In 1981, the college roommates Matt Piucci and David Roback formed a psychedelic rock band called Rain Parade, and Roback’s brother Steven soon joined up on bass. Rain Parade went on to become a crucial part of the Paisley Underground, a tight community of Los Angeles bands who took inspiration from punk but whose sound owed more to starry-eyed ’60s folk-rock. That scene gave us bands like the Bangles, the Dream Syndicate, the Three O’Clock, and Opal, and it also inspired Prince to write songs like “Raspberry Beret.”

Rain Parade were an influential force within the Paisley Underground, but they broke up in 1986, after releasing only two albums. The band got back together to play live shows in 2012, and they took part in a 2018 compilation where the Bangles, the Three O’Clock, the Dream Syndicate, and Rain Parade all covered one another. David Roback died of cancer in 2020. But now Matt Piucci and Steven Roback are back with Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, the first new Rain Parade album since 1985’s Crashing Dream.

Since their time in Rain Parade, Matt Piucci and Steven Roback have worked together on projects like Viva Saturn and the Hellenes, so their chemistry isn’t rusty. On Last Rays Of A Dying Sun, the sound understandably older and more weathered, and there’s a mournful quality to some of these songs But they also recapture the chiming warmth of their ’80s records. Stream new new LP below.

Last Rays Of A Dying Sun is out now on Flatiron Recordings/Label 51/