72. The 13th Floor Elevators - Psychadelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966)





















Track Listing

1. You're Gonna Miss Me
2. Rollercoaster
3. Splash 1
4. Reverberation (Doubt)
5. Don't Fall Down
6. Fire Engine
7. Thru The Rhythm
8. You Don't Know
9. Kingdom Of Heaven
10. Monkey Island
11. Tried To Hide

Review

What a great album. It takes a bit to get used to it, but it grows on you like a magic mushroom. This is the birth of Acid Rock, and is there anything better than psychadelia? No, not really. You get eased in by the album because the first track is quite well known, it is also the opening track of the film High Fidelity, you know, "You're gonna wake up one morning as the sun greets the dawn, (...) You didn't realise (x4)". Got it? Good. A nice little garage rock hit to start things off.

You quickly move into the kingdom of pretty lights and flying lizards with Rollercoaster where the psychadelia is very much up front, you can't help but slowly wiggle your fingers near your head in a trippy way. If you don't know what I mean, don't lose sleep about it. Then the whole album is a bit of a rollercoaster, there's a very nice ballad in Splash 1 (Now I'm Home) and the psychadelia returns for the rest of the album, in a really good way.

Now, this album is not without negatives and I would really like to punch their producer, Lelan Rogers, who happens to be Kenny Rogers' brother, another reason to punch him. The Elevators sound like they are at the bottom of a well for the whole album, and I really would like to listen to their music in a cleaner way. Still it does give it that otherworldly feel. So... the album doesn't lose too much from it.

My advice? Get it. It's good stuff. Napster, pandering to the Spice Girls generation doesn't have it, so... get it from Amazon UK or US, I'm sure the Elevators wouldn't mind it if you got it illegally, through eMule *wink* but God would.



Track Highlights


1. You're Gonna Miss Me
2. Rollercoaster
3. Splash 1
4. Reverberation (Doubt)

Yes, it is the first 4 songs in the order they play. Coincidence? Maybe.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

Probably the only band ever to feature an electronic jug.

Trippy stuff man.

From Wiki:

Roky Erickson was the band's singer, guitarist and a songwriter. The Elevator's only hit, "You're Gonna Miss Me" was written by Erickson (he recorded it with his first band "The Spades"). After pleading insanity on marijuana charges, he was committed to Rusk mental hospital, where he was reportedly administered shock and thorazine treatments.

Today, the 13th Floor Elevators continues to influence new generations of musicians. In 1990, 21 different contemporary bands — including R.E.M., ZZ Top, The Jesus & Mary Chain, and Primal Scream — recorded covers of Elevators songs on the tribute recording, Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson. In 2005, a panel at the SXSW music festival discussed the music of the Elevators and Powell St. John, one of the Elevators' songwriters.

The band's music also continues through live performances of the Tommy Hall Schedule as an Elevators tribute band, and Erickson's younger brother Sumner Erickson performing Elevators' music with bassist Ronnie Leatherman. In September 2005, Roky Erickson performed at the Austin City Limits music festival with The Explosives.