The 13th Floor Elevators - The Albums Collection (2011) [4CD Box Set]
4x EAC-FLAC Images with CUEs & LOGs - 940 MB | Full Scans - 362 MB | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 321 MB
Psychedelic Rock / Garage Rock | Total Time - 149:06 minutes | Label: Charly Records / Snapper Music | Cat. # SNAJ748CD
The 13th Floor Elevators were an American rock band from Austin, Texas, which existed from 1965 to 1969. During their career, the band released four LPs and seven 45s for the International Artists record label. This 4x discs set contains all four of the original Elevators albums that were released on the International Artists label from 1966 to 1968, remastered and collected in a clam box with extensive new notes by band expert Paul Drummond. In addition to the stereo versions of the three 'studio' albums, which were remastered and remixed from the original tapes in 2007 by the original producer Walt Andrus, the set also includes a completely new mix of 1968's "Live" album, minimizing the fake applause that was added to the recordings and removing glitches that blighted previous versions.
The 13th Floor Elevators @ Wikipedia
The 13th Floor Elevators were one of the pioneering bands of psychedelic music; many have cited them as the first true psychedelic rock band, and if they weren't, they certainly predated most of the San Francisco bands that gave the sound a global audience. The Elevators played a bracing fusion of garage rock and genre-defying musical exploration powered by Roky Erickson's feral vocals and rhythm guitar, Stacy Sutherland's concise but agile lead guitar work, and Tommy Hall's amplified jug playing, the latter of which gave them a sound unlike any other in rock. The Elevators were also exploring the outer limits of both consciousness and rock & roll in Texas in the early to mid-'60s, a time and place that wasn't quite ready for them, leading to the myriad problems that at once fueled their legend and cut down the band before their time.
The Thirteenth Floor Elevators' collection contains:
Disc 1: The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
EAC-FLAC with CUE & LOG - 223 MB | Full Scans - available | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 82 MB
Running time - 35:42 minutes
Tracks:
01. You're Gonna Miss Me
02. Roller Coaster
03. Splash 1
04. Reverberation
05. Don't Fall Down
06. Fire Engine
07. Thru The Rhythm
08. You Don't Know ( How Young You Are)
09. Kingdom Of Heaven (Is Within You)
10. Monkey Island
11. Tried To Hide
allmusic.com says:
Did the 13th Floor Elevators invent psychedelic rock? Aficionados will be debating that point for decades, but if Roky Erickson and his fellow travelers into inner space weren't there first, they were certainly close to the front of the line, and there are few albums from the early stages of the psych movement that sound as distinctively trippy -- and remain as pleasing -- as the group's groundbreaking debut, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. In 1966, psychedelia hadn't been around long enough for its clichés to be set in stone, and Psychedelic Sounds thankfully avoids most of them; while the sensuous twists of the melodies and the charming psychobabble of the lyrics make it sound like these folks were indulging in something stronger than Pearl Beer, at this point the Elevators sounded like a smarter-than-average folk-rock band with a truly uncommon level of intensity. Roky Erickson's vocals are strong and compelling throughout, whether he's wailing like some lysergic James Brown or murmuring quietly, and Stacy Sutherland's guitar leads -- long on melodic invention without a lot of pointless heroics -- are a real treat to hear. And nobody played electric jug quite like Tommy Hall...actually, nobody played it at all besides him, but his oddball noises gave the band a truly unique sonic texture. If you want to argue that psychedelia was as much a frame of mind as a musical style, it's instructive to compare the recording of "You're Gonna Miss Me" by Erickson's earlier band, the Spades, to the version on this album -- the difference is more attitudinal than anything else, but it's enough to make all the difference in the world. (The division is even clearer between the Spades' "We Sell Soul" and the rewrite on Psychedelic Sounds, "Don't Fall Down"). The 13th Floor Elevators were trailblazers in the psychedelic rock scene, and in time they'd pay a heavy price for exploring the outer edges of musical and psychological possibility, but along the way they left behind a few fine albums, and The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators remains a potent delight.
Disc 2: The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere (1967)
EAC-FLAC with CUE & LOG - 292 MB | Full Scans - available | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 104 MB
Running time - 45:32 minutes
Tracks:
01. Slip Inside This House
02. Slide Machine
03. She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own)
04. Nobody To Love
05. Baby Blue
06. Earthquake
07. Dust
08. (I've Got) Levitation
09. I Had To Tell You
10. Postures (Leave Your Body Behind)
11. Fire In My Bones (Remastered Out-Take)
allmusic.com says:
On their groundbreaking debut album, the 13th Floor Elevators sometimes sounded as if they were still learning how to work with the strange beast of their own creation known as psychedelic rock. But their second set, 1967's Easter Everywhere, found them a great deal more comfortable and confident with their loose and hypnotically trippy approach. Easter Everywhere doesn't have an out-of-the-box classic cut like "You're Gonna Miss Me" or "Fire Engine" from The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, but in many ways it's a more cohesive and consistent work, and the subtle but effective structures of the longer tracks grow and develop through repeated listenings, while rockers like "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" and "Levitation" pack a surprisingly visceral punch. Stacy Sutherland was never a blazing guitar hero, but his concise aural punctuations on the epochal "Slip Inside This House" and a superb cover of Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" are perfectly suited to the material. In addition, the rhythm section of Dan Galindo on bass and Danny Thomas on drums locks these songs into place with confidence and skill. The strange patterns of Tommy Hall's electric jug playing are as gloriously bewildering as ever, merging the music of the spheres with an alien attack, and Roky Erickson's vocals make even the most acid-damaged poesy sound passionate, graceful, and wildly alive. And Roky and the Elevators never sounded sweeter and saner than they did on the penultimate tune, "I Had to Tell You," with Roky seemingly offering a postscript to his many sad years to follow with the words "If you fear I'll lose my spirit/Like a drunkard's wasted wine/Don't you even think about it/I'm feeling fine." Even if less influential than The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, Easter Everywhere is every bit as compelling and a true benchmark of early psychedelic rock -- not bad for an album produced by Kenny Rogers' brother.
Disc 3: The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Bull Of The Woods (1968)
EAC-FLAC with CUE & LOG - 215 MB | Full Scans - available | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 81 MB
Running time - 36:08 minutes
Tracks:
01. Livin' On
02. Barnyard Blues
03. Til Then
04. Never Another
05. Rose And Thorn
06. Down By The River
07. Scarlet And Gold
08. Street Song
09. Dear Dr. Doom
10. With You
11. May The Circle Remain Unbroken
allmusic.com says:
While the 13th Floor Elevators' debut album caught them as they were still buzzing with the excitement of their musical journey through inner space and Easter Everywhere found them exploring the possibilities of the recording studio as well as their own creative process, their final studio set, 1969's Bull of the Woods, documented a band that was running out of gas. Legal problems were dogging the Elevators and preventing them from touring, they were justifiably unhappy with their record company, lead vocalist Roky Erickson was beginning to buckle under the group's steady diet of LSD, and lyricist and founder Tommy Hall was growing tired of the demands of the group after the difficult process of writing Easter Everywhere. As a consequence, guitarist Stacy Sutherland became the de facto leader of the group during the recording of Bull of the Woods, writing most of the songs and singing lead on several numbers, and in his hands the 13th Floor Elevators were a very different band. Sutherland's compositions on Bull of the Woods are more languid and pastoral than the material that dominated the first two albums, and while there's still a psychedelic undertow to this music, Sutherland's music was gentler and his lyrics more solidly grounded in the real world than what he created in tandem with Erickson and Hall. At the same time, Bull of the Woods also showcases Sutherland's consistent strength as a guitarist, and his fluid lead lines and melodies rooted in country and blues figures are Texas psychedelic music at its purest and most refreshing; after the psychic roller coaster of the 13th Floor Elevators' first two albums, Bull of the Woods is a relatively quiet trip to the countryside, and it's joyous, frequently beautiful stuff. Unfortunately, the sessions for Bull of the Woods were recorded quickly, and producer Ray Rush overdubbed an incongruous horn section on several numbers at the insistence of International Artists Records, but even in compromised form, Bull of the Woods is a testament to Stacy Sutherland's talents and his often overlooked role in one of America's truly visionary rock bands.
Disc 4: The Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Live (1968)
EAC-FLAC with CUE & LOG - 209 MB | Full Scans - available | MP3 CBR 320 Kbps - 74 MB
Running time - 31:43 minutes
Tracks:
01. Livin' On
02. Barnyard Blues
03. Til Then
04. Never Another
05. Rose And Thorn
06. Down By The River
07. Scarlet And Gold
08. Street Song
09. Dear Dr. Doom
10. With You
11. May The Circle Remain Unbroken
allmusic.com says:
In 1968, the 13th Floor Elevators were dealing with legal troubles and personal strife that prevented them from touring, but they still had a reputation in Texas as a powerful live act, and their label, International Artists, wanted to capitalize on that by releasing an album of the group in concert. However, IA's attempt to record a live Elevators album in 1967 proved little short of disastrous -- the group was booked into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable venue in Houston and guitarist Stacy Sutherland had a bad reaction to the LSD he customarily took before a show, and the results were well recorded but musically ragged. So the folks at IA decided to simply invent an Elevators live disc -- Live is an often laughable collection of unreleased studio recordings and album cuts overdubbed with crowd noises (reportedly taken from a boxing match) kicked off by an announcer declaring "We're all gathered together here for psychedelic music! We all are a family!" with the sincerity and hippie fervor of a used car salesman. Despite all this, Live is not without interest for serious Elevators fans. Beneath the sound effects, there are several excellent early performances that otherwise appeared only on B-sides or bootlegs, including some fiery covers (great versions of "Everybody Needs Somebody to Love," "Before You Accuse Me," and "I'm Gonna Love You Too") and little-heard group originals ("You Gotta Take That Girl" and "You Can't Hurt Me Anymore"). However, the versions of "You're Gonna Miss Me," "Tried to Hide," and "She Lives (In a Time of Her Own)" are the same ones that appeared on The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators or Easter Everywhere, albeit in curious stereo mixes with the canned audience bobbing up and down throughout. The 2010 collection Headstone: The Contact Sessions features the rare material on Live in its original form (no crowd noises and in considerably better fidelity), rendering Live pointless for most listeners, though the kitsch factor of this obviously phony concert makes it entertaining for folks with a taste for arcane psychedelic artifacts.
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