Maxim Vengerov: Living The Dream (2007)

Small Town Monsters, the second full-length album from The Dream Machine, is released on Run On Records/ Modern Sky. If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine… was their first and most wild child, then Small Town Monsters is its refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.

Small Town Monsters, the second full-length album from The Dream Machine, is released on Run On Records/ Modern Sky. If 2022’s critically-acclaimed debut album Thank God! It’s The Dream Machine… was their first and most wild child, then Small Town Monsters is its refined younger sibling. The psychedelia, euphoric choruses, flashes of surf guitar and B-movie references are all there, amongst the familiar reflections of life in their beloved and faded seaside town of New Brighton, but this time the wilder elements are controlled, the songs packed into three-minute pocket symphonies.

When one thinks of the Dream Syndicate, it’s not just the wild abandon with which singer / guitarist Steve Wynn, drummer Dennis Duck, bassist Mark Walton, and lead guitarist Jason Victor perform - it’s the carefully constructed songwriting of Wynn that comes to mind. By now every rock critic in the country has predetermined who he or she feels Wynn reminds them of and what they think of that style of songs. This time, don’t! Which brings us to The Universe Inside. Every article or review ever written will claim “this is new and different”- well, it is! Just look at the song lengths: 20:27, 7:36, 8:56, 9:55 and 10:53. Ok, sure - the Syndicate have occasionally committed a long song to vinyl, John Coltrane Stereo Blues was 9 minutes with live versions over the ten-minute mark.

Brand-new CD titled Live Through the Past, Darkly featuring all never-before released live audio spanning the band's entire career from 1983 to 2023 including Karl Precoda, Paul Cutler, Jason Victor with Steve Wynn, Dennis Duck and Mark Walton. Plus, special guest Vicki Peterson of the Bangles on a searing 15-minute version of "John Coltrane Stereo Blues" from the band's recent London appearance. Coupled with a DVD that includes a documentary features a documentary and previously unreleased one hour 1983 live concert.