Released in early February, Tomorrow, seamlessly continues The Rave-Ups’ tradition of blending country, pop, punk and straight-ahead rock and roll. Nowadays this heady blend is often lumped into the catch-all “Americana” category but Podrasky and his pals have been expert music mixologists long before the marketing term was coined.
As preeminent examples of “cowpunk” along with their peers Rank And File, X and the Blasters, the group became a staple of the Los Angeles music scene in the mid-‘80s. The band’s previous releases – including their independently issued 1985 debut Town + Country, along with The Book of Your Regrets (’87) and Chance (from 1990) are now masterclasses of modern roots rock.
Amazingly, the original L.A. scene line-up, featuring singer-songwriter Jimmer Podrasky, guitarist Terry Wilson, bassist Tommy Blatnik, and drummer Timothy Jimenez have reunited for the new record. Issued by the crafty music lovers at Omnivore Recordings, the same company that reissued Town + Country in 2016.
Originally formed in Pittsburgh, Podrasky’s move to southern California changed the tone and line-up of the project. Their initial indie release helped cement a label deal with Epic, with featured spots in the film “Pretty in Pink,” and endless miles of touring across the country, beginning with opening slots for Indigo Girls, the Black Crowes and many others.
After going their separate ways in 1990, The Rave-Ups briefly unified a few years ago to promote the release of the expanded edition of the original Town + Country album. After an extended break from the music business, Podrasky issued sporadic often overlooked solo material and toured by himself and with Syd Straw.
All these years later, the band has finally gelled to create new music. The resulting collection plays like they never even left the building. Garage-rock guitars chime with evocative pedal steel flourishes on a thoroughly enjoyable collection of tunes that touch on politics (“So, You Wanna Know the Truth?”) romance (“Brigitte Bardot”) relationships (“How Old Am I?” and “When I Write Your Name”) and the ultimate redemption of the title track (“Tomorrow”).
Jimmer recently spoke by phone from his home in California about the new record and the band’s genre-defying place in music history.
It’s always been difficult to assign the Rave-Ups to any sort of genre. Now you’ll probably be considered an Americana act. How does it feel to be categorized within a certain “brand” of music?
The Rave-Ups always straddled that fence. When I would write a song, if it was too rootsy, we gave it an edge, a punkness to it. If it was too rock, we twanged it up a bit. We never wanted to play it straight. And we also had a thing for pop music. We wanted those songs to be popular, we wanted them to be catchy. I think that’s why a lot of people in the power pop world kind of see The Rave-Ups as a power pop band, which we weren’t. But I get it. We made it hard for record companies to promote us because we didn’t fit into the right hole. And as a songwriter, I saw that as something really good. But certainly as a commercial entity, it was a bad thing. But for me, I saw it as, I don’t want to write just one kind of song, you know? I think this band is capable of doing a lot of different stuff.
Obviously. And that brings us to the new record. What do you think they’re going to do with it as far as labeling? Do you think it’s going to be marketed toward people like me who love the past and love that kind of feeling, the whole L.A.-style take on country-rock?
Well, I don’t know, and at this point we handed the reigns over to Omnivore, and we’ll see what happens. I must say, they are a music loving label. But we did not make it easy for them, because we did not give them a strictly Americana record. There are three ‘singles’ that were chosen and they’re all completely different. I get it that it’s hard to market that sort of thing, but that’s kind of what The Rave-Ups always were about. When this whole thing started more than two years ago, I thought, ‘Hey man, I’ve got a few songs left over. I’ll write more and we’ll write some together but maybe we could make a new record.’ It had been 30 years at that time, and we didn’t see each other very much. I’d been making solo records the last seven or eight years. But the one thing I knew going in is, if it isn’t broke, don’t try to fix it. So, I tried to think of 11, 12 songs that would work for The Rave-Ups, and that’s sort of how we approached it. The Rave-Ups could do a very big rock song and then turn around and do some little two-step country thing. So that’s just what we did, and I didn’t see any reason to change that. Like, ‘Oh yeah, The Rave-Ups are making a new record, but it’s, you know, we’re moving into the future.’ I thought what we did was fine, even though at the time a lot of people didn’t get it. But I think they get it now. I think time has benefited us. But back in the eighties, when we put out that first album, Town & Country, that wasn’t popular music at the time, at all.
Right. But that’s what I liked about it. I mean, had it been popular, I certainly wouldn’t have gravitated toward it.
Hey, look. I used to say, man, if these songs, or any of these songs, ever became a smash hit, I know my personality, I would think, ‘What did I do wrong?’ That was always my attitude. Even back in the Pittsburgh days when we were all Carnegie Mellon students, I wanted the band to be a variety of things. Because the bands that I loved were always that. They weren’t just one thing. That’s kind of what I aspired to. I wasn’t a good enough songwriter or a good enough singer or musician to do it, but that’s what I was shooting for.
You definitely succeeded.
Well, I don’t know about that. Hey, I would rather fail trying to do that than succeed at something that would make me feel like that’s not me. And that’s why I think The Rave-Ups have done so few covers. I think we did a Dylan cover on the Town & Country record and that’s about it. And it did not sound like the original at all.
When Omnivore released the Town and Country deluxe edition, was that pretty much the beginnings of the latest album?
When Omnivore decided to rerelease Town and Country, I had not really even spoken with any of the Rave-Ups at all. I took almost 25 years off of music. Then my first solo record, which came out in 2014 or late 2013, that was the first music I had released in 23, 24 years. Then a few years later, when it was the 30th anniversary of Town and Country’s release, Omnivore wanted to put it back out. So I wrote the liner notes for the damned thing and they put together a nice little package – with a bunch of unfinished demos that we had done with Steve Berlin and Mark Linett. So that’s sort of what comprised those bonus tracks on that rerelease.
How was the atmosphere within the band at the point?
I kind of warned the guys. When the reissue was about to happen and all the songs had been put together and the package was done, I said, ‘For a couple weeks, we might get some press about, Oh, remember these guys. But remember, we’re not reformed. We’re not hitting the road.’ So I warned the Rave-Ups, don’t get excited. In my mind, I was returning to making another solo record and getting that done. And then this record happened.
How did it feel to be back in that mindset?
The moment we were in a room together and we were playing, it was as if 30 years had never happened. Every time we were in a room together playing music, it was a joy. The problem is when we went our separate ways and we thought about things too much. That’s when things started… That’s when things got a little weird and old baggage came into the picture. And it got ugly at times. But when we were making music, it was a joy. I’m glad that we hung in there through this pandemic and everything else, because I just didn’t want to give up on it. I knew we had songs that were good and that we had played them well. And when we brought Marty Rifkin in to play pedal steel on some of them, and that was like really coming full circle. It was like, ‘Ok, now that’s a Rave-Ups record right there.’ And that’s what I wanted it to be.
Classic bands have a sort of telepathic relationship.
I agree. But for me, what always was magical in the Rave-Ups for me wasn’t necessarily the songs. Certainly, it wasn’t my singing or playing or Terry’s playing. It was when Terry and I sang together. That always was the moment where it felt the best. It felt like that’s what’s unique. Terry and I sound a certain way when we sing together and that’s always been, for me, the secret weapon of the Rave-Ups.
But as you know, when bands get together after an extended hiatus, it can be great or can be a mistake.
Well, believe me, that was always in the back of my mind. I was conscious of that at every turn. It’s like, man, this has to be good. This has to be right. Certainly, the Rave-Ups only made three full length albums and they were all different.
How do you view the catalog in retrospect? Any favorites?
My favorite is the one no one bought. It’s still, to me, the one that is the best Rave-Ups record. That was The Book of Your Regrets. Nobody bought that, literally no one. A lot of people bought Town and Country, and a lot of people bought the Chance record. But nobody bought The Book of Your Regrets. I think a lot of it had to do with the fact that Epic really did not know what to do with us. I mean, I used to joke with the band and say, ‘I’m not sure these people know how to market something unless they can use some template that they’ve used before in order to market it.’ I would say, ‘Let’s just tell them we’re a reggae band.’ And they’ll just market it as a reggae thing because that’s better than being ignored. And of course, there was no single to that record. They did not promote it to radio, nothing. We went out on tour opening for The Church. By the time we came home, Epic just said, ‘We didn’t get enough ads or sales. You better go into the studio and make another record.’ And that was the end of The Book of Your Regrets. Like two, three months.
You’ve seen so many changes in the industry. Of course, the industry changes on a daily basis at this point.
Oh yeah. After walking away from it in ‘91 or whatever and not returning until 2014, everything was new to me. I realized how hard it was to go through all those steps in the release of a record and I was privy to how much that costs. So even since the release of my first solo record, it’s changed. And that was only eight years ago or whatever.
And now, you’re putting out an album during a pandemic. That’s gotta be a new step for you.
Well, it wasn’t of our choosing but I’m proud that we actually got it done. There were times that I was afraid we were just going to put up our hands and say, ‘ Ok, I surrender. Let’s just walk away from this,’ but I don’t think we could do that. As we finished the 11 songs, I mean, the recording has been finished now for two years, the actual making of the record, but getting it mixed, getting it mastered, all that stuff, all that took a long time. That all was happening during a pandemic. It was awful to even try to raise money, because here the world was in the midst of a pandemic and I’m going on Facebook trying to raise money to get a new Rave-Ups record made! I wasn’t sure how that was going to go over. Thankfully, there are an awful lot of very nice people in the world. And without them… I mean, forget about Omnivore, forget about the four Rave-Ups, forget about the people who mixed and mastered it. It was those people who got this record made. We would not have had any money to pay for it otherwise. It just wouldn’t have happened. Now it’s out and we’re going to give it the best shot we can. That’s all we can do at this point.
