Review #179: 13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966)

THE PSYCHEDELIC SOUNDS OF THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS

Year: 1966
Genre: Psychedelic Rock
Label: International Artists Records
Tracks: 11
Length: 35 Minutes
Style: Emotional/Weird
My Rating: 7/8

The 13th Floor Elevators were an awesome psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 by Roky Erickson in Texas, and this iz their first album! And it's very cool, all of this music is great, especially for Roky being only 19 years old and it being so old. That and it's pretty good. I mean, geez, they've even got someone playing an ELECTRIC JUG. A JUG... that is a container used to hold liquid, correct? Why would you even bother making it electric, and WHY would you? So you could make awesome sounds for the 13TH FLOOR ELEVATRES, that iz why! Maybe it was filled with a MAAAGICAL kind of alcohol that made funny noises when you bubbled it up. Well, you'll hear plenty of that in this album, but the songs themselves are real great as well, so what the hell am I doing still talking about magic furniture (note: the author of this article does not actually believe a jug to fit the qualifications necessary for it to be considered a piece of furniture and opinions expressed by the author this article may not be endorsed by the author of this article) and let's CUT TO THE CHASE!

1. You're Gonna Miss Me
One of the coolest songs ever! Reminds me of a hot summer night listening to this song with not much to do, but God, this song is so fun to listen to! The riff is great and sounds very good, and the rough screamin' vocals and the weird little jug sounds give it all a distinct, otherworldly but friendly atmosphere and I need to listen to this while being high on something to totally enjoy its flavor, I feel. But yeah, this is one of the coolest songs ever and it's the first song I heard by the band and the only one that got sorta famous, they say. Man, how the hell could they have locked Roky up after listening to THIS? Well, it's a real euphoric feeling song. Cool harmonica solo, also. Roky wrote it for a previous band when he was only 16!

2. Roller Coaster
This one's a little more depressing and slow. A lot more bass. The chorus part is cool, and that giggling jug just keeps on at it. The song speeds up after the first chorus and I thought that was pretty cool. It's like a hangover in the beginning but then it gets better. It encourages people to try acid because it will open up your mind and allow you to see things from a wider point of view. Cool guitar solo at the end.

3. Splash 1 (Now I'm Home)
Awesome guitar sound. The chorus that goes "now I'm home..." sounds absolutely beautiful. The whole melody does, really.

4. Reverbation (Doubt)
This one's a little more upbeat. Reminds me of punk rock a little bit. Roky sings, and the backing vocalist sings in a falsetto voice. The riff is real tough and fiery sounding. It's like taking off in your car/motorcycle or whatever and riding off into a giant horizon of fiery rocks. Man, Roky really can sing! The sound at the very end reminds me of a very annoying fly...

5. Don't Fall Down
DON'T FALL DOWN... that's the repeated the chorus line, as Roky sings the lyrics corresponding to this line. I really love the guitar melody here, and the nice happy jug and yeah, it's all fucking awesome! I'm not sure if the woman being referred to in this song is a drug metaphor or an actual girl (maybe you are both on drugs together, ohohoho).

6. Fire Engine
The song kicks off with the sounds of fire engine! The riff is awesome and everything's just melting and bubbling around all at once, but it all works together to sound real good. "AYAYAYAYAYAYAAAAAUGHHH" - something that Roky Erickson totally said in this song.

7. Thru the Rhythm
Another totally great tune from this album. This song once again encourages the search for absolute truth and for people to commit "knowledge crimes" against the oppressor and the hall of mirrors and illusions elaborately painted throughout the walls of the world. Musically, the riff is great, all of the guitar playing is so awesome, the beat is cool, the bass guitar cannot be neglected, and the jug spices things up too. It feels real relaxing but it has this energy to it at the same time. Do whatever you want to this music, man. Total freedom?

8. You Don't Know (How Young You Are)
I like this one a lot. It's another love-problems type of song like "You're Gonna Miss Me", but in a little more of a down-to-earth way. The guitar melody is so beautiful -- hell, the whole song is, but that definitely is a huge part of it. You can hear a little bit of acoustic guitar played alongside the electric ones as well. The song changes to a different part around the end.

9. Kingdom of Heaven
A bit of a scarier, more ominous-sounding song. It's pretty slow too. The bass riff just throbs and pounds like that, but then climbs upwards briefly periodically.

10. Monkey Island
MONKEY ISLAND! WHERE ALL OF THE MONKEYS LIVE! This song is really happy-sounding, and the jug here somewhat sounds like a monkey here. Which is funny. Monkeys are funny. They eat bananas and throw coconuts at people and they live in trees. However, monkeys are unable to see Roky. They just believe he's there. Roky Erickson is the figment of a monkey's imagination... which reminds me of this one time when I was about 8 years old where I had a dream that I was alive and then it turned out that reality was all just a dream had by a monkey. AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

11. Tried to Hide
Wookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawookawooka. The lead guitar is kinda cool. Cling-a-cling. The song's good, but it's a bit overshadowed by the other songs on the LP.

Well, man, that was puh-sykadelick. Too bad I was sober the whole time! Maybe a sugar rush here and there, but I doubt that even happened... does my Tootsie Pop I'm having right nauw count? GOD ONLY KNOWS. THAT THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS HAD PUT OUT A GOOD ALBUM IN THE YEAR OF 1966, AND YESSIR, YOU MUST LISTEN TO THIS YOU BIG BUTTHOLE. MEANING THAT YOU PROBABLY HAVE A BIG BUTTHOLE. LIKE COWS. THEY HAVE PRETTY FUCKING HUGE BUTTHOLES. AND GUESS WHAT ELSE? THERE WAS A COW ON THE BAND'S FINAL ALBUM COVER AND THAT COW WENT ON TO FORM A BAND KNOWN AS THE COWS AND KEVIN RUTMANIS WAS ONE OF THE PEOPLE IN THAT BAND AND THEN HE WOULD GO ON TO JOIN THE MELVINS AND HOLY SHIT REALITY IS CAVING IN ON ITSELF, OHGOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I guess that's the price you have to pay for the ultimate LSD-induced knowledge trip. If pretending you know something is mental masturbation, then actually knowing something must be getting laid mentally... it'd be like, you're looking at a girl/guy and you just keep on looking at eachother, knowing that there's totally something goin' on that others can't see, and neither can you, but MAN, YOU CAN FUCKING FEEL IT. It's that look. It's like the eyes are kissing. The irises would be like the lips, and the pupils would be like the actual mouth... and if you go far enough down, you'd find out that the eyes go back into the head and into the brain, which is the STOMACH of the head, and your EYES intake the knowledge through the PUPILS, which is the MOUTH of the head... wait, what?

So, 13th Floor Elevators? Two thumbs up. Listen to this album. It is cool. Like cats. Cats are cool. I'll bet a lot of cats have listened to this album. And they loved it. Because they're soft and fuzzy and cute and they're mean. Which is funny. Cats are funny. They have little tails, also. So do dogs. A lot of animals have tails, really. A baby bird without feathers vaguely resembles a lizard, I've also found. Hell, a baby robin even looks a bit like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle (without the mask or opposable thumbs), and THAT'S a hell of a stretch, but I know you're willing to make the leap bekuz YOU'VE GOT THE POWAH. And that's what this iz all about. POWAH. POWAH TO THE PEOPLE. POWAH IN YOUR MIND, which is something this album seems to promise, but I just wanted to know if it was okay if Little Jimmy got a boner while reading about facesitting. Okay?

Top 3 Favorites:
1. You're Gonna Miss Me
2. You Don't Know (How Young You Are)
3. Thru the Rhythm

MUSIC VIDEO FOR "YOU'RE GONNA MISS ME":

Review #138: The Stooges - The Stooges (1969)

THE STOOGES

Year: 1969

Genre: Punk Rock, Garage Rock
Label: Elektra Records
Tracks: 8
Length: 34 Minutes
Style: Rebellious/Fun/Mysterious
My Rating: 8/8

The Stooges... well... what can I say? They're a pretty damn good band. This album is truthfully all I've heard of them. In fact, this is probably the oldest album I really really like. And I guess that makes me sort of musically ignorant, but I still like this record. The Stooges are usually considered to be sort of the early leaders of the "proto-punk" (a.k.a. punk rock before they had a name for it) movement, and it really shows here. They also play garage-rock styled music (similar to the Velvet Underground and a lot of modern indie-rock bands). I like the harder stuff better, personally. If this was the first band to sound like this, then that's pretty damn impressive. The group formed in 1967 and supposedly also used household objects in their early performances. The band's famous frontman, Iggy Pop, often performed shocking stage antics such as cutting himself, cussing, diving into the stage, and fighting, something was emulated by future artists in the decades to come. By 1968, the band was signed to Elektra Records and began recording their first album. This the result...

1. 1969
1969. 19... 69. 19. 69. 69. He-he! "69"... ohohohoho! The song begins with a slow intro and a wah-ooh-wahh guitar sound effect. Then the rhythm changes and a more normal-sounding guitar riff is played, and there's hand-claps as well. This song describes boredom and apathy towards the then-new year of 1969, in which Iggy expects nothing exciting to happen. Actually, they say some pretty exciting stuff DID happen in '69. I wasn't there, though. It's kinda fun, 'cause with the guitars, there's always something happening in one ear and then something else happening in the other. Bring on the funky guitar noises and great lead solos! Iggy lets out a truly animalistic scream towards the end.

2. I Wanna Be Your Dog
A classic. The first song I'd ever heard of the Stooges from, 'cause Sonic Youth covered this song and put it on one of their albums. This version's better, though. One of the first great punk rock songs, with a deep-cutting riff, sexy lyrics, and nice little ching-ching sounds alongside the beat. And the solo is fucking amazing... you have to listen to know what I mean (if you haven't already). Not much else I can say. Great song.

3. We Will Fall
A very slow, loooong song. Not as hard or energetic as the two songs before it, it incorporates an ancient tribal chant continuing throughout the entire song. Iggy sings in a softer, less abrasive voice. To be completely honest, this song doesn't interest me a whole ton, but maybe that's just because I'm not mature/stoned enough. If you love the Velvet Underground, you'll probably really like this one, 'cause that's one band this reminds me of. A lot of little treakets of lead guitar whisping around along the sides of your ears, like bats in a dark cave. The faint droning sounds feel like a candle in the dark, as the chants and singing echoes throughout the stony walls. That's what this song feels like to me. No drums, just soft beats, probably made on a different instrument. But yeah, this iz the end of Side 1.

4. No Fun
Now for something a little more up-beat! The riff is pretty nice here, and there's some more clapping to the beat of the song. Now the lyrics, I feel like I can relate to. Being alone and bored, having trouble deciding whether to go out and do nothing or stay at home and do nothing. That's just the way it goes. Ironically, the song is pretty fun-sounding in itself. Halfway through, we get another nice guitar solo. "Well, come on!"

5. Real Cool Time
Now, Iggy decides to have a Real Cool Time instead of No Fun... anyways, originally, the Stooges had only written five songs for the album -- the four songs that have just been reviewed so far, and a song called "Ann" which comes after the fifth song on the album. Well, it'd be a shame if they stopped there! Elektra did not feel that they had enough songs for an entire album, so the group was forced to write three more songs in order to get their album released... and these songs were really good! This is the first of these songs, and it's the best song on the album in my opinion! Unfortunately, it's also the shortest. Oh my (and boo-hoo)! Oh well. One of the greatest guitar riffs, a steady bass-line, and just orgasming wahh-wahh guitar as well! Geez, this song sure ROCKS. I'd fuck to it. Just listen to it!

6. Ann
Another more garage-y song. It's a somber, depressing love song. Kind of blues-y, also. More emphasis on the bass guitar, here. The song gets louder and more aggressive around the end of the song. Then it sorta fades out.

7. Not Right
Know what? I think that it's "Not Right" to have "No Fun". Hee-hee! This one is sort of like the first hardcore punk song in a sense, 'cause the distortion is pretty up here, the riff sounds like that genre, and it's more speedy and aggressive than a lot of the other songs here. However, there's also a lot more emphasis on lead guitar and such here. Another song I really like on this album.

8. Little Doll
This one reminds me of heavy metal a bit (a genre this band also influenced). Not a whole lot I can think of to say for this song, but it's another love song and one of the songs that the band wrote in order to please Elektra. Thus, the lyrics are pretty simplistic here. But, that's the end! THE END.

Well, I probably didn't do this album enough justice with this review. Some old-timer who was actually THERE when this record came out or hipster will probably read all this and jump on me for not worshipping such a historically significant record hard enough. Well, sorry! Yeah, most people think either the Velvet Underground or the Stooges started the whole punk thing. Which is a pretty good accomplishment alone, in my opinion! I'd die happy if I'd done that. But, this album should appeal to all fans of hard rock. Well, most of 'em. It's pretty ahead of its time, this sound has become the standard in rock n' roll. And deservingly so. Back in 1969, this was the face of underground rock! And they weren't from New York or England... they were from Detroit in Michigan! I actually own this album on vinyl (bought it for about $19) and I listen to it quite often. You should also if you're interested. Well, I'm pretty thirsty, so I'm gonna leave it at this for now. Bye bye!!

Top 3 Favorites:
1. Real Cool Time
2. I Wanna Be Your Dog
3. No Fun