Paisley Underground Appreciation Thread

Motorik

Motorik

Kick Henry Jackassowski
'What was the Paisley Underground?' I hear you ask. (Not you. I know you know all about the Paisley Underground).

It was an early 80s music scene that originated in LA (but spread) and is best characterised as really influenced by sixties psychedelia, jangly guitars, and vocal harmonies.

'So who are you talking about, Motorik?' Let's do the 'Big 4':

The Three O'Clock



The Rain Parade



The Dream Syndicate



The Bangles



and this is great too:


Why do I name Dream Syndicate, The Bangles, Rain Parade, and the Three O'Clock as the 'core 4'? mostly because they had a super-connected relationship and formed a supergroup called Rainy Day (Check it out, it's a good album).

They might be seen as the 'core' bands because they were so prominent and interconnected, but there were other bands like Green on Red, The Long Ryders, and Thin White Rope.

Do you like Clarence White and B-benders? Have at it!



The scene was united by strong friendships among the bands, and a shared love of the sixties. Each band had particular focuses: The Long Ryders sounded like an updated Gram Parsons-era Byrds, The Bangles were like a female Beatles/Byrds, The Dream Syndicate were more Velvets/Quicksilver Messenger Service and so on.

Here are a couple of great pieces about the scene. The first one is in their own words:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...derground-history-80s-los-angeles-psychedelia

https://recordcollectormag.com/articles/paisley-underground

Oooh! and recently The Three O'Clock, The Bangles, Dream Syndicate, and Rain Parade brought out an album where they cover each other's songs. Pretty cool. The Three O'Clock covering Rain Parade is especially good:



The Three O'Clock covering The Bangles (with the The Bangles supporting) is another highlight:



Check 'em out. 'Twas a cool scene.
 
Lovely interview about the '3x4' Paisley Underground album. Nice shout out to Lenny Kaye's Nuggets. Super cool:

 
Also, the name is cool. 'The Paisley Underground'. Once they coined that name you know you're gonna get with that.
 
That three o clock song racks! It's crazy to think that at the time that was only say 16 years from 1967 when the first wave happened, I mean they look like they could be the Kinks or the Who and then the real crazy part is that 1983 was almost 40 years ago now :eek:
also of note it's good to see Tucson representation via Dan Stuart (green on red).
a little side note...whils DdBob was not hep to the paisly underground at the time (although I do recall being familiar with the term) i did buy a paisly print long sleeve button down shirt at Dillard department store in 1985 at the start of my freshman year in High School. Back then I was super into late 60's music and that was all I listened to (well 60's music and what we called thrash metal at the time ...Metallica, Slayer, Exodus, Flotsam and Jetson, Helloween, etc :embarrassed: but my mainstay was definitely late 60's bands)
 
Motorik said:
Lovely interview about the '3x4' Paisley Underground album. Nice shout out to Lenny Kaye's Nuggets. Super cool:

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damn Susanna is still hot and it looks like this interview was from 2019 so according to wikipedia she woulda been 60 in this interview!!
 
Cool stuff! I really enjoyed those tunes.

I will say that if you accidentally start both of the Dream Syndicate songs, it sounds like they hired me as their drummer.
 
jp_nyc said:
Did Prince’s interest in reviving psychedelia on Around the World In a Day come from listening to the Paisley Underground scene?
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Apparently, yes. He became fascinated with the scene and it was one of the inspirations for his foray into psychedelia. He signed the Three O'Clock and wrote 'Manic Monday' for The Bangles.
 
DdBob said:
That three o clock song racks! It's crazy to think that at the time that was only say 16 years from 1967 when the first wave happened, I mean they look like they could be the Kinks or the Who and then the real crazy part is that 1983 was almost 40 years ago now :eek:
Click to expand...

Everything about that Three O'Clock song is impeccably cool. Music moved so fast back then. Can you imagine if there was a revival today of music from 2005? I don't even know what that would be, or if we would even notice that it was 'retro'.

DdBob said:
damn Susanna is still hot and it looks like this interview was from 2019 so according to wikipedia she woulda been 60 in this interview!!
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I know, right? Scientists need to study Susanna Hoffs' DNA because it might hold the secret of eternal youth. She looks amazing.

They seem like a nice group of old friends, really comfortable together.
 
Motorik said:
Apparently, yes. He became fascinated with the scene and it was one of the inspirations for his foray into psychedelia. He signed the Three O'Clock and wrote 'Manic Monday' for The Bangles.
Click to expand...

“Manic Monday” was actually written for the Apollonia 6 and recorded as a duet in 1984. But Prince decided not to release it (I don’t blame him, Apollonia sounded bad and washed out Prince’s vocals) and gave it to the Bangles later when he became friends with Susanna Hoffs.
 
jp_nyc said:
“Manic Monday” was actually written for the Apollonia 6 and recorded as a duet in 1984. But Prince decided not to release it (I don’t blame him, Apollonia sounded bad and washed out Prince’s vocals) and gave it to the Bangles later when he became friends with Susanna Hoffs.
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Quite right, I should have said 'he gave them the song'. I think he actually offered them a choice of two songs, I can't remember if the other one was one we would be familiar with. They chose 'Manic Monday' because it seemed more 'Bangle-ish'. Prince said they could use the instrumentation backing track and just add their vocals, but they re-recorded it to make it more their own style.
 
A ton of fun stuff came out if that scene. Back in the 90s/00s Rhino did some comps and box sets that highlighted some gems from that scene.

And yeah, it’s wild to think about the speed of fashion and revival in the late 20th century vs today where bringing back something from 20 years ago is just “Oh, hey, here’s Beyonce.”
 
Peen Simmons said:
A ton of fun stuff came out if that scene. Back in the 90s/00s Rhino did some comps and box sets that highlighted some gems from that scene.

And yeah, it’s wild to think about the speed of fashion and revival in the late 20th century vs today where bringing back something from 20 years ago is just “Oh, hey, here’s Beyonce.”
Click to expand...

Children of Nuggets! That's a great box-set. Lots of other cool stuff on it too like Soft Boys, The Barracudas, Dukes of Stratosphear etc.

loling at the 'oh, hey, here's Beyonce" comment. Its too true.
 
You wouldn't think that The Paisley Underground would have inspired an ongoing podcast that has now had 136 (!) installments, would you?

https://paisleystageraspberryandrhyme.podbean.com/

I know that no one here is crying out for 136 episodes of Paisley Underground minutiae, but anyway. It's here for the sake of completeness. :embarrassed:
 
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I'm watching this new Dream Syndicate documentary film, and it's really good so far.

Trailer below:

 
I spent a year doing a BAcc at Paisley University before sacking it off to go into teaching.

I have a visceral hatred of the place despite it's funky textile game.
 
Well ya’ know I’m I big fan! I had a lot of those albums when they came out, The Three ‘O Clock really grabbed me right away, such a great melding of pop & psych w/ a pinch of power pop thrown in for good measure. I also just remembered that an ex GF of mine stole a Dream Syndicate cassette for me when we were teens, she knew I wanted it but she had no $$ :embarrassed: My love for that music was recently re-ignited when I acquired the Ric 330, it’s been fun re-learning some of those tunes. I haven’t listened to The Long Ryders in a long time, this thread has inspired me to do so!
 
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