An aural atmosphere born of tie-dye shirts and bellbottom jeans mollycoddles us to a festival masquerade set in a lava lamp of hot-pink existential goo where blood-spattered disembodied heads chant a Floydian-homage to our funhouse-mirror lives filled carnival games unhinged and non-refundable.

“The clock is ticking on the wall,
She doesn’t think of you at all, No more,
Anymore.
~
Parlor tricks and swizzle sticks,
The sour mix ain’t gonna fix a thing,
Like it did before.”

The Dream Syndicate hail from Los Angeles, originally formed in 1981 and revived in 2012 by frontman Steve Wynn (vocals, rhythm guitar) followed by Jason Victor (lead guitar), Mark Walton (bass), Chris Cacavas (keyboards), and Dennis Duck (drums). Song Damian, being taken from their critically acclaimed 2022 release Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions, was written stylistically different with an intention of “Krautrock, Eno-like ambiance, Neu-inspired rhythmic groove and a Californian sun-backed sheen into their classic psychedelic melodic hue.”

This outstandingly-creepy video care of Mike Bourne.

Life is a fair celebration of amusement park overrides, firework attraction-distractions, and freak shows promoting the grotesque and the only. Ride the beast and celebrate the ride as this rollercoaster of past and future nostalgia indulges us insensibly while the now continues onward, downward, unabated and scaringly unheeded.

“You don’t have to run and hide,
They say that time was always on your side,
Anyway, they say,
It’s just a part of the game.”

~

Dream Syndicate’s
Home // Apple // Spotify // Facebook // Fire Records