The Psychedelic World of the 13th Floor Elevators

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13th Floor Elevators

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The Byrds were an amazing band. Give them credit for starting or catalyzing a few sub-genres of rock; the first to meld Dylan's folk and the Beatles' pop-rock. The first to meld folk-rock with country on "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." But to say they are the first psychedlic band based on their influential single "Eight Miles High" is misleading. The Texas band 13th Floor Elevators took it upon themselves to hybridize garage rock, punk, and the underground culture thriving in England to produce the absolute FIRST psychedelic rock album, their debut "Psychedelic Sounds." It is worth every note of its legacy.

"You're Gonna Miss Me," the lead single and album opener, quickly establishes the band's game plan to find "absolute truth", as indicated from the band's liner notes. The song has lost none of its impact through time nor this remastering; it's still one of the definitive statements of psychedelic rock. The same can be said of the album as a whole. The Stones-y "rollercoaster" and the nightmarish Beatles of "You Don't Know How Young you Are" establish the bands roots and influences, but the album still feels like it was created in a vacuum. The remastering feels like it could have more than just 4 poorly recorded live tracks, but its a small price to pay to have it available again in most music stores. There was no presidence for this music in its time. And if you want to get chronological, they beat Velvet Underground by at least a year as being the first punk band, only 13th Floor didn't have Andy Warhol as their manager, nor his artwork on their debut, so VU systematically gets the nod. "Psychedelic Sounds of..." is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in the genre.

Overall: 8 out of 10.

As a fan of psychadelic music I was repeatedly told I had to get this cd. Listening to it you can get a sense of why this album gets this hype but frankly the sound quality is so poor you really have to make an effor to try to appreciate it. Again there are glimpes of great garage/psychadelia and the use of the jug is cool and different.

I would not buy it until someone actually makes an effort to put forward a version that sounds good. Even if the original tapes are terrible I find it hard to believe that they could not have done more with this. This is possibly a five star album but I can't tell for sure due to the sound.