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| Yup, they got the cover right, too |
Did you ever buy an album on the strength of the band's name and title? Without hearing or seeing it? Back in the early 'eighties, I grabbed anything with even the most vestigial whiff of patchouli about it. Even then - forty years ago, fercrissake - I was ahead of my time, already living in the past. Where all the good stuff is. Where everything is. Just choose what you like. Don't be fooled by the marketing initiative of "now". So when I saw a couple of import albums listed in the NME small ads my Psychey Psense tingled. Rain Parade? The Three O'Clock? Emergency Third Rail Power Trip?? Baroque Hoedown?? I just knew these people were getting it right. Take my money! TAKE MY MONEY!!
I wasn't disappointed. Rain Parade seemed to have done the impossible, magicking up music that distilled the late 'sixties without actually sounding like any of the standard reference bands. That gorgeous, swimmy melancholy ... yes, yes, yesss ...
So here they are again, with their first album for since when. It sounds like there's no yawning chasm of time between it and Crashing Dream (and that was a good album - here on th' Iof©, good is always good enough). Maybe a year has passed in the Rain Parade substack. Max. Thirty-eight, you say? You're kidding. You must think I was born yesterday. You'll make up your own minds, but it's shaping up a close second to their first. And for why? On account which songs. This isn't an exercise in style; the songs have something to say and a seductive way of saying it, recognisably Rain Parade, the chordal hovering, the curling leads ... yesss.
Nobody has to buy an album unseen and unheard in these collapsing times. Nobody has to buy an album. Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is worth your fungible tokens. We're not going to be around for the next one, at this rate.
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Welcome back, my friends ...
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/8znrBsV4ZzX
I like it very, very much. I went off & got the flac version immediately. You sure have great taste. - useo
ReplyDeleteThose forty minutes slip by like four, don't they?
DeleteI'm awaiting delivery of the vinyl version, which I'm told is very good.
DeleteHaven't heard this, but I do love Emergency 3rd Rail Power Trip, and the stuff from Rainy Day, and Dream Syndicate, and etc. Crashing Dream was a disappointment, tho. Hoping for better.
ReplyDeleteC in California
PS It's not as 'psych' as RP, but see if you can find Well Down Blue Highway by Leaving Trains. Very L.A. underground of the era as far as epic Mojave desert to cinematic to druggie-60s to the then-burgeoning Cali punk scene. Their second album, Kill Tunes, is also recommended. Spotty after those two.
Wowzers chief. Big thanks.
ReplyDeleteWas just thinking about looking fer this here thing... second place I look... Yeeee Haw!
ReplyDeleteI've played it six times today. It started out pretty damn good, and gets subtly better each time. I've had a crack team of Artefact Tardigrade audio technicians peer into it at granular level, and they've reported there's nothing wrong with it. Nothing.
ReplyDeleteMy Album O' Th' Year awready.
Sweet record!
DeleteIt is SO good!
DeleteI'm on my fourth listen. Best Rock album so far this year.
DeleteHere's a 24bit-44.1kHz version:
https://ulozto.net/file/YntG0J9ggDQ7/rain-parade-last-rays-of-a-dying-sun-zip#!ZJZ2AQR2AmZ5A2ZmBTV0ATRjLwRkAwqEETqlEQWZBHASqzWxZt==
PW: Babs (case-sensitive)
It's been on constant rotation on th' IoF©. It's so subtle and so strong at the same time. The details are perfect, the pacing is brilliant, and the tunes are there to root everything in substance. Love the way the quietly epic closing track resists the temptation to over-blow at the coda, and ends with restrained grace.
DeleteWelcome back Farq, oh, something new with a whiff of patchouli, what's not to like, I look forward to giving this a spin thanks.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to this -- thanks Farq; it's good to see you outside the trailer again!
ReplyDeleteHah! You noticed?
DeleteI'd luv an upload of the out-of-print, 'Emergency Third Rail Power Trip/Explosions in the Glass Palace'. Would anyone else luv this?
ReplyDeleteEmergency/Explosions/Crashing/Rainy Day
Deletehttps://workupload.com/file/m8G9qJ8Bmfd
(If Crashing Dream hadn't been preceded by anything, it would be proclaimed as some kind of psychcountry-rock masterpiece)
Thank Ye!
DeleteRain Parade are one of the several groups which lost an important member early on. Fans love this, because they can dismiss anything which came later as inferior, and it demonstrates their savviness. I read a comment somewhere about the new album, "seems kinda strange without David." Jesus fucking christ. He's been out of the band forty years, he died in 2020, and although it's not a hip thing to say, nothing he did with Clay Allison, Mazzy Star, or Opal is as good as Rain Parade without him. Still, fans do love that moody blurred stuff (I can take it too, in limited doses).
ReplyDeleteHere's the live album, Beyond The Sunset, and the "recent" super-comp The Paisley Underground, where the bands cover each other. It works well, too.
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/8QY4DZZPvAy
I trashed the "lost" Rain Parade album Demolition on account which it's a bunch of gnarly and depressing leftovers. Some fans inevitably think it's a masterpiece (even without David!), but that's fans for you.
I trust you had a fine holiday, Farquhar.
ReplyDeleteAh Patchouli, every time I smell it, I’m transported back to late 60s Hermosa Beach in L.A. and the accompanying aromas of sativa from Michoacán and Olympia beer.
Ego olfacies, ergo sum.
It also brings to mind Birkenstocks and “Orange Sunshine”.
Here’s a link to a CD that combines Rain Parade’s first (my favorite) and second effort: ‘Emergency Third Rail Power Trip’ and ‘Explosions in the Glass Palace’.
https://ulozto.net/file/69jtjPvx4Q60/rain-parade-emergency-third-rail-power-trip-explosions-in-the-glass-palace-zip#!ZGSyBQR2ZJH5AwNmZwH3MQpmAQN5ZmN2HGD4E21isz8hImtmZN==
PW: Babs (case-sensitive)
Thank 'ee, case-sensitive Babs! I had a swell vacay, visiting with my Polish Post-Modern Pals in Khon Khaen. They are vegetarians and therefore have no chairs in their house (confirming the N. England euphemism "hasn't got all his chairs at home"). But they took me to a swell vegan eatery which I'd use every day if it was local.
Delete(Those albums you link are antecedently linked up there ⇡ but I'm sure yours are bat-ear quality)
Glad you had a nice time!
DeleteI posted the link because I thought MichaelSnorkySmith, would like a FLAC version.
The Snorkers is up fer anything he can snort up his snoot!
DeleteThank you very much for this enlightening post! A fantastic musical discovery for me - how could I never have heard any Rain Parade music before this? Seems incomprehensible but true. Anyway, I am very appreciative of your time/effort in this regard and the various commenters. Extremely enlightening plus good for the occasional laugh - which is always welcome.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment, Thames, great feedback which is much appreciated. Have a dig around on th' IoF© - there may be more discoveries - like these -
Deletehttps://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2021/04/play-some-new-dept-viva-saturn.html
Many additional thanks for directing me to the Viva Saturn post (including "Blisterpak"). An embarrassment of riches for sure! I find these band histories really interesting (and not just the Rain Parade folks) - 40+ years of them making great music with all these different personnel groupings, deaths etc. The creative urge/determination apparently is capable of transcending A LOT. Your platform of providing discovery and musical enjoyment for others to interact globally is really cool. Wish I could track down Ships of Heaven!
DeleteHere's a Viva Saturn Bonus Blisterpak™ for youse bums, and the live Rain Parade album with the daft (but strangely likeable) cover:
ReplyDeletehttps://workupload.com/file/wCNXstv5USL
I've never been able to find the elusive Ships Of Heaven album, though but, and oft I waken in the small hours sobbing into my pillow on account which. Be a come-wit' guy if you gots!
I saw a CDR of 'Ships Of Heaven' at a record fair a few years back. The guy selling it wanted mega-bucks for it, claimed the disc drive on his laptop didn't work, so he couldn't play it, and seemed like a sleazeball, so I passed on it.
DeleteYou did good. But gee whiz ... *somebody* must have this ...
DeleteHere's "Rain Parade - Perfume River" - similar to Beyond The Sunset, but longer!
Deletehttps://workupload.com/file/XzpgysL9KTS
Last Rays of a Dying Sun, is really great thanks, and a proper less than 40 minutes too.
ReplyDeletethanx,a million. mucho apreash ...
ReplyDelete