VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Dream Syndicate brought strains of psychedelia to the early ’80s American indie-rock movement with their influential Slash Records album The Days of Wine and Roses. And they made a critically hailed comeback with 2017’s How Did I Find Myself Here on Anti- Records. But when the band took a hiatus around 1990, frontman Steve Wynn recorded two solo albums that both preserved the Dream Syndicate’s intensity while enabling him to spread his musical wings and work with some friends from other groups. Omnivore Recordings will release the albums — Kerosene Man and Dazzling Display — in expanded editions on April 27, 2018.
In 1990, Wynn struck out on his own to record his solo debut, the acclaimed Kerosene Man. With 11 new Wynn originals and help from friends including Johnette Napolitano (Concrete Blonde), D.J. Bonebrake (X), Steve Berlin (Los Lobos), and even Mark Walton from the Dream Syndicate and the Continental Drifters, Kerosene Man showed a new side to Steve, while retaining everything that attracted music lovers to him in the first place. “Tears Won’t Help” became a radio staple, and “Carolyn” found its way to MTV.
As Wynn writes in the new liner notes: “Sure, I was nervous. I had spent most of my adult life making music with the Dream Syndicate — a very good, successful band, with musicians I still considered very good friends. Bands break up because the members hate each other, or because nobody cares, or because someone in the band joins the Rolling Stones, or something. That wasn’t the case with us. I just wanted to try something different. I wanted to play different kinds of music, make new sounds, play with new people. I wasn’t running away from anything. I was just running towards something new.”
Kerosene Man returns nearly two decades later, remastered and expanded. The 11 tracks from the original release are augmented by six live recordings from the rare, promo-only vinyl Straight to the Swapmeet: Legendary Authorized Bootleg. Fully overseen by Wynn himself, this is the ultimate way to experience the burn of Kerosene Man.
Wynn followed up Kerosene Man in 1992 with Dazzling Display. This was another star-studded affair, featuring contributions from Peter Buck (R.E.M.), Vicki Peterson (The Bangles), Flo & Eddie, and many others. The album’s “Drag” made the rotations on MTV, and “Tuesday” became a hit internationally.
For this reissue, Dazzling Display’s original track list is joined by six rare bonus tracks, which include covers of songs originally recorded by Sonic Youth and Paul Simon. From Wynn’s liners: “I’ve had the chance to revisit Dazzling Display in the course of writing these liner notes and putting together this reissue and, as is often the case, time has brought its merits into focus. Here’s the bottom line. It’s a really fun record. It was made with a fan’s enthusiasm as a reflection of the things that made me happy and got me excited in 1991. It may not have been the right record for its time and it may not have been the right record for this particular recording artist. But it sure feels good to listen to it now.”
Kerosene Man Track Listing:
1. Tears Won’t Help
2. Carolyn
3. The Blue Drifter
4. Younger
5. Under The Weather
6. Here On Earth As Well
7. Something To Remember Me By
8. Killing Time
9. Conspiracy Of The Heart
10. Kerosene Man
11. Anthem
Bonus Live Tracks:
12. Younger
13. Something To Remember Me By
14. Graveyard Train
15. Tell Me When It’s Over
16. Burn
17. The Groom’s Still Waiting At The Alter
Dazzling Display Track Listing:
1. Drag
2. Tuesday
3. When She Comes Around
4. A Dazzling Display
5. Halo
6. Dandy In Disguise
7. Grace
8. As It Should Be
9. Bonnie And Clyde
10. 405
11. Close Your Eyes
12. Light Of Hope
Bonus Live Tracks:
1. Kool Thing
2. Boy In The Bubble
3. Conspiracy Of The Heart
4. Watching The River Flow
5. Crazy Feeling
