If anyone ever epitomised the adage of burning bright and fast, it sure was Texan rock band The 13th Floor Elevators. Are you ready to get psychedelic on a Sunday?

Yesterday was sadly the sixth anniversary of the passing of the maverick Roky Erickson, and it got us thinking about just how much we love ‘Psychedelic Sounds’ and just what an influence it has been on us. As regular readers will know, a loud guitar and a weirdly unfathomable accompanying sonic will always blow our minds here at Drift, and The 13th Floor Elevators remain hugely responsible. The album was the debut of an incendiary three-album discography that came out of nowhere as the band would disappear pretty much as quickly.

Recorded at Walt Andrus Studios in Houston, Texas, during the spring and summer of 1966, the album was released on fellow Houston-based label International Artists in the October and received instant acclaim and cult status due in no small part to the iconic opener “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, which became a minor national hit and an enduring garage rock anthem to this day. The single - in particular - is often cited as shedding a light not only on the band, but also on the underground Texas psychedelia scene that they quickly became the figureheads of.
Besides literally saying it on the cover, Psychedelic Sounds is widely regarded as the first genuinely psychedelic album, predating other notable titles, specifically Sgt. Pepper and The Piper at the Gates of Dawn. Although Lennon and McCartney wrote “I’d love to turn you on” on A Day in the Life, Psychedelic Sounds is absolutely dropping with it, the original liner notes talking specifically about Timothy Leary and the band’s intent to “turn on” listeners. I mean, the massive third eye is kind of a give too! But, whether the drugs were overt or even overlooked, it was the band’s inimitable sound that really gave the album such an amazing impact. Alongside a thrilling rhythm section of lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland, bassist Benny Thurman, drummer John Ike Walton and the gloriously ferocious Roky Erickson as front man, in many ways, it was Tommy Hall who provided The 13th Floor Elevators with so much of their zeal. As well as being the lyricist, he was famously the electric jug player, and the weird and warbling tone is just so brilliantly deranged. It was trippy.

Psychedelic in terms of its spiritual exploration, the album is also a proto-punk statement and a huge outlier for the American garage scene with its gnarled blend of blues and rock ’n’ roll. An unstructured masterpiece of unpolished intensity, the album remains a cornerstone of any collection with even a passing interest in garage rock.

Fix a coffee and make your Sunday just a little bit weirder.