Rounding out our weekly tribute to the late great Roky Erikson, for today’s Weirdo Wednesday, it only seems fitting to keep the spotlight on the 13th Floor Elevators, especially considering they truly were one of the first psych-rock bands of all time. It’s all right there in the title of their debut album after all, the highly impactful and influential “The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators”, which was released the same year (1966) as a few other groundbreaking psych-flavored records you might have heard of (i.e. “Pet Sounds” and “Revolver”).
But, as we all know, neither The Beach Boys nor The Beatles started out as psych bands. They evolved their respective sounds in that direction, sure, but the 13th Floor Elevators came charging out of the gate as a psych-rock band fresh out of the box. There’s something particularly pure about that, plus the band was also a little rougher around the edges sonically speaking, which is why they were also considered to be one of the first garage-rock bands of all time as well. Quite an impressive feat to be associated with the birthing of two disparate genres at the same time, but alas, that was the remarkable trick pulled off by Roky Erikson and the 13th Floor Elevators. Here’s a great example of the best of both worlds in the form of “Reverberation”, with a terrifically trippy video to boot. R.I.P. Roky.
