On Sept. 5, 1982, the Dream Syndicate played a 2 a.m. gig at the studios of L.A.’s KPFK-FM. Broadcast live, the raw, ragged set documented on The Day Before Wine And Roses (Omnivore) found the quartet—singer/guitarist Steve Wynn, guitarist Karl Precoda, bassist Kendra Smith and drummer Dennis Duck—blazing and brooding its way through songs from its self-titled debut EP, covers and tracks that would end up on the seminal The Days Of Wine And Roses LP, released a month and a half later. A reconvened version of the Dream Syndicate has been playing shows since 2012. Wynn is also busy with his national pastime-themed band, the Baseball Project, whose third record, the aptly titled 3rd (Yep Roc), is due later this month. Wynn is also guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our brand new Q&A with him.
Wynn: I moved with my wife (you might know her as Baseball Project and Miracle 3 drummer Linda Pitmon) to Jackson Heights, Queens, in 2012. We wanted a bigger apartment, and that wasn’t going to happen in Manhattan or even Brooklyn. The former, since the time I had moved to New York City from L.A. 20 years ago, had become, as Iggy once said, “a playground for the rich.” And the latter had become as expensive and elusive, at least in terms of rent and real-estate prices, as Manhattan. So, as musicians and artists have always done, we looked for the path less taken, and we found Queens, specifically Jackson Heights. It’s often cited as the most culturally diverse neighborhood in the United States, and it’s said that there are 160 languages spoken in its relatively small boundaries. We made the move 18 months ago and now can’t imagine having moved anywhere else.
As a food enthusiast (not a “foodie”—that word kinda bugs me), the neighborhood, and the surrounding neighborhoods of Elmhurst, Woodside and Corona, offers an endless—really, it would take a decade to try every place I want to try—number of alluring restaurants from Columbian to Thai to Himalayan to Peruvian to Indian to … well, you get the picture. I’ll talk about one later today and two others this week.
Video after the jump.
