Psychedelic Sounds – THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS**

You’re Gonna Miss Me/Roller Coaster/Splash 1 (Now I’m Home)/Reverberation (Doubt)/Don’t Fall Down/Fire Engine/Through The Rhythm/You Don’t Know (How Young You Are)/Kingdom Of Heaven/Monkey Island/Tried To Hide

An early attempt to latch onto the burgeoning psychedelic movement. Despite its title The 13th Floor Elevators’ Psychedelic Sounds is firmly stuck in the then briefly fashionable garage rock mode.

“What you should know is that what was called psychedelic in 1966 is what we today call garage rock. It all changed after Sergeant Pepper - then psych came to mean swirling organs, maybe some sitar, echoey vocals, backwards guitars, and maybe some other studio special effects or exotic instruments. Important too, is that melody came to be important again, while it is secondary in garage rock, which is more about attitude. The Elevators are classic, a cult band, pioneers of garage rock, but they are a long way from the head-swirling psych of the post-Sergeant Pepper era.”

“Right out of the gate, The Elevators left no doubt that this was an entirely different sound than anything that had been released up to that point. Roky Erikson's nearly manic vocals on the opener set the mood for all that would follow, with arguably the most psychotic screams and shrieks heard yet on a rock album.”

“As a fan of psychedelic music I was repeatedly told I had to get this LP. 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 effort to try to appreciate it. Again there are glimpses of great garage/psychedelia and the use of the jug is cool and different.”

“I was disappointed with this. The lack of strong songs, and unnecessary wailing just made this a annoying album, and gives me a headache.” “Psychedelic Sounds is quite simply run-of-the-mill 60s garage rock. Some of the tracks are noteworthy such as You're Gonna Miss Me, others, however, are unlistenable. It's mediocre at best. Hundreds of drugged-out bands played this brand of acid rock, and most of the ones we remember did it much better. Nothing about this album sticks out.”

“Their songs were rooted in basic, grease-coated rock 'n' roll, complete with chunky guitar riffs and snarled vocals. They just took things a little further than most bands.”