If you already have the new, deluxe reissue of Crashing Dream, the 1985 sophomore album from Rain Parade, jump ahead to “Gone West.” Tap your foot to the steady beat and tune into the guitar jangle and spectral voices. Listen closely and you might hear an L.A. band that is steeped in ‘60s psychedelia, yet foreshadows the sounds that would emanate from the U.K. by the end of the decade, from The Stone Roses to Primal Scream to Ride to Teenage Fanclub.
“We’ve always been hermits. We didn’t really know this until we started playing again in about 2012, but, at that time, we started running into these people, like Mani from the Stone Roses,” says Rain Parade co-founder Matt Piucci. “He contacted me on social media and was like we love you guys and we wanted to be you guys.” Piucci heard something similar Teenage Fanclub’s Gerard Love. And, several years ago, he attended a Ride show and heard a Rain Parade album playing before the show.
“We were pleasantly surprised to learn that they really did appreciate what we were trying to do,” says Piucci. “I always felt that we were a little bit out of time.”
Best known for their affiliation with the Paisley Underground scene of 1980s Los Angeles, a reunited Rain Parade has been playing live for years. More recently, though, they have been releasing new music, including the 2023 full-length Last Rays of a Dying Sun, and last year’s EP Last Stop on the Underground. The day before this interview, the band was recording new music in Oakland, where most of the current lineup is now based, potentially for release in early 2026. “I really enjoy taking the blank sheet of paper and doing collaborative art with people you like, who are talented, because you’ve got nothing and then you’ve got something and then you work on it,” says Piucci. “We’re slow, but I like to think that has its merits.”
In addition to new music, though, Rain Parade is making their first wave of releases available once again. Working with Label 51, whose co-founder, Bill Hein, signed Rain Parade to Enigma back in the day, they have released deluxe editions of the band’s first two albums, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip and Crashing Dream.
In 1981, Piucci headed to Los Angeles and moved in with his college roommate, David Roback. Shortly thereafter, the two began writing songs with David’s brother Steven, and Rain Parade took shape. “We took over a year before we even played live. As a matter of fact, we recorded a single before we even played and put it out,” Piucci recalls. Once Rain Parade started playing live, though, they connected with other local bands who shared similar 1960s and 1970s influences. They already knew The Colours, who would become The Bangles, but there was also Green on Red, The Dream Syndicate and The Salvation Army, later known as The Three O’Clock.
“It was a re-synthesis of some of the ideas that had come before and I do think that, even though it may be hard to see, Rain Parade does have somewhat of a punk spirit in it,” says Piucci. “Certainly in the DIY idea and also maybe lyrically. I think that’s true of those other groups as well. It was a reintroduction of melodic songwriting, not that it ever went away, into the Los Angeles area.”
Rain Parade released their debut album, Emergency Third Rail Power Trip, now considered a cult classic, in 1983. Then David Roback, later of Opal and Mazzy Star, left the fold. Piucci and Steven Roback, who remain Rain Parade’s songwriting core, went on to record the EP Explosions in the Glass Palace, which is often considered the band’s best release of that era. Piucci notes that they still need to reissue Explosions in the Glass Palace. He says, “That would be very fulfilling, to get all of our stuff out and in one place.”
Crashing Dream represents an interesting period in Rain Parade’s history. The band had left Enigma for Island Records. “Maybe not such a great idea in hindsight, but we did,” says Piucci.
The move to a bigger label didn’t bode well for Crashing Dream. “They had dropped us by the time it came out in the United States, so it kind of never really got off the ground here,” says Piucci. At this point in time, though, they did play live in Japan and a few of those recordings are included on the reissue, along with other live performances and a few demos, including songs that didn’t make it onto Crashing Dream. They also replaced the album version of “Sad Eyes Kill” with one that was recorded for a flexi disc release.
The deluxe edition of Crashing Dream is available on vinyl and CD, as well as digitally. As Piucci says, “it’s still a physical world.”
“I know that everyone dives head first into this artificial, electronic world and it has its value,” he adds, “but there’s something visceral about the physicality of an album or going to see an actual band live.”
The deluxe edition reissue of Crashing Dream by Rain Parade is out now.
Liz O. is an L.A.-based writer and DJ. Read her recently published work and check out her upcoming gigs or listen to the latest Beatique Mix. Follow on Instagram or Bluesky for more updates.
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