Steve Wynn first gained fame as lead singer and songwriter for the
legendary Paisley Underground outfit The Dream Syndicate. But his
post-Dream Syndicate solo career is the equal of any indie-rock
singer-songwriter you'd care to name. Now, Real Gone Music and Steve
Wynn have joined forces to release Decade (yup, the Neil Young reference
is deliberate), an 11-CD set that chronicles, with lavish deluxe
editions, the guitar-driven albums Wynn recorded between 1995 and 2005,
most of which have been long out-of-print. The statistics on this box
set are mind-blowing: 166 tracks, 57 of them totally unreleased, plus 31
other rarities! That's right'over half of this 11-CD set consists of
either hitherto unknown recordings or tracks that have been almost
impossible to find! As for the other tracks, they hail from the
following albums: the American releases Melting In The Dark, Sweetness
and Light, My Midnight, Here Come The Miracles, Static Transmission, and
'Tick'Tick'Tick, and the German-only compilation entitled The Emusic
Singles Collection (rare tracks from another European-only release, a
collection of rarities entitled Pick of the Litter, appear here as
well). So where do all the unreleased tracks come from? Well, during
this 10-year period, Steve Wynn recorded dozens of songs ' sometimes at
home and occasionally in a proper studio. Many of those songs got
re-recorded and revamped and became key memorable parts of his catalog.
Other songs got tossed away and forgotten. For Decade, long-time Steve
Wynn (and Dream Syndicate) archivist Pat Thomas in cooperation with
Steve Wynn listened to about a hundred hours of unreleased tapes and
compiled this amazing box set that not only includes remastered (by Mike
Milchner of SonicVision) versions of some of Steve Wynn's best albums
but also the first American release of the two rare European only
titles. And ' it bears saying again ' 57 previously unreleased
recordings that not even hardcore tape traders have heard! Several of
these albums were recorded with Steve Wynn's core band of Linda Pitmon
on drums, Dream Syndicate guitarist Jason Victor, and long-time Miracle 3
bass player Dave DeCastro. Along the way, there are appearances from
Green On Red keyboardist Chris Cacavas, Giant Sand's Howe Gelb, indie
chanteuse Barbara Manning, Chris Brokaw & Thalia Zedek of Come, Tony
Maimone of Pere Ubu, John Convertino of Calexico, Rich Gilbert and many
others. With so much material, you need a program'and so Steve Wynn
himself has penned very detailed notes that tell the stories behind the
origins of all 57y previously unreleased songs! Plus essays from box set
producer Pat Thomas and several of Wynn's long time bandmates. And a
pile of previously unseen photos...all inside a mammoth, full-color
48-page book!