The Dream Syndicate

Formation and early years (1981–1983)

While attending the University of California, Davis, Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith played together (with future True West members Russ Tolman and Gavin Blair) in a band called the Suspects, regarded as the first new wave-influenced band in the Davis, California music scene. Wynn also recorded a 1981 single with a trio that he called 15 Minutes, which included members of Alternate Learning.

After Wynn moved back to Los Angeles, while rehearsing in a band called Goat Deity (with future Wednesday Week sisters Kelly and Kristi Callan), Wynn met Karl Precoda, who had answered an ad for a bass player, and the two formed a new group, with Precoda switching to guitar. Smith joined on bass and brought in drummer Dennis Duck (Mehaffey), who had played in the locally successful Pasadena-based band Human Hands.

Duck suggested the name "the Dream Syndicate" in reference to Tony Conrad's early 1960s New York experimental ensemble (better known as the Theatre of Eternal Music), whose members included John Cale.

On February 23, 1982, the Dream Syndicate performed its first show at Club Lingerie in Hollywood. A four-song EP was recorded at the home of Tom Mehren in Pasadena, with Paul B. Cutler engineering and producing, and released on Wynn's Down There label. The band quickly achieved local attention for its often aggressively long, feedback-soaked improvisations. Influences on the band, which was soon deemed "a seminal force in the city's '80s underground rock evolution", were the Velvet Underground, Neil Young and Television.

The band signed to Slash Records, whose subsidiary Ruby Records released its debut and by far best-known album, The Days of Wine and Roses, in 1982. Days of Wine and Roses "sent shockwaves through the American underground in the early 1980s", but MTV favored a different kind of music. Rough Trade Records released the album's lead track, "Tell Me When It's Over," in early 1983 as the A-side of an UK EP which also included a live cover of Neil Young's "Mr. Soul."

Subsequently, Smith left the band and joined David Roback (formerly of Rain Parade) to form Opal. She was replaced in the Dream Syndicate by David Provost.

Post-Kendra Smith years (1984–1989)

Medicine Show was recorded in 1984 in San Francisco with producer Sandy Pearlman, and released that year by A&M Records. They opened tours for R.E.M. and U2 and released the five-song live EP This Is Not The New Dream Syndicate Album... Live!, the last record to feature Precoda on guitar (who soon after left to pursue a career in screenwriting) and the first appearance of bassist Mark Walton. The EP's commercial failure contributed to the group's temporary breakup, The band were dropped by A&M after the label rejected its demo for "Slide Away", later released on the semi-official It's Too Late to Stop Now.

In 1985, during the band's temporary retirement, Wynn and Dan Stuart of Green on Red wrote 10 songs together which were recorded with Duck, among others, and released by A&M as the album The Lost Weekend under the name Danny & Dusty.

After a brief hiatus and, in the words of one reviewer, having taken "a trip through the major-label meat grinder", Wynn, Duck and Walton joined with Cutler (who had produced the group's first EP and played guitar in the proto-goth 45 Grave) to form the next version of the Dream Syndicate. They recorded two more studio albums, Out of the Grey (1986, Chrysalis Records), produced by Cutler, and Ghost Stories (1988, Enigma Records), produced by Elliot Mazer. A live album, Live at Raji's, was recorded in 1988 (also by Mazer) before Ghost Stories but released afterward.

After breaking up in 1989, the band's posthumous releases included 3½ (The Lost Tapes: 1985-1988), a collection of unreleased studio sessions, and The Day Before Wine and Roses, a live KPFK radio performance recorded just prior to the release of the band's first album. Wynn continued on as a solo artist, and Walton went on to play with the Continental Drifters.

Reunion (2012–present)

Wynn reformed the Dream Syndicate for a festival performance on September 21, 2012 at Festival BAM in Barcelona, Spain. The reformed band included Wynn, Walton, Duck and Jason Victor, Wynn's longtime lead guitarist in the Miracle 3.

On December 5–6, 2013, the Dream Syndicate played two shows with three other reunited Paisley Underground bands — the Bangles, the Three O'Clock and Rain Parade — at the Fillmore in San Francisco on the first night, and on the next, a benefit concert at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles. On September 26–27, 2014, the Dream Syndicate played at The EARL in East Atlanta; they were the band's first shows in the South since 1988, and included Savage Republic as the opening act. The September 26 show featured a complete performance of The Days of Wine and Roses, while the following show featured their second album, The Medicine Show. As of February 2017, the group had played more than 50 shows since reuniting.

In February 2017, Wynn announced that a forthcoming fifth studio album had been recorded at Montrose Studios in Richmond, Virginia and mixed at Water Music in Hoboken, New Jersey. The personnel included Wynn, Walton, Duck and Victor, joined on keyboards by Chris Cacavas. Wynn noted that the album's final track, titled "Kendra's Dream", included vocals from Smith, the band's original bass player, who also wrote the song's lyrics.

Studio albums

EPs

Live albums

Compilation albums

DVDs