More Elevation

13th floor elevators

new Lyrics

Just having a mellow Labor Day, doing a bit of brunching, so I will forthwith finish my thoughts on what I still feel is one of the most remarkable bands of all time.
The 13th Floor Elevators

I've already espoused what a great "bench" they have, from acid-guru/Electric Jug-ist Tommy Hall's songwriting to singer Roky Erickson's profound James Brown in a young white body talent, to Stacy Sutherland's Duane Eddy meets Jeff Beck axe slinging.

There are scant live recordings of the Elevators, several Live releases being crudely overdubbed crowd noise over studio recordings, which is just wrong. This CD, Levitation is from a club in Houston, a short hop from their home town of Austin after their first record came out in 1966. The sound quality is remarkable for the period and of curse, the druggy circumstances. This band must have done nothing but rehearse and drop acid. Sutherland's guitar sounds as compressed and twangy as the studio recordings. Bands to this day can rarely achieve the right sound that took many hours of baffling, tweaking and room sizing to master in the studio. John Ike Walton's snare drum sounds the same and plays with the same energy.
What is most illuminating on this recording, particularly on the first song is Benny Thurman's bass playing. One minute he's in the pocket and sounding exactly as he does on the record. But then he gets lost, it seems he may have dropped something strong he veers off and loses the simple chord progression and throws Roky off completely. Which is most unfortunate. The band is a little spacey, but they definitely have their sound together, such a shame. They so fuckin' rock!
check em out at allofmpr3.com or if you desire full ownship, go to amazon.