Paisley Underground

The term "Paisley Underground" refers to a cluster of bands, active in Los Angeles in the mid-Eighties, devoted to reviving and reworking the psychedelic sound of the Sixties. In those same years of chart-topping synth-pop excess, a more "underground" rediscovery of the great classic psychedelic bands was taking shape in the United States. This wasn't simply a matter of turning back the clock, though: punk hadn't passed in vain, and had left indelible traces on an instrumental approach marked by dryness, a lack of frills, and sharp incisiveness. None of the bands examined here ever achieved broad mainstream success, remaining largely relegated to cult status; and yet enthusiasts and curious listeners have found, and will keep finding, among the grooves of the records discussed here, some of the most precious hidden treasures of the Eighties.

In the early years of that decade, the bands of the American underground scene in general, and the Paisley Underground bands in particular, took as their models the Jefferson Airplane, the early Stooges, but above all the melodicism and jingle jangle guitar work of the Byrds and the sick cadences of the Velvet Underground. Already a guiding spirit of the new wave scene, the band of Lou Reed and John Cale rose in those years to the status of a full-blown musical cult. In the same period another cult was consolidating, that of the quintessential Los Angeles psychedelic band, the Doors (helped along by the release of An American Prayer in 1978 and the inclusion of "The End" in Apocalypse Now, in 1979). But the real forerunners of the Eighties Los Angeles scene are to be found among the bands featured on Nuggets, the series of Rhino Records box sets dedicated to psychedelia and acid-rock: Quicksilver Messenger Service, Country Joe & The Fish, 13th Floor Elevators, Electric Prunes.
If we want to frame the Paisley story chronologically, we can take as our reference the period running from 1982 (the year of the first release by the Dream Syndicate) to 1987 (the year "Happy Nightmare Baby" by Opal came out). It's in this five-year span, in fact, that the scene's bands debut, grow and finally run their course, whether through splits and break-ups or through a sonic evolution that drifted away from psychedelia, often landing on a rock sound more rooted in American folk and country traditions.
Such a tightly localized scene allowed for numerous collaborations among musicians from the various ensembles. The best possible introduction to the movement's influences, music and key figures is in fact an LP released in 1983 under the name Rainy Day. It's a covers album (among the artists paid tribute are Buffalo Sprigfield, Who, Bob Dylan, Beach Boys, Big Star, Jimi Hendrix), performed by members of (almost) all the leading bands of the LA scene: Dream Syndicate, Rain Parade, Three O'Clock, Bangles (a band that started out within the Paisley scene before veering toward pop, achieving worldwide success with the singles "Manic Monday" and "Walk Like An Egyptian").

It's apparently to the Three O'Clock that we owe the term "Paisley Underground": it's said to have been coined by singer and bassist Michael Quercio. The reference is to paisley, a decorative pattern very much in vogue during the Summer of Love. The group (formerly Salvation Army, a name dropped under pressure from the actual Salvation Army) crafted a light, catchy brand of psychedelic pop that owed more to British models than to the West Coast. They debuted in 1982 with the EP "Baroque Hoedown", followed by the LP "Sixteen Tambourines" (both released on Frontier). "Jetfighter", the standout track, did well on college radio; "Stupid Einstein" isn't far removed from what, on the other side of the Atlantic, the Smiths were doing at the time; "Fall To The Ground" lands somewhere between the Kinks and the Beatles. The band's career would continue, moving progressively further away from its early sonic models, until 1989.

The Dream Syndicate have, over time, risen to become the emblematic band of the entire movement. They formed in Los Angeles in 1981 at the initiative of singer and guitarist Steve Wynn, who recruited bassist and university classmate Kendra Smith, guitarist Karl Precoda and drummer Dennis Duck. Wynn and Smith had already played together in the Suspects, a band that lasted just long enough to put out a single, "It's Up To You".
The Syndicate debuted in 1982 with a self-titled EP released on Down There, the label Steve Wynn himself had set up. The "Dream Syndicate" EP showcases guitar-driven acid-rock filtered through hammering, Velvet-style rhythms ("Sure Thing" and "Some Kinda Itch" are fine examples of this). Their first full-length, "The Days Of Wine And Roses" (Ruby, 1983), delivers on everything the mini-debut had promised. The sonic range widens: from the mid-tempo of "Tell Me When It's Over" (one of their best-known songs, with its acid riff and a memorable chorus) to the garage rock of "Then She Remembers", by way of the splendid ballad "Too Little, Too Late", arriving finally at the closing tour de force of "The Days Of Wine And Roses", a track of unmatched power and intensity, driven by a relentless rhythm, sulfurous guitar work and a striking lyric — the absolute high point of the record and one of the most important songs of the entire movement.
The album was followed by the departure of Kendra Smith, who went on to form Clay Allison with David Roback (more on this later). The subsequent "Medicine Show" (A&M, 1984), more polished in its arrangements, loses some of the raw beauty of its predecessor but gains in depth; it contains another should-have-been hit, "Still Holding On To You", and the long acid jam "John Coltrane Stereo Blues". After this record, Karl Precoda also left the group; Wynn carried on with two more solid but less spectacular albums, before disbanding the band in 1989 to pursue a solo career.

Led by singer and guitarist Dan Stuart, Green On Red formed in Tucson, Arizona, before relocating to Los Angeles, drawn by the city's musical ferment. After a self-produced debut EP ("Two Bibles"), the band released an EP for Down There, the label run by Steve Wynn. Green On Red's sound, acidic yet with more than one link to American folklore, has often been described as "desert rock" and closely related to one of the biggest bands of psychedelic Eighties, Thin White Rope, who would debut a few years later.
Central to the sonic coordinates examined here is the first full-length by Green On Red, the album "Gravity Talks" (Slash, 1983). Crystalline guitars over which a keyboard reminiscent of the Doors embroiders instantly catchy melodies, with vocals owing as much to late-60s garage as to a drawling, sneering punk delivery: these are the guiding lines of an album in which, truth be told, it's hard to single out tracks that stand above the rest. At least the title track, however, deserves mention among the emblematic songs of the whole scene, as do the spectral "Narcolepsy" and the murky "Snake Bit".
The lovely "That's What Dreams Are For", vaguely reminiscent of the late-Sixties Rolling Stones, opens the follow-up "Gas Food Lodging" (Enigma, 1985): a good record, though already distant from psychedelia and leaning more towards the classic rock sound that would define the rest of the band's career. The rediscovery of their "roots" would continue with the subsequent "No Free Lunch" (Mercury, 1985) and "The Killer Inside Me" (Mercury, 1987).

Speaking of roots rock, mention must certainly be made of the Danny & Dusty project, a collaboration between Dan Stuart and Steve Wynn steeped in singer-songwriter folk. The two released the album "The Lost Weekend" in 1985 (on the cover they appear dressed as two old-time country singers inside a bar). The Danny & Dusty project has continued on and off to this day.
The Long Ryders also soon abandoned the purest psychedelic sounds to devote themselves to a rock style marrying the guitar work of the Byrds with a genuine folk-and-blues approach (the album "Native Sons", released by Frontier in 1984, is exemplary). For our purposes, though, their debut EP, "10-5-60" (PVC, 1983), deserves a mention. The standout track "Join My Gang" is a successful blend of Byrds and Steppenwolf; "I Don't Care What's Right" is already country-rock; the title track sounds as if it came straight off a West Coast 45, as does "And She Rides"; "Born To Believe In You", on the other hand, is a superfluous music-hall number in the vein of the Kinks, recalling similar efforts by the Three O'Clock. All in all, it's a record that, between highs and lows, still sounds reasonably fresh.
Traveling on darker frequencies instead are Russ Tolman's True West (Tolman had already been in the Suspects, with Steve Wynn and Kendra Smith). They debuted on seven-inch with a cover of Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam", followed by the mini-album "Hollywood Holiday" (New Rose, 1983). The EP's standout track opens the record: "Steps To The Door" is monotone, distorted and drenched in echo, one of the most impactful songs to come out of the Los Angeles scene.
True West's aggressive Paisley sound finds new forms and developments on their sole album, "Drifters" (PVC, 1984), which unfolds an epic melody on "At Night They Speak" and textbook psychedelia on "What About You", powered by a crystalline guitar riding exotic cadences. "And Then The Rain" is carried over from the previous EP: lysergic and desperate, it's perhaps the album's peak and certainly one of the band's finest songs.

The grooves of "Rainy Day" are also notable for the first appearance of what would soon become the other emblematic band of the Paisley Underground: Rain Parade, led by brothers Steven and David Roback. The band debuted in 1983 on Enigma with the splendid "Emergency Third Rail Power Trip". It's a record that travels along the softer coordinates of the psychedelic sound, unfolding formidable interplays of acid guitars, melodic bass, keyboards, echoes and reverbs that seem to come straight out of the Los Angeles of fifteen years earlier. The album contains two absolute masterpieces: the acidic "This Can't Be Today" and the lysergic folk lullaby "Carolyn's Song" (later covered by This Mortal Coil). But mention should also go (at least) to "I Look Around", which sounds like an outtake from the Jefferson Airplane's "Surrealistic Pillow", as well as "What She's Done to Your Mind" and the dreamy "Look At Merri". The album was followed by the EP "Explosions In The Glass Palace" (both works have been reissued on a single CD), similar in spirit and quality; especially worth noting are "You Are My Friend" and the Barrett-esque "No Easy Way Down".
After the EP, David Roback left the group and, together with Kendra Smith, herself a Dream Syndicate defector, formed Clay Allison. The group released the single "Fell From The Sun" (later covered by the Pale Saints) before changing their name to Opal.

Opal took the dreamy psychedelia of Rain Parade as their starting point and arrived at a lysergic, acid folk-blues, indebted to Barrett as much as to the Velvet Underground. Smith moved to lead vocals, almost as if picking up the legacy of Nico, who had died just a few years earlier. The result was the EP "Northern Line" (One Big Guitar, 1985), which unfolds the bluesy "Northern Line" and "Empty Bottles" on one side and the extremely acidic jam "Soul Giver" on the other. The EP was followed by the album "Happy Nightmare Baby", released in 1987 on SST. The album shows a more pronounced rock vein (recalling in places even labelmates Screaming Trees) with robust injections of Doors, evident on "Magick Power" and "Siamese Trap". The album's absolute high points are "Supernova", the beautiful "Happy Nightmare Baby" (a truly unsung gem) and, closing the record, a reprise of "Soul Giver". During the album's promotional tour, Kendra Smith left her bandmates and (temporarily) withdrew from the scene. This led to the release of the compilation "Early Recordings" (Rough Trade, 1989), gathering recordings made prior to the release of "Happy Nightmare Baby". Not to be missed, both for revisiting tracks such as "Fell From The Sun" and "Northern Line", otherwise nearly impossible to find, and for genuine gems of psychedelic folk like "All Souls", "Grains Of Sand" and "Hear The Wind Blow".

Kendra Smith resurfaced in 1992 with the excellent mini-album "The Guild Of The Temporal Adventurers", written and recorded with a commune of musicians. "Stars In Your Eyes" and "Earth Same Breath" are the finest late fruits of a movement that had by then run its course. In 1995, 4AD released the less accomplished but still worthwhile "Five Ways Of Disappearing". After the album came out, Kendra Smith would vanish without a trace, disappearing into the woods.
After Kendra Smith's departure, David Roback did not give up and, together with singer Hope Sandoval, formed Mazzy Star. It was they who carried the legacy of the Paisley Underground into the new decade, with an acoustic, ethereal sound that would become one of the most beloved, influential and imitated of the Nineties and beyond. But that's another story.

Note on the recommended discography: the years and labels listed refer to the first vinyl release. Alongside, however, are listed CD reissues of the essential Paisley Underground discography. These reissues often have the merit of gathering more material from the same band, recovering otherwise unobtainable EPs and albums.

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