I have a deep fondness for the sliver of musical history known as the "paisley underground". Essentially, the style was jangle pop influenced by '60s garage rock and psychedelic influences. Primarily a California-based movement in the 1980s, prominent bands included The Dream Syndicate, Green On Red, The Long Ryders, The Three O'Clock, The Bangles, and the subject of this post, the wonderful Rain Parade. For me, the Rain Parade epitomized the sound, making beautiful music along the way. I also thought the name was very cool, and an improvement over earlier label "The Moving Sidewalks".
The music of Rain Parade captured the delicacy of the best psychedelic pop, with economical melodic lines adorned with jangling guitars, solid rhythms and simple effects to tell dark shaded stories. The songs were both appealing and imbued with a sense of mystery. I've always regarded their first two albums, the nine-song Emergency Third Rail Power Trip released in '83 and the five-song Explosions In The Glass Palace released in '84, to be their best. So I was thrilled to discover that Real Gone Music has reissued those records as a single album. This results in one-stop shopping for a host of songs that established the outfit's reputation as standard bearers for West Coast psychedelic pop and still influences other bands. The material has been remastered and the package includes extensive liner notes for the musical geek in all of us.
Real Gone Music page for CD
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