Smith, Steve Wynn and Russ Tolman met as students at UC Davis, where all three had shows on KDVS.
With Steve Suchil on bass, Gavin Blair on drums, Wynn and Tolman on guitars, and Smith on lead vocals, they formed a garage band called the Suspects, who released one privately pressed single.
[2] Smith and Wynn then formed The Dream Syndicate in 1981 and went on to record an EP and an album, with Smith playing bass, before she left in 1983 to join former Rain Parade guitarist David Roback in Rainy Day (she had worked with Roback before, providing backing vocals on the Rain Parade album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip).
[1] Rainy Day released an album and a single in 1984 before Roback and Smith became a duo in the psychedelic-tinged band Clay Allison, later Opal.
Her next release would not be until 1995 when the 4AD label issued her debut solo LP, Five Ways of Disappearing, described by Trouser Press as "an impressive — and colorful — achievement".