VIA PRESS RELEASE | Widely acclaimed British band the Levellers celebrate the 30th anniversary of their chart-topping album Zeitgeist. Set for release on November 7th via Warner Music, the Zeitgeist 30th Anniversary Collection will be available on 2LP and 3CD formats. It is available to pre-order now, and fans who pre-order will get exclusive access to the tour pre-sale on Weds 21st May.

The aptly titled Zeitgeist solidified Levellers at the forefront of British music in 1995. Following their record-breaking headline performance at Glastonbury Festival the year before, Zeitgeist soared to the top of the charts with its release in August, batting off competition from Blur and The Charlatans, and becoming the sound of that summer alongside the likes of Supergrass, Oasis and Pulp. Levellers completely rewrote the rulebook on their own terms, proving themselves heroes of the scene for free thinkers, drop-outs, vagabonds, vagrants, and dreamers. Zeitgeist, like its title, caught its moment in time and yet still sounds timeless.

Perhaps because the Levellers have always operated outside the flimsy constructs of fashion, perhaps because they have always worn their heart on their sleeves, and perhaps because their songs resound through the decades—or perhaps because they are wrapped up in a very English idealism—they have always defied gravity. Like all the great bands, they sound like the eternal music that comes from the soil of their surroundings. Their music is the true folk that shimmers throughout the centuries, and the music from the soil of this land.

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Remembering Rick Derringer. —Ed.

I don’t know about you, but I spend plenty of time thinking about the words I want engraved on my headstone. They’re going to be there for eternity, after all, so you want your epitaph to be both eye-catching and memorable. Over the years I’ve gone from E.M. Cioran’s, “Only one thing matters; learning to be the loser” to “Futility Lies Here” to “This is all your fault.” But I always come back to the aside Rick Derringer tosses off in the middle of “Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo,” to wit, “Did somebody say keep on rockin’?”

“Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo” is one of rock’s greatest songs, and Derringer’s version is decidedly superior to the one recorded by Johnny Winter in 1970. Winter’s version is surprisingly sluggish, and it took Derringer, an axe-slinger more attuned to pure rock’n’roll than the blues, to really press down on the accelerator. And Derringer’s rock chops are what make his 1973 LP, All American Boy, so wonderful.

The ex-McCoy—you know, the band that gave us “Hang on Sloopy”—has very impressive bona fides as a sideman and hired gun. He has had a quasi-incestuous relationship with the Winter Brothers and participated in various of their projects, played on several Steely Dan tunes, was responsible for the guitar solo on Alice Cooper’s “Under My Wheels,” and played on Todd Rundgren’s best albums, including Something/Anything. And I’m just cherry picking here.

But it’s the solo (and star-studded) LP All American Boy that is his finest hour. It’s all over the place, but most of its songs work, and what we’re looking at here is a sadly neglected album of great merit. He certainly brought in the talent: Edgar Winter plays keyboards, David Bromberg plays guitar and dobro, Joe Walsh throws in on electric guitar, Bobby Caldwell handles drum chores, Suzi Quatro plays bass on those songs that Kenny Passarelli doesn’t, and Toots Thielemans even contributes on harmonica.

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Formed by guitarist-vocalists David Roback and Matt Piucci in 1981, Rain Parade was integral in shaping the sound of the largely Los Angeles-based explosion of neo-psychedelia that was dubbed the Paisley Underground. The global impact of this movement was significant at the time, as Rain Parade’s second LP Crashing Dream was released by major label Island Records in 1985. The Paisley Underground’s impact also endures today; a deluxe, remastered edition of Crashing Dream complete with demos and live tracks sees reissue May 30 on double vinyl, compact disc, and digital through Label 51 Recordings.

Following the self-released single “What She’s Done to Your Mind” b/w “Kaleidoscope” from 1982, Rain Parade’s first album Emergency Third Rail Power Trip hit stores the following year courtesy of the Enigma label, with its own 2LP edition emerging last year courtesy of Label 51. Along with Piucci and Roback, the Rain Parade of Emergency Third Rail Power Trip consisted of Roback’s brother Steven on bass and vocals, Will Glenn on vocals and violin, and Eddie Kalwa on drums.

After David Roback exited the band to form Opal with the Dream Syndicate’s Kendra Smith (which gradually morphed into Mazzy Star), Rain Parade continued as a quartet for the highly regarded “Explosions in the Glass Palace” EP (or mini-LP, as it was described upon release). And then for Crashing Dream the lineup returned to a five-piece but with Mark Marcum replacing Kalwa on drums. John Thoman joined on guitar and backing vocals.

Like many major label debuts of the 1980s, Crashing Dream loses a bit of steam in terms of quality as well as being the least psychedelic of the band’s 1980s albums (counting “Explosions in the Glass Palace,” which was combined with Emergency Third Rail Power Trip on one CD in 1992). But reengaging with Crashing Dream, having not heard it for a couple of decades (at least), reveals it as a record that’s stronger than its reputation.

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We’ve closed TVD’s HQ for the Memorial Day holiday. While we’re away, why not fire up our Record Store Locator app and visit one of your local indie record stores?

Perhaps there’s an interview, review, or feature you might have missed? Catch up and we’ll see you back here tomorrow, 5/27.

VIA PRESS RELEASE | Seminal Paisley Underground band Rain Parade announced today that they will release a deluxe edition of their 1985 “lost double album” Crashing Dream on Friday May 30 via Label 51 Recordings, run by Bill Hein, who headed up Enigma Records, the label that originally signed the band in the eighties.

This new, deluxe version of Crashing Dream features a remastered album on compact disc, vinyl, and digital formats and boasts an additional full album of previously unreleased, live, and alternate versions of tracks recorded at sessions and venues for this release.

“Rain Parade were excited that a major label was interested in us, but it became apparent pretty quickly that we had limited support within the Island Records infrastructure,” said the Rain Parade’s Matt Piucci. “The rumors that we were breaking up are false, as we played a US tour upon our return from the UK to support the record.”

“We began working on new material soon as we returned and those demos are on this release, as well as the demos for the Island album as well. It’s an old story, huge label signs band and has no clue what to do with them. We love these songs and are glad they are getting their proper due.”

This new expanded edition features a gatefold album jacket and CD packaging with extensive liner notes and photos from the era when Crashing Dream was recorded. Additionally, several tracks on the expanded edition are from Demolition, a very limited edition CD that the band self-released in 1991, an official “bootleg” of Crashing Dream demos. Demolition has been unavailable for 30 years. All of these recordings have recently been remastered by Rain Parade’s producer Jim Hill.

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Celebrating Bob Dylan in advance of his 84th birthday tomorrow.
—Ed.

Lots of supposedly sane folks shouted “Masterpiece!” when Bob Dylan’s Time Out of Mind came out in 1997; Elvis Costello, to pick a seemingly sober-minded celebrity name out of a hat, said, “I think it might be the best record he’s made.”

Hoo ha, said I. Sure, Time Out of Mind was a marked–no, make that very marked–improvement on the rather desultory couple of albums he’d released before it. So if you wanted to call it a resounding comeback, that was fine by me. But masterpiece? Forget about it.

Well, time has softened me some. I still wouldn’t call Time Out of Mind a masterpiece–so far as I’m concerned Dylan stopped producing them in the mid-seventies, at latest. But it includes at least one song that stands with the very best of his work and a couple of others that are pretty damn good, and that’s not bad for an artist who was born before America entered WWII.

And the album as a whole is noteworthy for its unremittingly dark tone. Dylan sounds lost, desperate even; love makes him sick and has him all mixed up, things are disintegrating, and while it’s not dark yet, it’s getting there. This baby is one long twilight stroll through the graveyard of Dylan’s mind, and he’s not whistling; he taking a reckoning, and wondering whether the journey was worth the cost.

Time Out of Mind is an autumnal, and even elegiac, work; you can practically hear the shadows gathering. The dark and sublimely lovely “Not Dark Yet” is the album’s linchpin and one of the greatest songs Dylan will ever write. On it Dylan finally looks back, if only because there doesn’t seem much ahead; “Behind every beautiful thing,” he sings, “There’s been some kind of pain.” This is the sound of a man sinking beneath his burden of years, and you’re forced to wonder; does he fear the darkness, or look forward to it?

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Andi Harriman is a NY-based DJ, producer, music journalist, and the boss of the party/label, SYNTHICIDE, which promotes live and DJ events all over NYC. She is the author of Some Wear Leather, Some Wear Lace, the worldwide compendium of post-punk and goth in the 1980s. She is also an EBM artist, and you can find her work as Andi on Bandcamp and wherever you stream.

We recently spoke about her upbringing in a Pentecostal family in Appalachia, how she first discovered the ’80s Goth subculture, our shared love of Depeche Mode, and her unending energy to create environments that support lovers of darker and synth-driven sounds from multiple genres without barriers. We both agree that there should be more women everywhere.

I really love everything Andi makes and think she has an amazing story. I suggest heading over to Synthicide on Instagram, where you can keep track of the events. You can find Andi’s page @andi80s, which has links to her music and piles of great stuff, including vinyl, over on Bandcamp on the Synthicide page.

Radar features discussions with artists and industry leaders who are creators and devotees of music and is produced by Dylan Hundley and The Vinyl District. Dylan Hundley is an artist and performer and the co-creator and lead singer of Lulu Lewis and all things at Darling Black. She co-curates and hosts Salon Lulu, a New York-based multidisciplinary performance series. She is also a cast member of the iconic New York film Metropolitan.

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; (I’m quoting Ishmael from Moby-Dick here) whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself pausing involuntarily before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to listen to some Dope Lemon as soon as I can.

Because Dope Lemon (aka Angus Stone) has done the whole wide world a favor by inventing a whole new genre of music I call stoner yacht rock, and verily it is as efficacious a remedy for the hypos as ever devised by the hand of mortal man. From the moment I first heard “Miami Baby” from Dope Lemon’s 2023 LP Kimosabè, damp, drizzly November vacated my soul, and from there I went on to listen to his other four albums, and I haven’t methodically knocked off a hat since. Haven’t paused before any coffin warehouses either. I’ve been too mellow,

I simply haven’t heard music this chill in eons. Listening to Dope Lemon is like sailing a sea of blissful narcotics in a pleasure craft made out of honey and gold—I’m talking about some classic laid-back yacht rock with the occasional psychedelic overlay, and the guy’s lyrics are smart and he’s funny to boot. And if you take his lyrics at face value—and I don’t see why you shouldn’t—he sure does love his drugs.

Take the opening lines from the great “John Belushi” from 2025’s Golden Wolf, his latest: “I’m doped out, self-medicated at all times.” Which he follows shortly thereafter with “Chain me up to the fridge and sell tickets/I’m a freakshow and I want more.” You wanna see the yacht Dope Lemon’s on you’re going to have to look up, way up just left of the crescent moon, because that boy is sailing.

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