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mahatmakanejeeves

(57,489 posts)
Thu Apr 19, 2018, 02:41 PM Apr 2018

So this song entered my brain this morning. It was something I hadn't heard in years.

Once I recalled the name of the group, it took me under a minute to find the tune on the internet. How did we ever get along without the internet?

Rain Parade



Rain Parade performing in San Francisco, September 2013

The Rain Parade is a band that was originally active in the Paisley Underground scene in Los Angeles in the 1980s, and that reunited and resumed touring in 2012.

History

The band was founded by college roommates Matt Piucci (guitar, vocals) and David Roback (guitar, vocals) in 1981, originally as The Sidewalks. David's brother Steven Roback (bass, vocals) joined the band shortly thereafter. David and Steven had been in a band called The Unconscious with neighbor Susanna Hoffs (who went on to lead the most famous of the Paisley Underground bands, The Bangles.) The band soon added Will Glenn (keyboards and violin) and later Eddie Kalwa (drums). They self-released their debut single, "What She's Done to Your Mind" on their Llama label in 1982.

In 1983, they released their debut album, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, on the Enigma/Zippo label. Critic Jim DeRogatis would later write in his book Turn on Your Mind: Four Decades of Great Psychedelic Rock (2003) that "Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is not only the best album from any of the Paisley Underground bands, it ranks with the best psychedelic rock efforts from any era", with uplifting melodies offset by themes that were "dark and introspective." According to DeRogatis, the album showcased "the Robacks' ethereal vocals, Eddie Kalwa's precise drumming, Will Glenn's colorful sitar, violin, and keyboard accents, and an intricate, chiming, but droney two-guitar attack that picks up where the Byrds left off with 'Eight Miles High.'"

Paisley Underground

Paisley Underground is a subgenre of jangle pop that originated from California. It was particularly popular in Los Angeles, reaching a peak in the mid 1980s. Paisley Underground bands incorporated psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies and guitar interplay, owing a particular debt to 1960s groups such as Love and the Byrds, but more generally referencing a wide range of pop and garage rock revival.

Jangle pop



A Rickenbacker 360/12, identical to the model commonly used to produce "jangly" guitar sounds in the 1960s

Jangle pop is a subgenre of pop rock that emphasizes trebly, ringing guitars (usually 12-string electrics) and 1960s-style pop melodies. While the Everly Brothers and the Searchers laid the foundations for the style, the Beatles and the Byrds are commonly credited with launching the popularity of the "jangly" sound that defined the genre. Particularly, the Byrds' rendition of Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man" (1965), which coined the genre name from the lyric "jingle-jangle morning" accompanied by the sounds of chiming guitars. Even though many subsequent bands drew hugely from the Byrds, they did not fit into the folk rock continuum as the Byrds did.

In the early to mid 1980s, the term "jangle pop" emerged as a label for an American post-punk movement that recalled the sounds of "jangly" acts from the 1960s. Between 1983 and 1987, the description "jangle pop" was, in the US, used to describe bands like R.E.M. and Let's Active as well as the Paisley Underground subgenre, which incorporated psychedelic influences. In the UK, the term was applied to the new wave of raw and immediate sounding melodic guitar-bands collected on the NME's C86 compilations.

Enough of that. Here's the song I was thinking of, from Emergency Third Rail Power Trip. I think it's pretty.

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