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Rain Parade - This Can't Be Today Jonathon Thornton talks to Rain Parade's Matt Piucci about the deluxe reissue of their classic 'Emergency Third Rail Power' album and new single 'Surprise, Surprise'

Rain Parade - This Can't Be Today

Jonathon Thornton talks to Rain Parade's Matt Piucci about the deluxe reissue of their classic 'Emergency Third Rail Power' album and new single 'Surprise, Surprise'

by Jonathan Thornton, Contributor
first published: November, 2024

approximate reading time: minutes

"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."

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!

Record sleeve

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.

MP: I'm curious if you felt that the two songs in the single sort of formula as you said. It's not like you didn't know what band it was, was it?

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

Jonathan Thornton
Contributor

Jonathan is a writer and enthusiast of books and music. A prolific contributor to an array of sgnificant cultural periodicals. His fiction has been published by Comma Press and on the Everyman Playhouse website. Jonathan used to professionally look after insects.


about Jonathan Thornton »»

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