Thread: Kendra Smith

I recently dug up an old 4AD promotional cassette that compiled a number of Kendra Smith's music from over the years and have been bumping it non-stop for the past week on my to/from the mountain where I work.

For those unfamiliar with Kendra Smith, she was a founding member of the Los Angeles "Paisley Underground" stalwarts The Dream Syndicate. After recording an EP and a full-length with them she split and formed Opal with Dave Roback (formerly of Rain Parade, another PU band to peep). Opal released an EP and a full-length (Happy Nightmare Baby, which is highly recommended) after which Smith split (for those who dig family trees of rock music Smith was replaced by Hope Sandoval and Opal morphed into Mazzy Star). From there Smith formed The Guild of Temporal Adventurers, who released an EP. Then in 1994 Smith released her only solo album and shortly thereafter she disappeared into the wilds of Northern California (I had the good fortune to interview her after the album and before her "retirement" for the much lauded and now defunct Raygun magazine).

At any rate, all of the stuff she was affiliated with is really cool and worth tracking down if you dig gritty, fuzzy, blissed out neo-psychedelic music.

This is one of my favorite tracks of hers (amongst many):

Valley of the Morning Sun

Opal - "Happy Nightmare Baby" title track off the 1987 SST album: