The Nightmare Syndicate took shape in spirit during the winter of 1998 and formed in the following year. Hailing from San Diego and Orange County, the sextet - averaging the age of 21, has already made its mark in the infamous SoCal music scene. As a product of their environment, they've taken strides in the same musical direction as the areas' previous post-punk forefathers. They sneer and spit desperate vocals in the vein of the spazzy Antioch Arrow while driving a solid bottom end a la indie-pioneers Drive Like Jehu. The result is a somewhere between The Fall heaven and Birthday Party hell, with a heavy dose of analog driven synthesizers.
   The band has had numerous line-up changes and released a couple of self-released EPs. Now the line-up is a solid as ever and they will be releasing a 5 song EP on Crash Rawk Records (2 of the songs are remixes by A Luna Red and The Lack).
   The Nightmare Syndicate have played many exciting local shows opening for such bands as The Murder City Devils, The Rapture, Discount, Camera Obscura, Pleasure Forever, The Blood Brothers, the Catheters, American Steel, and Love Life. They have toured with Infinite's own A Luna Red and The Lack. They have attracted the interest from several budding indie lables as well as several management firms and a major label subsidiary.
   Sadly, they are playing their last few shows in August with A Luna Red and Ghost Orchids. Yes, they're breaking up and much to our dismay they are not releasing their upcoming EP with remixes from ALR and The Lack!


August 2001 » w/ A Luna Red
May/June 2002 » w/The Lack

THE NIGHTMARE SYNDICATE (live)
taken from www.livemagazine.com

   ...my friends and I kept wandering through this tunnel with no idea of what we might find.  The scenes kept getting more unfamiliar to us the more deeper we went into this tunnel, it was freezing.  We ended up resting right beneath the next band that had began playing called The Nightmare Syndicate.
They started out with this kickin' echo sound on their guitars, which eventually turned into some powerful sounding power chords with a nice ass riff and a kick ass song.  Most of their songs were songs you can dance to, not hip hop dance, but like Elvis...  The strange sounding chords they played mesmerized my head, I felt like I was slowly spinning into another world.  We followed the voice of the singer, which sounded like a ghost of a late night grave digger, to make our way out.  By the time we found a way out they introduced their last song as a new song.
 The story about the tunnel isn't true, so don't go looking for it.

THE NIGHTMARE SYNDICATE (live)
taken from Kings of Rock Online.

I only went to this show with intentions of just seeing the Nightmare Syndicate. They put on a good show and played quite a but of good songs. The singer really knows how to dance, I don't know how he could dance, sing and play the guitar like he does, he must have some "magical dancing shoes." These guys really awsome with two guitarist and their drummer.

THE NIGHTMARE SYNDICATE (interview)
taken from OC Weekly.
READ IT HERE!

THE NIGHTMARE SYNDICATE (interview)
taken from Mean Street.
READ IT HERE!

WATERS OF DELETIA
2.1 MB| 128 kps

GARDEN OF ELASTIC WHORES
[SAMPLE]
705 K | 128 kps