Rain Parade were one of the original Paisley Underground bands, bursting out of Los Angeles in the 1980s to bring delicately beautiful psychedelic guitar rock to an era of hardcore punk and plastic chart pop. The band consisted of Matt Piucci (guitar, vocals) and Dave Roback (guitar vocals), soon joined by Dave’s brother Steven (bass, vocals). With Will Glenn (keyboards, violin) and Eddie Kalwa (drums), Rain Parade put out their debut album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip (1983), which, to this humble reviewer’s ears, is not only one of the best albums of the Paisley Underground or the 80s but one of the all-time great LPs. Dave left shortly after its completion to go on to other wonderful music projects Opal and Mazzy Star. Undaunted, Rain Parade recorded the mini-LP Explosions In The Glass Palace (1984) as a four-piece, which is almost as good as Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. Original drummer Eddie Kalwa then left to be replaced by Mark Marcum, and third guitarist John Thoman joined. The band signed to Island Records and released a pretty good live album Beyond The Sunset (1985), but an unsympathetic producer meant that their third album Crashing Dream (1985), despite having some great songs, has never sounded quite right and the band split up shortly afterwards. Rain Parade miraculously returned in 2012 to play gigs with various drummers and guest musicians joining the core of Matt Piucci, Steven Roback and John Thoman. 2023 saw the pleasant surprise of an excellent new Rain Parade album Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, and the band’s first tour of the UK for decades, with fellow Paisley Underground pioneers The Dream Syndicate.
Now, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is being
reissued on December 13th by Label 51 Recordings in a special
two-disc edition that contains some archival tracks never heard before, and is
coinciding with the release of a brand new Rain Parade digital single Surprise,
Surprise. The band’s Matt Piucci was kind enough to speak to OUTSIDELEFT about
it.
Outsideleft: Rain Parade’s classic debut album Emergency Third Rail
Power Trip is being reissued in a nice two-disc edition, over 40 years
since it first came out. Can you tell us a bit about it?
Matt Piucci: That was our first effort. We're very proud of it. And it
was out of print twice. We got the rights back, at least in the US. Of course, no
record company will ever admit that! But we have come full circle here, as we
did that record in the same way we did our most recent record, which is called Last
Rays Of A Dying Sun. But that’s another thing, we can talk about that
later. But anyway, we did the whole thing on our own, and then we were
approached by a guy named Bill Hein who works for was Enigma records. And years
ago, he had done the same thing with our previous most recent LP. And after it
was finished, he asked us to put it out. So we said yes again. And so we
started working with this very same guy, and he said, you ought to really put
out a deluxe version of Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. And we got hold
of the Record Store Day people, and they thought it was good idea.
We used to be fairly pernickety about releases, but after
seeing bootleg after bootleg after bootleg, we decided, you know what? We might
as well just do the record ourselves! So we took the original Emergency
Third Rail Power Trip. It was remastered by Jim Hill, who became our
producer after that record. He’s a dear friend, he was essentially in the band,
certainly in our recording process. So he remastered that. I think it sounds
really good. And then we just tried to find everything we could that was lying
around from that era. Some of it sounds not ideal, but we figured that that was
the only thing out there, and the true fans will want to hear it. I don't think
most people, once they get to song 25 on a project, are gonna go, No I don’t
want to listen to this! This doesn't sound good! So we decided to err on the
side of inclusion, and pretty much everything we could find we put on there. So
there were some songs that we had written back in the day that never had gotten
recorded. And those are on there, plus various four track versions of the demos
of songs that we later released. And you know, we just thought that that would
be a nice thing for the fans who wanted to be reintroduced to the band, or the
people who never heard of us, and we were able to get on to the Record Store Day
thing. So that's why we did it, and it's out now on CD. The vinyl should be
coming out in a couple of weeks. We did a coloured vinyl version for Record
Store Day, but those were gone before the end of the first day. So that's
what's going on. We're with our same guy again after forty years, and we're
very excited about that. And looking to the future, we'll probably do another
one next year. Our last album of the 80s, Crashing Dream, we’re in the
process of digging through archives for material from that era, so that should
be coming out the same time on the next Record Store Ray. in addition to the
new stuff we’re recording. So think that was a long-winded answer to your
question about the first record!
OL: For those of us who are big fans it’s really exciting to
hear all the archive material. Were you surprised listening back to them now by
the quality of the songs that didn’t make it onto the final album?
MP: We wanted to finalize the history of that era of the band.
And Steven Roback’s brother David was extremely important to the founding and
developments of the band. He was my college roommate. We'd always decided we
would have a band, but when I moved to Los Angeles, he was the one who knew
people there. He had great artistic vision, he was a good visual artist as
well. So the problem was that between him, Steven and me, we had three
songwriters in the band. We didn't know that his brother Steven was going to be
a good songwriter as well. And that's just hard. I mean Buffalo Springfield lasted
for all of three records! it's just too hard to do, and David wanted to do his
own thing, which is fine. The circumstances surrounding his departure are not
interesting, but as a consequence there was stuff lying around that we never got
around to recording. Really we only did the one record, and then we went on the
tour. We were still writing together, but that stuff obviously never made it to
record, because by the time that David had left, we decided to move on from
that era. And Steven and I had started writing, we had stuff, so that older
material just sort of fell by the wayside. So it was cool to hear that stuff. I
mean, most of it is live – I think all of it is actually because we never really
went in the studio to do any of it! We had some help, a couple of guys named
David DeSanzo and Pat Thomas, who helped go through the archives. There's an
astonishing amount of stuff out there. Also a guy named Clive Jones, this
British big fan, good guy, he helped us to find some stuff, so we did the best
we could with what we had. And then Jim Hill was kind of a master at making
things sound better, and I guess that's up to you to decide whether or not that
was a good idea! When I listen to them, I do wish that we had done that stuff,
but until somebody figures out how to go backwards in time and, that’s just
gonna have to be the way it is.
OL: Over 40 years later, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip
remains an absolute classic. It still sounds exciting and fresh. Did you have
an inkling when you were making it that people would still be listening to it
all this time afterwards?
MP: None, none whatsoever. We didn't even know whether anyone
was going to listen to it then! We're very proud of it. We worked very hard. I
moved to Los Angeles in the spring of 1981 and we wouldn’t play live until the
spring of 1982, so we worked a lot on songwriting and arranging. Even though
there is some spontaneity to the recording process, and we always try to allow
for that, we were pretty careful and methodical about the way we arrange stuff.
So I think looking back on it, now I mean we didn’t know what's going to happen
in the future. But I think it is well crafted, and it is weirdly out of time.
It sounds like it could have been made the 90s, it could have been made in the
60s. We’ve always kind of been out of time, maybe either too late or too early.
But, to answer your question, no, we had absolutely no idea that people would
like it. Frankly, when we started playing again in 2011, had we not gotten such
a good reception, we probably wouldn't still be doing it. But we were
absolutely floored by the realization that there were a couple other
generations – musical generations, which are shorter than human generations.
Musical generations are like 10 years max. But there were at least a couple of
iterations of groups who had come later, who really, really liked that stuff. We
were flabbergasted to hear that My Bloody Valentine and Ride and Charlatans (UK) and Primal Scream and
Teenage Fanclub and the Stone Roses and all those other bands, most of whom
we've met, who told us that our music was really important to them and that was
extraordinarily flattering and satisfying. That's probably all we ever wanted.
It's just a mind blower, really, that people enjoyed it. I listen to it now,
and I'm like, it's tight, it's well crafted. It's weird. I do think that one
thing that we do have is a fairly unique sound. Which is difficult to do in a
world full of a bazillion songs. I do think that it's a unique sound, and maybe
that's what it is. Who knows man, I mean if I knew I would do it more!
OL: You were part of the Paisley Underground with all those
other wonderful bands like the Dream Syndicate and Green On Red. Was an
exciting time to be making music when you realised there were all these
like-minded artists around you?
MP: Well, to be honest with you, we didn't know about it until we
kind of got out there. We were always sort of hermits. We were in our own
spaceship in outer space and did our thing. And then we were just startled
again to see that there’s other people out there who were doing this cool
stuff. And we did know Sue (Hoffs) from the Bangles, the Roback brothers lived
down the street from her. And her brother John, whose college roommate was Will
Glen, who was also in Rain Parade with us later. We did know those guys, and we
did go see the Bangles early on. I think they were still called the Colours then!
But we didn't know about the Dream Syndicate or the Salvation Army who became
The Three O'Clock, or Green On Red, or the Long Ryders. Green On Red was our
very first gig, we were opening for those guys. We were just blown away by all
these other bands that seemed to be trying something different.
I came to Los Angeles probably after the punk heyday in LA. This
is my personal opinion. I think it got stale. Kind of too male, kind of more
Jock-y, you know, more like about a football team. And I just think people were
ready for something different. And we all about the same age, and we all had
older brothers and sisters who had all the stuff in the 60s, which were obviously
great influences on us, but as well this 1975 explosion in New York of original
material. I will not use the word punk, because none of those bands are really
punk. Punk to me is the Sex Pistols, the Damned, stuff like that. But
nonetheless, we were very influenced by that stuff as well. It might be a
little hard to see in Rain Parade. It's more in the lyrics than anything else. But
I just think people were ready for something new. And It was very satisfying to
see other people out there trying new things as well. I mean, when I say new,
there's really nothing new under the sun, but it was different. It was seen through
a different lens. And it was very exciting to meet all these people. The crazy
thing is, guys like Dan Stuart (Green On Red) and Steve Wynn (Dream Syndicate)
and Vicki Peterson (the Bangles), people like Deb [Peterson, the Bangles] and
Jack Waterson (Green On Red), they're all dear, dear friends now, and I almost
feel like they're better friends now than they ever were back in the day. Which
is pretty great you know, most things kind of just fall apart. It's very
unusual for things to get back together again. It is a blessing,
OL: There’s definitely a nice parallel to Rain Parade touring
with the Dream Syndicate again as you did last year.
MP: Steve [Wynn] called us up and asked us if we wanted to do
it. It was not going to be possible to bring the whole band. But he wanted to
get Steven and I, the two songwriting partners, as a duo, and we've never
really done it before, but it was exciting for us because it was different. We
hadn't really done that, so we decided sure, why not? And they were very magnanimous,
they let us ride in their van, and that was an absolute blast. And they were
fantastic. And it was really cool to see Vicki Peterson (the Bangles) play with
them. Their regular guitar player, Jason [Victor], is great. But just having a
different flavor was very exciting. I dunno if you caught any of those shows,
but especially the ones in London, people really got on board. It was really
quite spectacular. They’re wonderful people, all of them.
OL: Unfortunately I missed that tour! Did you come to
Liverpool?
MP: We did come to Liverpool, which is why I was talking about
it. It was cold as hell. They had the door open. What the heck was the name of
that place? I can't remember. It wasn't the Cavern. [An internet search reveals
the venue was District Liverpool in the Baltic Triangle].
OL: But yeah, I was ill at the time, which is why I didn't
make it.
MP: That's awful. Well, my buddy Ian McNabb was supposed to come
too, and he was sick, so I didn't get to see him either. So maybe you had what
he had!
That was a wonderful experience. We got rolling on that, and
then came back then we went back out as a five piece touring the United States
on the West Coast, with a band called The Third Line, who are fantastic. I
highly recommend them. And then we recorded an EP that just came out, and then
we went on this European tour, and now we're kind of resting. It's been very
busy. We're now rebuilding our studio. Going to be diving in and making a new
record. That's an exciting project,
OL: And you had a new album, Last Rays Of A Dying Sun,
which came out last year. It’s a return to the classic Rain Parade sound and it
sounds like you’ve never been away. Was that a challenge, given how long it’s
been since your last studio album Crashing Dream?
MP: Steven and I and John Thoman, who's been in the band since
1985, we've worked together over the years. It's just not been Rain Parade.
Steven had a band called Viva Saturn in the 90s, and there were three records
of that stuff, and that's mostly his compositions, but I worked on them as
well. And then I had a band called The Hellenes, and we put out two records
there, and that's my stuff. The first one, Steven’s heavily involved, in second
not so much. But it's not like we haven't been doing anything. And then what
happened was Steven moved up to the Bay. We all live in the Bay Area, which is
in San Francisco. The band obviously started in Los Angeles, but once Steven
moved up here, and that was maybe fifteen years ago, we were in the same place
again, and it was just a natural thing to dive back in. And as far as the sound
goes, I mean, we're not Neil Young. We're not going to like make a reggae record,
or African country music or whatever. It is going to be the same thing. Rain
Parade, to me has always been Steven Roback and his unusual bass playing with me
on the Gretsch guitar that I play, I would say. That is what the sound is, for
the most part. Even though you do record things over it, but the core of that
is his bass playing , my guitar playing. I don't think that was going to be a
different sound. I mean, it's up to folks like you to decide what's the same
and what's different? I don't honestly know. We're still doing the same thing,
still like the same stuff, still feel the same way about music. So I think it
makes sense that it sounds the same. What do you think? That’s probably better
answered by you than by me!
OL: You’ll get no complaints for me, that's for sure!
MP: I’m glad you enjoyed it. Are you aware of this EP that came
out?
OL: I don't know the EP. I have heard the new
single, Surprise, Surprise, with Bee And His Buzz on the B side.
MP: We didn't put that on the album because it's a little different.
John Thoman, who's the other guitar player, that's his song. He took some
lyrics written by his wife. So it's cool in the sense that it's almost like the
band Junk Yard Love – I don’t know if you know the band Junk Yard Love, that’s
with Chris Cacavas (Green On Red), after Rain Parade John joined Chris in that
band. And so this is a song of John's, and it's just an unusual
instrumentation. I don't play guitar, I play bass. Steven doesn't play bass, he
plays synthesizer. John plays all the guitar, and then we've got Chris to play
some organ. And yeah, it's cool. So we didn't think it really fit, but we're
happy that we were able to put that out. And there's an EP with a couple other
songs as well, actually, three other songs. That is also coming out shortly, so
we're really excited about all of it.
OL: It sounds like it's been a really productive period for you guys.
OL: No, the A side definitely sounds like classic Rain Parade,
but I can see the B side being written by someone else, and with unusual instrumentation.
Because it does sound a bit different. But I enjoyed it. I thought it was cool.
MP: Yeah, we like it. John is a great guy, and he's a very
important member of the band. I played that song with John for a while. Before
Steven showed up. John was playing with playing in Bay Area with me, this other
band called Boatclub, which has a record that's a totally different thing. But
nonetheless, he's been up here playing, and he also played in the Hellenes and
we had played that song a lot with the drummer in Boatclub, myself, John, all
playing before Steven moved up here. So that was kind of left over from that previous
life. It was fun to do something different. This is a good place for it. It's
not on the record itself, but hey, it's almost 10 minutes long, and John plays
some crazy guitars on it! We're excited about all that stuff.
OL: Earlier you mentioned about working on Crashing Dream….
MP: That is our intent. Let's just say that we intend to re-release
Crashing Dream in the next 12 months. We're not going to say where, those
guys get persnickety about that stuff, and we've already investigated. In the
late 80s, we were just running into these hideous bootlegs all over the place.
They’d just take some crappy cassette and throw it onto the disc and then try
to sell it. And so we said, you know what? We're gonna do that. So we just
dumped everything we had into the box and put out this compilation Demolition
that has pretty much anything that was lying around then. A lot of that stuff,
roughly half of it, were demos for Crashing Dream. It's some of those
versions we like better than the actual Island version. You know, we liked the
songs, we just weren’t crazy about our producer. He was a nice guy, he just didn’t get it. So this is sort of Crashing
Dream reimagined. Like the previous one, that will be out next spring, then
to be followed in the summer by a brand new something. haven't written it yet,
though! That's what we're working on pretty much right now. We just came back
from the tour, and now we are like locked into working on the next thing. Beyond
that, who knows that? I don’t like to look that far ahead.
OL: Certainly sounds like you've got a lot over there over
the next year to look forward to. Do you have plans to tour the new album once
it's out?
MP: Well, there are no specific plans. We would like to. I
suppose we should start getting on that! But since we don't really know what
our schedule is going to be, we're not gonna rush. I can't say for sure. The
last year we did was pretty gruelling. I mean, It would have been tough in our
20s! if we do come over there next year, which I hope we will do, it would be
much more sedate. We didn't even get to Liverpool, which was terrible, because
we love Liverpool. So I would like to go back and do that part a little bit
more.
OL: I’ll definitely have my fingers crossed for that, for sure,
MP: We’ll go back to Manchester, which was unbelievable, we love
Manchester, and then maybe to Spain
again. I don't know. That's speculative. If people will have us we would love
to play.
OL: Thank you so much for speaking with Outsideleft, Matt Piucci. It's
been an absolute pleasure.
Essential Information: The two-disc deluxe edition of 1983 debut album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, along with new digital single Surprise, Surprise is released on Friday December 13th on Label 51 Recordings.
Main Image: Rain Parade - Photo by Billy Douglas
