10. The 13th Floor ElevatorsYou
What an amazing record! We just left off talking about Lou and how it reaches this crescendo with the guitar break and this aesthetic feeling and here, imagine your mixtape going to this song and this kicks in with this tub-thumping rhythm and Roky Erickson’s vocals – it’s amazing! He’s hysterical! I just don’t see anyone else hitting that level; it’s the hysteria. The combination of everything is maddening to me.
I love it. It has this 60s go-go element to it. There’s this whole California sound and Pacific Northwest sound and all these garage bands have this element and these guys are right up there. They were the best Texan psychedelic band, for sure. It’s an incredible noise that they made and it reminds me of ‘Paint It Black’ in a way but the din they create is otherworldly. I guess ‘Paint It Black’ has this more Andalusian thing with the bass going on but there’s this otherworldly spirit in it.
And Tommy Hall’s jug! We still don’t know if he was going "toodle-loodle-loodle-loodle" into a microphone or he was really making it with some kind of jug. When you listen to those jug guys, they’re just blowing into it but we don’t know if he was just putting everybody on! See, I’m a bit of a troublemaker and I have a bit of the leprechaun blood in me and I wanna believe that he’s taking the piss! I mean, the absurdity of having an electric jug player – how cool is that?
