This Weekend I’ll Mostly Be Listening to… The Rain Parade May 18, 2013
Posted by irishelectionliterature in This Weekend I'll Mostly Be Listening to....trackback
Another band from The Paisley Underground (part of which is explained in the first clip below).Theres a bit on The Paisely Underground in a Previous TWIMBLT on Green and Red and a decent article on them and the Paisely Underground from The Guardian here too.
They produced three studio albums of which I have their second one ‘Explosions in a Glass Palace’ and also a live album ‘Beyond The Sunset (live in Tokyo 1984)’. A friend had the first album ‘Emergency Third Rail Power Trip’ which was good but I much preferred the almost psychedelic ‘Explosions in a Glass Palace’. There were some great songs on it ‘You are my friend’ and ‘No Easy Way Down’ being my favourites. The third and last studio album ‘Crashing Dream’ which a friend had I wasn’t a huge fan of. The guitar had gone from jangly to almost folksy at times and while it was good, it wasn’t what I expected from a Rain Parade Record.
Having formed in 1981, they split in 1986 after the release of ‘Crashing Dream’ which was their first and only major label album. One time member David Roback has been a member of Opal and another TWIMBLT artist and one of my musical constants Mazzy Star.
The Rain Parade reformed in 2012
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
Don’t agree with your choice of best album but, oh yeah, amazing band.
They didn’t split in 1986 though. I saw them in Berkeley in 1987 or 1988, it couldn’t have been 1986.
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Aha, just checked Wiki, it confirms that they reformed in 1988 (briefly).
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The Paisley Underground was amazingly creative in retrospect. Some fantastic groups, including the Rain Parade.
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Excellent choice as always ould stock. Was very fond of Rain Parade, I remember seeing them do Depending On You on Whistle Test and being knocked out. My own personal favourite of the PU bands was probably Dream Syndicate. This song might be the apex of the whole movement, if it was a movement because the Paisley Underground was very much in the eye of the beholder. Were The Long Ryders in there or did they belong to a kind of neo-country thing with Jason and the Scorchers and The Blasters?
Pace Wendy, it strikes me that Berkelfy in 1988 is probably the optimum time and place to have seen The Rain Parade, a bit like witnessing Horslips in Drumshanbo in 1973 or hearing Neu for the first time while chilling out on Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s couch in Munich.
I suppose this band are probably Paisley Undergound apres la lettre but they were wonderful and hardly anyone seems to remember or play them though they’re also an obvious precursor to the infinitely more popular Mercury Rev, if a more lo-fi version of same.
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I’d have put Long Ryders closer to a neo-country genre than to the Paisley Underground, but not as much so as Jason and the Scorchers. They’d have been sort of in between along with the likes of True West, the True Believers and Green on Red (the latter a little closer to the Paisley Underground than the others). I wouldn’t have linked the Blasters to any of these, they were much more blues influenced.
Loved the first Dream Syndicate album, thought Steve Wynn’s ego got the best of him after that.
No one’s mentioned the Three O’Clock or the Bangles yet, both truly wonderful in their heyday (though not so wonderful in their later years). And everyone forgets the Eyes of Mind:
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Dammit, I can never get those links to work for some reason.
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I’d have thought the Blasters had a country element, at least early on.
Though I suppose they’re more kin to these excellent folks.
Or maybe not. I pine for the days when these distinctions of taxonomy were of crucial importance to me.
Gratuitous Cramps video. Because it’s there.
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It’s funny, I’ve often wondered about the Long Ryders and their position. I think the first album has the most overt Paisley Underground elements and afterwards they shift to neo-country. Too Close to the Light and even I Had A Dream seem to me to be the former.
Hahah, very true EC re distinctions of taxonomy being of crucial importance. Though I would say that if you delve into Techno and (post) IDM there’s still a lot of that attitude around (and let’s not even start on Trance)…
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Can’t forget the Eurovision (at least my eldest daughter won’t let me forget it).
1. Really good song in this year’s contest shock.
2. Best song that ever won it for Chanson fans everywhere before the advent of Euro Pop.
3. What we think about when we think about Eurovision.
4. Assuage Hipster Anxiety with this excellent Arcade Fire version of the 1965 Serge Gainsbourg penned winner.
5. A bit like an early Pogues B-side but a decent each way bet at 33/1 for the punters among us tonight.
I presume the usual massive CLR Eurovision Party will be taking place tonight.
Or is it a case that the Irish Left’s failure to appreciate Eurovision explains why ding a dong la la la boom bang a bang.
Finally, Austrian Marxists who entered in 1977 and gave press conferences explaining how their song was a deconstruction of the contest. Think they came 19th.
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I’m very tempted to post that up as a post in itself!
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