Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968

Rain is one of the many 1960s bands who never quite made it despite the strong pedigree of the members and enough industry interest to land them in the studio. The group was made up of members of the U.S.-based garage rock band the Lost Souls and English band the Undertakers. Their formation is a confusing tangle of lineups and groups that involves Brian Epstein, the Beatles, and Jackie Lomax, but ended with the band using the name Rain and playing a style that combined freakbeat-heavy and melodic Beatles-inspired songs that were buoyed with West Coast harmonies and a mix of Byrds-y jangle and Traffic-style experimentation. Their trips to the studio in late 1967/early 1968 never resulted in the release of an album, but decades afterward Grapefruit Records managed to get ahold of the master tapes and cleaned them up nicely on Tomorrow Never Comes: The NYC Sessions 1967-1968, adding some songs the band recorded after changing their name to the decidedly more psychedelic Gypsy Wizards Band. Unlike many recordings that were lost to time, the Rain album was well worth digging up, and one cant help but wonder why some record label didnt take a chance on them. The reason is likely that music this melodic and chipper was out of step with the heavier sounds of 1968. Hearing it years later when such distinctions dont really matter, its easy to fall in love with the gently trippy, deeply hooky, and occasionally hard-rocking songs on offer. Tracks like "You, You, You" or "No Deposit, No Return" have the loosely rocking feel of Moby Grapes best work, "You Cant Hide Your Love" comes across like the Who tackling the Hollies songbook, and slower, more introspective cuts like "Sundrops" and "Midnight Blue" have a lovely soft-focus psychedelic tint. The trio are all fine players -- especially drummer Bugs Pemberton, who bashes away like Keith Moons younger brother -- the production is pleasantly tight and trippy, and the bands harmonies are a treat. This is definitely one lost album that requires the "classic" appellation, and Grapefruit deserves a lot of praise for finally getting it out into the world. The Gypsy Wizards Band demos are a nice addition, but the band were much better at post-Beatles psychedelic pop than they were at orchestrated hippy-dippy tweeness. Skip those tracks and stick to the Rain album because this is an exciting archival find that fans of mid- to late-60s pop need to seek out. ~ Tim Sendra