smith #Karl Precoda #Dennis Duck

11 notes · View notes

dustedmagazine · 2 years ago

Text

The Dream Syndicate — History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned: The Days of Wine and Roses 40th Anniversary Edition (Fire Records)

The Days of Wine and Roses (Expanded Edition) by The Dream Syndicate

A 40th anniversary is sort of an odd date to celebrate with pomp and fanfare, which makes this overstuffed edition of the Dream Syndicate’s The Days of Wine and Roses exude at least a whiff of opportunism. And to be sure, History Kinda Pales When It and You Are Aligned is overstuffed: four compact discs, 260 total minutes of music, five different versions of “Definitely Clean” and seven (yep) of “That’s What You Always Say” (from the original record; the Down There EP version; a 1981 recording by the 15 Minutes, a band Steve Wynn formed with members of Alternative Learning; a rehearsal rendition and several live recordings—it’s a good song, but that’s a bit much, by any measure). Dream Syndicate completists and musicologists with big historical investments in the Paisley Underground will rejoice. What about the rest of us?

At the very least, we have occasion to remember a great rock record, one of a select few released from the California underground in the early 1980s that still feel absolutely necessary, song for song and note for note. If we stick specifically with punk and punk-adjacent LA, we might mention Black Flag’s Damaged, X’s Under the Big Black Sun, Minutemen’s Double Nickels on the Dime and Gun Club’s Fire of Love. That’s some fierce company. The Dream Syndicate shared a label with the Gun Club, and likely shared a stage or two with at least a couple of those bands. But they were outliers in LA in those crucial years: not hair-trigger punks like Fear or Circle Jerks, not rootsy like Green on Red or the Blasters, not self-consciously arty like Screamers or Bpeople. Musically the Dream Syndicate was more aligned with New York bands, like Television or the Voidoids — and the Dream Syndicate confessed as much by name-checking La Monte Young’s famous NYC drone ensemble in their band’s moniker.

Mostly the Dream Syndicate was a guitar band, Wynn and Karl Precoda playing tangled and brash lines and working the space between dissonance and rock dramatics. You can hear that impulse, toward volume and catharsis, on a great-sounding live set included on Disc 4 of the edition, captured at the Country Club in Reseda, CA, sometime in 1982. “Then She Remembers” sounds like early Sonic Youth until Wynn drags the song back toward the textures of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their most ragged and feral. In between songs, Wynn quips, “This is San Francisco psychedelia, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Blue Cheer...” He’s goofing on Cali punk’s north-south rivalries, but it’s not a bad set of references for the kinds of guitar antics the band gets into. That Reseda set is one of the real treats among all the accompanying recordings included in History Kinda Pales…, along with a recording of “Open Hour” from a 1982 live performance on KPFK, in which the guitarists channel Verlaine and Lloyd’s sense of interplay. Also check out the cover of “Folsom Prison Blues,” recorded in Tucson that same year; the band sounds like Rank and File on an especially whiskey-soaked night.

Amid all those extras, the most substantive music on the four discs can still be heard in the studio recordings that appeared as The Days of Wine and Roses in late October, 1982. Kendra Smith was still in the band, and her moody presence plays up the record’s Paisley Underground affiliations, as do the psych-rock acrobatics of “When You Smile.” But a lot of the story is told in the record’s first five seconds: those glorious, crashing notes that form the signature riff of “Tell Me When It’s Over.” It’s a great song, one of a few palpably heartbroken, sort-of-love songs from the decade (along with the Replacements’ “Unsatisfied” and Leaving Trains’ “Light Rain”) that laid some formative groundwork for the 1990s’ indie rock. The Days of Wine and Roses reaches its highest peaks on its several sort-of love songs: those just mentioned, “Halloween,” “Then She Remembers.” Those last two address desires that simmer with threat or explode into violence, and the music follows the same logic. If you haven’t for some time, listen to the ecstatic, free-falling guitar break that takes up the second half of “Then She Remembers.” It’s breathless, propulsive and razor sharp. Sort of like the passage of history.

Jonathan Shaw

#the dream syndicate #history kinda pales when it and you are aligned #days of wine and roses #40th anniversary edition #fire #jonathan shaw #albumreview #dusted magazine #paisley underground #steve wynn #kendra smith

4 notes · View notes

allmusic · 4 years ago

Photo

AllMusic Staff Pick: The Dream Syndicate Out of the Grey

After the commercial failure of Medicine Show and the departure of guitarist Karl Precoda, most fans assumed the Dream Syndicate were a spent force, but 1986's Out of the Grey revealed they'd found a remarkable second wind. Lead guitarist Paul B. Cutler gave the band a new, impressive level of ferocity, and Steve Wynn's film noir songwriting was as strong as ever on "Now I Ride Alone" and "50 In a 25 Zone."

- Mark Deming

#allmusic staff picks #the dream syndicate

2 notes · View notes

alanlicht · 4 years ago

Text

Anthology Film Archives invited me to curate a series related to films discussed in Common Tones, the new collection of interviews that Blank Forms published. Movies by Kelly Reichardt, Richard Foreman, Tony Oursler, Phill Niblock and others are featured, and there’s a night sub-curated by legendary Dream Syndicate guitarist Karl Precoda. It runs from September 16--26. Full schedule and info here

There’s also a new interview with me about the book done by John Colpitts (aka Kid Millions) over at the Talkhouse. And the WFMU interview in a previous entry here. More interviews and a couple of public events coming up, stay tuned..

3 notes · View notes

artbookdap · 4 years ago

Photo

Get it while it’s hot! Alan Licht’s 592-page interview compendium ‘Common Tones’ is new from @blankforms_ (and probably going to sell out fast)!⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ For the past 30 years, Licht has been a performer, programmer and chronicler of NYC’s art and music scenes. His dry wit, deep erudition and unique perspective—informed by decades of experience as a touring and recording guitarist in the worlds of experimental music and underground rock—have distinguished him as the go-to writer for profiles of adventurous artists across genres. A precocious scholar and improvisor, by the time he graduated from Vassar College in 1990 Licht had already authored important articles on minimalist composers La Monte Young, Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine, and recorded with luminaries such as Rashied Ali and Thurston Moore. In 1999 he became a regular contributor to @thewiremagazine while continuing to publish in periodicals ranging from the artworld glossies to underground fanzines.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Common Tones gathers a selection of never-before-published interviews, many conducted during the writing of Licht’s groundbreaking profiles, alongside extended versions of his celebrated conversations with artists, previously untranscribed public exchanges and new dialogues. Even Lou Reed, a notoriously difficult interviewee, was impressed.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Interviews with Vito Acconci, ANOHNI, Cory Arcangel, Matthew Barney, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, the Dream Syndicate’s Karl Precoda, Richard Foreman, Henry Flynt, Milford Graves, Adris Hoyos, Ken Jacobs, Jutta Koether, Christian Marclay, Phill Niblock, Alessandra Novaga, Tony Oursler, Lou Reed, Kelly Reichardt, The Sea and Cake, Suicide, Michael Snow, Greg Tate, Tom Verlaine, Rudy Wurlitzer and Yo La Tengo’s Georgia Hubley & Ira Kaplan.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ @irvifran #alanlicht #commontones #michaelsnow @avantgroidd #tonyconrad #henryflynt @therealylt #karlprecoda @officialalanvega #christianmarclay @loureedofficial #tomverlaine @tonyoursler @theseaandcake #matthewbarney @arcangelsurfware #kenjacobs #juttakoether @anohni #richardforeman #glennbranca @rhysrhythmchatham #phillniblock #rudywurlitzer #kellyreichardt @alessandra_novaga #adrishoyos #milfordgraves https://www.instagram.com/p/CSMYJHVM1LP/?utm_medium=tumblr

#alanlicht #commontones #michaelsnow #tonyconrad #henryflynt #karlprecoda #christianmarclay #tomverlaine #matthewbarney #kenjacobs #juttakoether #richardforeman #glennbranca #phillniblock #rudywurlitzer #kellyreichardt #adrishoyos #milfordgraves

5 notes · View notes

vmonteiro23a · 3 years ago

Text

40 YEARS AGO: The Dream Syndicate - "That's What You Always Say"

40 YEARS AGO: The Dream Syndicate – “That’s What You Always Say”

40 YEARS AGO: The Dream Syndicate – “That’s What You Always Say” “March 30, 1982 THE DREAM SYNDICATE are a new California band that have just released their debut EP on their own Down There Records label. The four track 12′ EP features three Steve Wynn songs. “That’s What You Always Say”, “When You Smile,” “Some Kinda Itch” and the Karl Precoda song “Sure Thing”. Their story begins at the end…

View On WordPress

0 notes

boredout305 · 4 years ago

Text

Kristi Callan of Wednesday Week

Kristi Callan is best known for her tenure leading Wednesday Week. She presently plays in Dime Box, The Roswell Sisters and Cheap Chick.

Originally from Dallas, Kristi and her sister Kelly moved to Los Angeles in the mid-‘70s. The Callan sisters played with a pre-Dream Syndicate Steve Wynn in Goat Deity before forming Narrow Adventure with Kjehl Johansen (Urinals, 100 Flowers). Narrow Adventure morphed into Wednesday Week in 1983. Wednesday Week would sign a deal with Enigma Records, releasing What We Had (1987), before disbanding in 1990.

In the 1990s, Callan formed Lucky and Dime Box. With the help of Justin Tanner, Kristi also performs with the Roswell Sisters—her three-part harmony group which includes Kristian Hoffman (Mumps, James White and the Blacks). Spacecase Records is currently working with Kristi on a Narrow Adventure LP, culling unreleased tracks from 1981-1983. COVID-19 permitting, be on the lookout for Dime Box, Roswell Sisters and Narrow Adventure shows in late 2020/early 2021.

Interview by Ryan Leach

Photos courtesy of Kristi Callan

Narrow Adventure, left to right: Kjehl Johansen, Kristi Callan, Kelly Callan.

Ryan: Where did you grow up?

Kristi: My sister (Kelly Callan) and I are from Dallas, Texas, originally. We moved to Oklahoma next and then to New York. Our mother is an actress. It was an interesting transition, going from Oklahoma to public housing in New York in the mid-‘70s. We loved New York City. We then moved to Los Angeles in 1976. My sister and I were pissed about it. New York City is great. You can ride the subways anywhere and do whatever you want. I was just getting into music. The Ramones were starting to break out there. There was no decent public transit system in L.A. and we knew no one. We were miserable. It took us a couple of years to figure it out. Eventually, my sister got her driver’s license and we’d go to punk rock clubs. Things started getting a lot better. Music took up our entire lives at that point and we decided we wanted to form a band.

Ryan: You’re the youngest? Your sister Kelly is a bit older?

Kristi: Yes. Kelly is three years older.

Ryan: Tell me about the Undeclared (1979). I’ve read that was your first band with Kelly.

Kristi: There was this girl, Betsy, who I met in high school. She’s the one we named Wednesday Week’s first EP “Betsy’s House” after. I told her, “Betsy, you’re going to play bass.” She did and so we had a little band in high school that never went anywhere. I was on guitar and my sister Kelly was the drummer. We would practice in my sister’s room. Betsy eventually gave up trying to learn bass, so the band became my sister and I. Kelly had just started college at UCLA. She didn’t have a major; she was undeclared. That’s where the band’s name came from.

My mom’s the greatest. She’d let us practice and make a loud, awful racket at home. Her friend told her, “Oh, they’re doing this fair down the street. Your daughters should play it.” So we got this slot playing in a parking lot in Panorama City. It was just the two of us—me and Kelly. It was amazing and exciting. The wind was so strong it blew over Kelly’s heavy cymbals. Her first drum set belonged to the drummer of Iron Butterfly. Kelly found it in The Recycler. We’d always go to this record store, Moby Disc.

Ryan: I remember Moby Disc. There was a store in Canoga Park up until the early 2000s.

Kelly: That’s right. The one we’d go to was in Sherman Oaks and later they had another location in Santa Monica. We could walk to the one in Sherman Oaks. I’d stare at the album covers for hours. I was so uncool. I was an awkward 15 year old. I got to know the guys behind the counter, only the cool people got jobs at record stores. I told the guys at Moby Disc that I had a band. They responded, “Really?” “Yeah, it’s me and my sister.”

My best friend at Moby Disc was Dave Provost (later of the Textones, Wednesday Week, Dream Syndicate). Steve Wynn was friendly too and he asked me if we wanted to play together. I was like, “Sure.” That became Goat Deity (1980-1981). Steve lived with his parents on Sunset Boulevard and we started practicing at his house. We were into art punk and he was into more traditional stuff. He would play his songs with us; we’d play our songs with him. We recorded and did a show in the living room of my mom’s house. All the guys from Moby Disc turned up. After a while it became obvious that we weren’t meshing musically so we went our separate ways and our friend Kjehl Johansen, from the Urinals and 100 Flowers, said he’d play bass with us. That’s when we started Narrow Adventure (1981-1983).

Ryan: That’s interesting. Goat Deity was right in between The Suspects, the band Wynn formed at UC Davis, and The Dream Syndicate.

Kelly: Steve had been at UC Davis for school. When he finished, he came back home and worked at Moby Disc. Karl Precoda came down and rehearsed with us one day and he and Steve really hit it off. That was when we realized we were going in really different directions and decided to split off and go our separate ways. It was amicable—we all liked each other a lot, but musically it wasn’t the right fit.

Ryan: How did you meet Kjehl?

Kelly: We were seeing bands every night. I had a fake ID. My mom was cool with it, but she got apprehensive once. She read an article in the paper about punk rock being scary. So we took her to a show at the Starwood. The Plugz, who were my favorite band, were playing. Charlie (Quintana) was my age and Tito (Larriva) was always very nice to us. He bought my mom an orange juice at the show to reassure her all was well. The opening band that night was The Last. I didn’t want to see them because some obnoxious guy had told me that The Last were the best band in L.A. and I thought “I will never check them out if this guy thinks they’re cool.” But they were on the bill that night and were actually really good. Anyway, my mom saw The Last and said, “Look at these nice boys. They’re just kids like you. You’ll be fine.” She was right. They were nice and really good and we started going to see them regularly. Kelly and I got to know them, but mostly we hung around the people associated with The Last like Gary Stewart and Bill Inglot. Gary managed The Last. David Nolte, who was in The Last and who I’m now married to, said, “The Urinals are the best band ever.” He was right. It was through going to shows that we met everyone. Also, Kjehl, Kevin (Barrett) and John (Talley-Jones) went to UCLA, which is where my sister and I went. And I was always telling everyone about my band with my sister—even though we didn’t have much going on at the time.

We got Kjehl to join and then Gary Stewart got us our first show. I didn’t know how to book a show. I was 17 or 18 at the time. Gary said, “Narrow Adventure can open up for The Last at the Troubadour.” I was like, “Yeah, okay.” So, we went from a parking lot in Panorama City to my mom’s living room to the Troubadour.

Ryan: That’s moving on up.

Kristi: Right.

Ryan: It’s interesting how The Last and The Urinals, two stylistically different groups, formed such a bond. The Last’s Vitus Mataré recorded some great material during that period. The Narrow Adventure tracks he recorded must have been your first semi-professional recordings.

Kristi: Definitely. That was terrifying, going into that garage to record with this guy (Vitus) who I’d seen on stage but who I didn’t really know. I knew Vitus could play and I knew that I couldn’t. I had had music lessons and I knew some theory. But The Last had been playing big shows for years. I just had a big mouth.

Ryan: Tell me more about Narrow Adventure. I know you played a show on November 6, 1981, with 100 Flowers and The Last.

Kristi: Gary Stewart had gotten us that first show at the Troubadour. Afterwards I asked him, “Okay. What’s next?” He responded, “Well, now you need to get your own shows.” Narrow Adventure played a lot. I’d book us any gig I could find. Shows on Sunday at midnight. Thankfully, Kjehl was game for it. For Kjehl, Narrow Adventure was interesting and exciting because he had never played bass before. He bought a Hagstrom 8-string bass. He was totally into it. We’d play every other week. Once in a while, Gary would put us on bills like that November show you mentioned with The Last and 100 Flowers. Those were the best. Other shows would be with bands that I’d never heard of before or since.

Ryan: Can you describe the transition from Narrow Adventure to Wednesday Week and Kjehl leaving the band?

Kristi: Vitus and Gary were putting together the WarfRat Tales (1983) compilation. Vitus had recorded us and wanted two tracks for the LP. Vitus is the best. We were so excited. But he said, “You can’t keep the name Narrow Adventure. It’s the worst name ever. You should change it before we put this record out.” So we had to. It just so happened to coincide with Kjehl leaving the group. I think Kjehl had completed his experiment playing bass in a band. He was great. I remember we would lean on him. At the first show at The Troubadour we were like, “Okay, Kjehl, what do we do? Do we go on stage now?” We were terrified.

Ryan: That’s funny considering The Urinals had to go to Austin, Texas, to play their first off-campus show. They didn’t know how to book one in L.A.

Kristi: I know. Everyone figures it out differently and they went to Texas. Kjehl really didn’t know what was going on either. I was like. “You’re the one with some experience!” I was listening to old live Narrow Adventure tapes recently and Kjehl had great stage banter between songs. Narrow Adventure was his opportunity to play a different instrument and do something totally different from The Urinals, which I think was his first band. I know Kjehl sometimes had different ideas than John and Kevin with The Urinals and 100 Flowers. Kjehl wanted to get a little bit better musically—take lessons—while Kevin and John were fine figuring their instruments out themselves. We provided a different vibe for him. Narrow Adventure was something Kjehl tried and then he was done. I remember the concert to promote the Warfrat Tales compilation. It was really exciting. David (Nolte) played bass with us that night. Kjehl had already left and we were going by Wednesday Week then. But David couldn’t stay long. Joe (Nolte) demanded a lot with The Last. Our old friend from Moby Disc, Dave Provost played with us for a while after that until he got too busy.

Ryan: Vitus Mataré produced Wednesday Week’s debut EP “Betsy’s House.” It was recorded at Radio Tokyo, the studio owned by the late Ethan James (1946-2003). Did you get to know Ethan?

Kristi: Ethan was great.

Ryan: He always struck me as underrated and I liked his work with Jane Bond and the Undercover Men.

Kristi: I can’t believe he’s been gone for so long. Ethan was so patient. When we did “Betsy’s House” David (Nolte) was playing an incorrect chord so I said to him, “That’s a minor chord.” David responded, “No. It’s a major.” He was being so stubborn. He wouldn’t listen to me and I didn’t know what to do so I just put my head down. Ethan looked up and said, “David, Kristi wrote the song.” He quickly and effectively shut down that situation. That was Ethan in a nutshell. He was quiet and when he spoke it was usually the right thing to say. He respected women as musicians too which is great because it can be hard being a woman in music. Some guys won’t play with women in bands. People often talk down to you but Ethan wasn’t like that and neither were David and Kjehl. We went back and recorded at Radio Tokyo throughout the 1980s. Ethan made a lot of things happen. I liked Jane Bond and the Undercover Men too. You’re right. Ethan is an unsung hero. So many great records came out of Radio Tokyo. I go by there now and I just want to cry. It was such a cool studio and scene and now the area is completely gentrified.

Ryan: Wednesday Week’s next album What We Had (1986) was released on Enigma. How did you end up signing with the label?

Kristi: The funny thing is we were going to make a record with Rhino. Gary Stewart (Rhino’s A&R head, manager of The Last) said, “’Betsy’s House’ did well.” I borrowed money from my mother, brother and dad to put that out. Gary was right: it did well. I was able to pay them all back. Gary said, “The record sold. You promoted it.” I booked all of these tours. I had graduated college and I started freaking out: “What am I going to do with my life?” So I booked tours for us. We played a lot of colleges because they paid well. Gary was impressed and said, “Rhino will sign you and you can do another record with Ethan (James).” We said, “Okay.” I was always checking in with people back then. And I was talking with Scott Vanderbilt who unbeknownst to me was working A&R at Enigma. He asked me what I was doing. I told him we were going to make a record with Rhino and that Ethan was going to produce it. He said, “No. Enigma wants to put it out.” I was like, “Really? Enigma has all these different acts. They’re not really like us.” Honestly, we weren’t right for Enigma. Nevertheless, Scott introduced us to Bill Hein who ran the label. Bill was so nice. He was genuinely interested in signing us. He told us, “Well, if Rhino’s going to give you $5,000 to record, we’ll double it. You can go record with Don Dixon.” That sounded like a step up. Even though we liked Ethan and he was great, we wanted to try something different and grow. That was actually awful—having to go back to Gary Stewart, our biggest ally, and go, “Y’know, we’re gonna have to do this other thing with Enigma.” Of course, Gary understood it because he was Gary. But it was hard. In retrospect, we should’ve done the record with Gary and Rhino. We could’ve had a longer lifespan. Enigma was like, “Well, you didn’t sell records like Stryper or Poison. We’re done with you.” Rhino would’ve kept supporting us.

Ryan: Enigma always seemed like a label that would sign a bunch of bands and then throw them up against the wall, so to speak. What stuck, they kept. What didn’t, they dropped. Then they’d repeat the process.

Kristi: Yep. And that’s what they did. I think we could’ve had time to grow with Rhino. They would’ve put out another record. We were trying to be smart at the time.

Ryan: Although signing with Enigma wasn’t the right move in retrospect, was recording What We Had with Don Dixon a positive experience?

Kristi: Oh, yeah. It was great. We recorded with him again in February 2020. Dixon’s the best. Do you know anything about him?

Ryan: Yeah. I like a lot of the stuff he recorded. I’m a fan of Tommy Keene.

Kristi: Right. We went out there (Reflection Studios in Charlotte, North Carolina) to record, excited and very nervous. Dixon was very easy going. He could work with women. He wasn’t going to take the instrument out of your hand and play it himself. That would happen.

Ryan: It happened to The Bangles.

Kristi: My god. The shit The Bangles had to go through. The more records you sold, often the worse it got. “There’s too much money on the line, honey, let me play that part.” That wasn’t going to happen to us. Our response would’ve been, “Fuck you.”

Ryan: How did your brief tenure with Enigma go? Was it a situation where communication dwindled as time went on?

Kristi: Pretty much. And we were working with William Morris. That actually wasn’t a good decision. William Morris would book us on these shows that didn’t make sense. We should’ve been working with F.B.I. (Frontier Booking International).

Another time we were trying to be smart but weren’t: when we signed our contract we knew not to give away our publishing. That’s how all those songwriters in the ’50 and ‘60s got screwed, right? So we didn’t give them a penny. The problem with that is then Enigma had no skin in the game, so they didn’t do much for us. We didn’t understand how things worked back then. We did get a couple of placements in movies almost accidentally. Many people found out about Wednesday Week through a couple of our songs being in Slumber Party Massacre II (1987).

Ryan: You and your sister started your own imprint, Sweden Spins, to release Wednesday Week 45s and cassettes after your time on Enigma. Wednesday Week wound down in 1990. Did the experience with Enigma suck the life out of the band?

Kristi: Definitely. But with Sweden Spins, my sister’s boyfriend—who’s now her husband—he always had good ideas. He said, “You guys should start a fan club.” I was like, “No! That sounds stupid.” But we eventually did it and so many cool people were in that fan club. Anyway, my sister’s husband recommended we put out a single for our fan club members. We weren’t initially receptive to the idea, but we did it anyway. And he was right—people loved them. Sweden Spins was the imprint for our fan club. We released three fan club singles.

Getting dropped from Enigma did suck the life out of the band. We had different people coming into the group early on, but Heidi (Rodewald) solidified the lineup on bass. Then we had a revolving door with second guitar players until David (Nolte) joined. That lineup with Heidi and David was our best one. When Heidi left we thought, “Oh, it’ll be alright. We’ll figure it out.” She didn’t like touring because it’s stressful and quit right before we had a tour starting. Thankfully John Talley-Jones (Urinals, 100 Flowers) stepped in to play bass for us on that tour. It was great. But we needed a long-term bassist. We tried a bunch of different people. But the magic was gone. A group of people builds a sort of synergy. When someone leaves, it’s really hard to find it again.

Ryan: What have you been up to lately, Kristi?

Kristi: After Wednesday Week, David Nolte, Mike Lawrence, my sister Kelly and I had a band called Lucky. Mike Lawrence had been in Direct Hits with Paula Pierce. Our first Narrow Adventure show at the Troubadour was with Direct Hits and The Last. David and I started Dime Box in the 1990s. I got to play bass on a US and Ireland tour with David Gray before he was famous when my husband was in his band. That was cool. They were great guys. The ‘90s was a period where I was playing with everybody. I sometimes forget who all I played with back then.

In the 2000s I had kids so things got harder. Someone asked me to be in Cheap Chick—the all-female Cheap Trick tribute band. I love Cheap Trick. I wanted to be Robin Zander when I was a kid. I was initially embarrassed to be in a tribute band, but we have so much fun. We played in Las Vegas. We played in Japan.

Ryan: I’d join just about any tribute band for a trip to Japan.

Kristi: Yeah! And we played Rockford, Illinois, and Rick Nielsen called us up. He said he had a show that night so he couldn’t come see us, but he asked if we wanted to meet up the next day. We were like, “Fuck you. You’re not Rick Nielsen.” But it actually was him! So, we had breakfast with him the next day. What a giant thrill. He was a cool guy: “I heard good things about your band.”

My husband, our son and the drummer in my Americana group also have a tribute band to our old labelmates, The Smithereens. My husband was playing in a band (Dave Davies’ backing band) with Dennis Diken (The Smithereens’ drummer) and he thought it would be fun to make a tribute to them, so we do that now and then. Those songs are such a pleasure to play and we have a lot of fun.

I’m also singing in a three-part harmony group called the Roswell Sisters. There was a group in the 1930s called The Boswell Sisters. We do that kind of material. Do you know who Kristian Hoffman is?

Ryan: Absolutely. He was from Santa Barbara originally and played in the Mumps and with James White and the Blacks.

Kristi: Right. My husband David had been playing with Kristian a lot. They played with El Vez and Ann Magnuson together. Kristian’s husband Justin Tanner sings and arranges all the songs with the Roswell Sisters. Sometimes we do Kristian’s songs in these lush, three-part harmonies. The Roswells are me, Kristian, Justin, Lisa Jenio from Candypants and Pierre Smith who I knew from the ‘80s with his band The New Marines.

Finally, my band Dime Box plays regularly and is working on a new CD. The last release received critical acclaim and some nice airplay across the country, but the pandemic quashed the 2020 tour plans to support it. My son James (Nolte) plays with me in that band as well, along with Lyn Bertles (Cruzados), Nick Vincent (Holly & The Italians, Frank Black) and Alex Vincent (The Bots and Stop Thought). We like to keep busy. Kelly is in Dragster Barbie and, of course, Kjehl has 100 Flowers and a solo record coming out. Narrow Adventure made a video together and we are looking forward to touring to support our release in late 2021.

Dime Box.

#kristicallan #interviews #wednesdayweek #dimebox

0 notes

daggerzine · 6 years ago

Text

The Dream Syndicate- THE DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (FIRE RECORDS reissue)

Ok, Record Store Day came and went last month and I forgot to review the reissue of the classic debut from the Dream Syndicate, which got reissued on R.S.D. Also, oddly enough, it’s one of my favorite records of all time (so you’da thought the review would be on time). In addition to the original 9-song album it this also includes, in the package, the 4-song 12’ EP that preceded it as well as the 7” single by Steve Wynn’s pre-Dream Syndicate band 15 Minutes (an exact replica, I’m told) as well as other cool gunk (interviews with original bassist Kendra Smith as well as producers Chris D. and Paul Cutler). Each of these songs has a classic slow burn that I’m not sure has been equaled since. Start with the title track, “Definitely Clean,” “Then She Remembers,’ “Tell Me When It’s Over” and “Halloween’ (the song I want played at my funeral). Steve Wynn and Karl Precoda’s tangled guitars are a thing of beauty and the rhythm section of bassist Kendra Smith and drummer Dennis Duck held it down better than anyone (in their own thump-groove style). Longtime fans already have this but newcomers, you’ve gotta have this. It may be nearly 40 years later but it still sounds just as good, maybe better (and while you’re at it check out their bran’ spankin new These Times …after a long layoff the band got back together in 2017). ‘tis a classic! www.firerecords.com

1 note · View note

rutaalrocknoticias · 2 years ago

Text

STEVE WYNN, gira en octubre de la figura clave e inspiradora del pop- rock alternativo norteamericano

STEVE WYNN, gira española en acústico de la figura clave e inspiradora del pop- rock alternativo norteamericano

Entradas: Heart of Gold

Su dirección de correo electrónico y su cuenta de Instagram responden al nombre de "cultartist". Nunca ha tenido una canción en el Top 40 ni ha ganado un premio Grammy.

Sin duda, un artista de culto. Y, sin embargo, hablar con Wynn es un ejemplo de cómo mantener la ilusión intacta desde el principio.

La mayor parte del material en solitario de Steve se reeditó en la caja de 11 CD "Decade", que recopiló todas las pistas que grabó entre 1995 y 2005, junto con 67 canciones inéditas.

“Todos los proyectos que he hecho todavía están activos”, dice Wynn. “Algunos están más ocupados que otros”.

youtube

#Youtube

0 notes