13th Floor Elevators

The Texan band 13th Floor Elevators went down in history less for their musical chops than for being the authors of what can be considered the first psychedelic rock album, as well as the first to explicitly put the word "psychedelic" in its title. They were formed in 1965 in Austin, Texas, by singer and songwriter Roky Erickson together with guitarist Stacy Sutherland, bassist Benny Thurman and drummer John Ike Walton

Their debut album – "The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators" (October 1966) – preceded by just a few days "The Psychedelic Moods Of The Deep" by The Deep and "Psychedelic Lollipop" by the Blues Magoos.

The 13th Floor Elevators anticipated what would later become a long acid wave sweeping across the States from coast to coast and then the entire world. Direct offspring of blues, the energetic drive of the garage bands of their time, and early ideas of repetition, they managed, thanks to remarkable instinct, to see ahead of everyone else what was already in the air. From the cover art alone, their affiliation with the psychedelic movement they pioneered is unmistakable. Many tracks stay within garage-rock coordinates, but at other moments – as in the memorable "Roller Coaster" – the acid trip kicks in after just a few seconds. The screaming voice of singer Roky Erickson, a great enthusiast of occultism and horror and science-fiction literature, is one of the band's defining traits. Another curious element is the creation of the electric jug, a kind of homemade instrument consisting of a bottle played at the mouth, but electrified.

"The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators" was immediately met with a flurry of glowing reviews.

Their next work, "Easter Everywhere" (1967), is even more mature, seeking to enrich the raw sounds of their early days with the Eastern philosophies that were influencing so many groups at the time, with tracks like "Slip Inside This House," an eight-minute psychedelic anthem that showed a higher level of compositional and lyrical sophistication than their first album. This record is considered by many to be their masterpiece, but personal and legal troubles, particularly Erickson's, led to the band's breakup.

The last album recorded with Erickson, "Bull Of The Woods" (1969), partly moved away from pure psychedelia, incorporating blues elements and introspective reflections. Following the band's decline, Roky Erickson pursued a solo career, continuing to experiment while facing significant personal challenges and mental health issues.

Unfortunately, Erickson's addictions and his oncoming schizophrenia proved to be the final blow to the young band's future career. In the 1980s the singer recorded records of remarkable, schizophrenic psychedelia, populated by zombies, aliens and every other being that had by then taken possession of his body.

Despite their short career, however, the legacy of the 13th Floor Elevators has lived on, influencing generations of artists and establishing them as one of the first genuinely psychedelic bands in the United States.