From 1979 to about 1984 there was something of a Psychedelic musical revival in both the UK and the US. It was hardly a major thing that impacted much on chart positions on either side of the pond but there was definitely something of this sensibility in plenty of the bands and records that the British press were covering, week in week out at the time.
It happened earlier in the UK. Soft, Boys, Echo & The Bunnymen, Teardrop Explodes and solo Julian, Blue Orchids, Monochrome Set, Felt. But then slightly later American bands started barking up the same tree, dBs, early R.E.M., Lyres, even Husker Du. Then, much more significantly and obviously, The Paisley Underground scene around LA which started getting notice from 1983 onwards.
Dream Syndicate, The Three O'Clock, The Bangles, The Long Ryders, True West. And most of all The Rain Parade a bunch of bowl haired, sleepy eyed dreamers who you just knew had plenty of Byrds, Love, Buffalo Springfield and Moby Grape records in their collection.
In 1983 they released their debut album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip and it was staggeringly obvious from the title, the album sleeve and a cursory listen to the record itself where they were coming from and what they were looking to do. Nothing less than rescusitating the 1967 Summer Of Love itself.
It was unusual to hear such defiantly time tunnel, retro records back then. Sure R.E.M. and The Smiths had the look and the sound of The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. But they were clearly intensely in the here and now and had no real desire to tell the music writer interview them of how John Echols of Love had inspired them to buy the leather trousers and winkle pickers they were wearing or where they bought their original copy of Younger Than Yesterday. The Rain Parade on the other hand, were of another stripe entirely.
They had certainly heard Television. This was evident in the way their guitars clanged and chimed. But otherwise their heads were resolutely Haight Ashbury and Sunset Strip. Emergency Third Rail Power Trip made no concessions whatsoever for the present, and whether you were going to approve of it depended on where you stood on that kind of approach.
I certainly didn't mind. I bought and played the record a lot at the time, fired up and enthused by Murmur and Reckoning to investigate R.E.M's contemporaries and inspirations. I realised that Emergency Third Rail Power Trip was an odd record in terms of its denial of the passing of time but it still 'sounded' pretty good to me.
It still does, listening to it now. I's all glossy textures and sonic shifts in mood, which call you back for a further listen, perhaps putting on headphones this time so you can fully appreciate what the band are doing and immerse yourself properly in its gorgeous sound. The songs don't necessarily hang together completely as a whole album, as they're the products of three different songwriters with slightly different approaches. What they share is that they all sound like a 'trip'. Very much the key word in the record title here.
But it is an album that stands the test of time strangely well for one that was a throwback even at the time it was released. It's sentiments are retro but its sound is strangely ahead of its time. The band are long gone now, only reuniting very occasionally to retread former glories on stage. Their best known member David Roback, who went on to modify and take their sound forward with some wonderful records with Opal and Mazzy Star, is no longer with us. Emergency Third Rail Power Trip is his first important statement and testament and it's still very much a favourite record of mine.
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