The album is called "The Psychedelic Sounds...", looks like the picture above (what's with psychedelia and eyes?), and was made in 1966. What do you think the opening track sounds like? You're probably mostly right just thinking about any psychedelic rock from the mid 60s. There is one sound effect on "You're Gonna Miss Me" (apparently the band's only hit) that I don't think I've ever heard before. Whatever it is, it makes me think of a sped-up Joker's laughbox at the end of Tim Burton's Batman. You know, the one they find on his body after he falls to his death from the church? Very disturbing.
The same sound appears on the next track in pretty much the same manner as on the first. Upon investigation it appears what I'm hearing is someone playing a jug with amplification and a bit of distortion applied (or it could just be a shitty recording). It was interesting to hear on "You're Gonna Miss Me" but if it's a standard practice to use a jug on every track it's gonna get old real fast. Like now.
The third song is a slow ballad, so a rapid-fire jug wouldn't have really fit no matter how hard they tried. But by track 4 they are back to playing hard-edge rock, so the jug reappears. And the guy playing the jug seems to play the same part on every song. He's kinda playing it like a slide-whistle with holes in it, playing 16th notes in a high pitch, dipping down a bit lower, then climbing back up. I wouldn't harp on this so much, but it's literally the only thing that's unique about The 13th Floor Elevators against the rest of the psychedelic rock crowd.
I guess 1966 was still a bit early in the psychedelic phase, so this album was probably a revolution of some type. I'm glad it didn't set off a wave of bands that played electric jug. 2 stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment