Before I plunge, I ask . . .
Do I just go and get it all or is there a recommended starting place?

I think Rads is a big fan as a few others here.

i still have the tenner, i'm not sure who put it up originally (probably frosting). i could re-up.

Thanks toots, but I've sampled enough that I'm gonna buy it. Also, the catalog is small enough to eventually accumulate. Just wondered if there was a better entry point than the debut.

no prob

i like this band too

I just have The Days of Wine and Roses, but I do want more.

So I'd say that was a good starting point. Start at the beginning.

I mean, when any band has a highly lauded debut, I don't see why you'd want to start anywhere else.

I get that, but that live album sounds really good, and that can be a good place to start, too.

This is all I have now. Used to have Out of the Grey but sold it. Couldn't really get into the latter. Wine and Roses is great though.

edit: Just read on AMG that Wynn is a fellow alum of UCD. Not sure how I've missed this fact for so long.

Fixed.


Yeah, the best starting point is Days of Wine and Roses. Many prefer their debut ep Down There, but it's included in the bonus tracks on the Wine and Roses reissue so you don't have to waste time tracking it down. Bassist/singer Kendra Smith left after the debut to form Opal with David Roback.

After that, Medicine Show is almost on par with the debut, but produce Sandy Pearlman gave it the same over-gloss that he handed the Clash on Give 'Em Enough Rope. It's the last studio album with Karl Precoda in the band, and it's worth picking up just for his magic. Really, the only track that doesn't work is "John Coltrane Stereo Blues", which was mostly just a concert launching pad for Precoda's guitar wig-outs and feels interminable and pointless in the studio setting.

After that, Wynn settled in as a kind of serious songwriter, guitar duties were handled by Paul Cutler (who produced their debut ep, also was in 45 Grave), and the band started leaning towards the Long Ryders school of Paisley Underground roots rock. The best way to hear that era is on the Live at Raji's set (although Ghost Stories from 1988 will pleasantly surprise anyone with a jones for electrified folk/roots).

Thanks for piping in tons Rads. You not only rocked that stone, but so far you hit Opal that I found out from Roach[border] who showed me Roback wrote a fucking great song that I heard first from Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500 and sang solo, "Hear the Wind Blow" which sounds like a song Mazzy Star should have sung years ago that they may have but I have not heard the version. I would not have tied all that together.


And I bought the debut, dl'd the live and that Coltraine is the overkill work out in the set.