The Psych Rock Lounge

 

 

I have to give a shout out to these heavy proggers as ITM sounds like a space rock journey as the band kidnap Mike Portnoy and go time traveling. Bigelf truly are the dark Beatles from an alternate universe!

 

Americans who actually stated that they were into Roky included American Pre Punks and Punks Tom Verlaine, Patty Smith and Henry Rollins in the 70's. Rollins even paid for Roky's dentures once. God bless him.

 

Btw, there is an impressive Swedish fansite (Roky Erickson, The Swedish fan page) if you can read Swedish! 

 

 

 

Just finally got around to picking up this great live Hendrix jam on CD. The liner notes inform me that the originally included versions of "Little Wing" and "Slight Return" were credited to a killer 24th of May 1969 set at the San Diego Sports Arena, but were really from an equally awesome show at the Royal Albert Hall 24th of February, earlier that same year. You see, the RAH shows were to be used for a Hendrix concert film, but that project stalled. At that point, Mike Jeffery handed the masters to Eddie Kramer, who was at work picking out tracks for a Hendrix live album - this, of course - and Kramer included the aforementioned cuts.

Problem was that the rights to those masters actually belonged to the filmmakers at that point, so when they found out that they were sneaked on, they were able to sue Jeffery. As a result, this CD version replaces the RAH "Little Wing" and "Slight Return" cuts with cuts actually from the San Diego performance, of the same tracks.

I'm intrigued by all this, so I'm planning to track down an original US or UK vinyl pressing of In The West to get my hands on those RAH cuts.

This CD version also adds three more San Diego cuts: renditions of "Fire", "I Don't Live Today", and "Spanish Castle Magic". Very much worthwhile,and all good quality, the CD is as worthwhile as the LP.

 

1967's Elevators release Easter Everywhere was a big departure from the sound of their proceeding album, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators, due to several factors. The first being that the band wanted more time to record their follow up. Second, they had a clear message to communicate and, thirdly, Bob Dylan's influence hung in the mid sixties air like a fog.

 

Band lyricist and jug player Tommy Hall wanted to express his collective beliefs in reincarnation and the effects of Karma and the virtues of meditation along with songs about personal and universal love.

 

The first thing he did while collaborating songwriting with Roky Erickson was to stress that Erickson's howling vocals would obscure their lyrics and the messages  that they imparted.

 

The band's regard for Dylan was not uncommon in that era and they decided to cover the beautiful Dylan standard (It's all over now) Baby Blue on the record. This also sparked Hall into being a better lyricist. Not quite on the level of a Dylan, however, a few songs like Dust did come close and nascent Leonard Cohen lyrical imagery pops up on the song I Need To Tell You.

 

The album's first track and centerpiece Slip Inside This House was Hall's paean to reincarnation that he believed all religions expressed even if they got the message wrong as he supposed was the case in Christianity. It's over long verbiage and lack any outstanding sonic bridges is the most outstanding feature of the song and actually pre dates modern Alt Rock's practice of the same by some forty years.

 

All of the songs on Easter Everywhere are sung clearly by Erickson with no manic howls and this has a negative effect on songs that should have been screaming rockers like Slide Machine, Earthquake and Levitation which sounds like it could have easily fit on the band's debut album if it was rocked out.

 

The album overall has a quieter tone that's more akin to Folk Rock but eschews all of the period instruments and recording  studio effects, save for Tommy's electric jug.As promised, the album was better recorded than their first album but was again awkwardly mixed and poorly mastered to vinyl.

 

Charly has again addressed the mastering problem but the awkward and rough at time sound mix still remains from the stereo safety master. Again, a source tape is not available for a mono remaster so Paul Drummond and his expert restoration team again transferred the mono version of the album from vinyl for the reissue's first CD. The sound mix of the mono version is almost identical to that of the stereo mix except that the mono mix sports a heavy muscular bass mix which really propels Slip Inside This House along like a steamroller and adds depth to the slow R&B strut of closing track Leave Your Body Behind.

 

Charly also threw in a great blues rock outtake called Inside My Bones that showcases lead guitarist's Stacy Sutherlands chops. Due to his switch from reverb to moderate distortion for this album, he sounds like a

slowed down version of Stevie Ray Vaughan on this track.

 

Incidentally, this album would be the last Elevators album to prominently feature both Roky Erickson and Tommy Hall as Erickson would succumb to the damaging effects of heavy acid intake by the middle of 1967 and Hall would pursue other areas to spread 'his message' after Easter Everywhere failed to chart. 

 

As with the previous Charly reissues, indepth liner notes and mono and stereo versions of the original album, remastered in great sound, again make for a fantastic immersion experience into the Elevators' second released and modernly acclaimed album. Recall that this album was released in the time of Sgt. Pepper's and Are You Experienced,  Disraeli Gears, along with the Elevators own 1966 debut album Psychedelic Sounds, and you will quickly notice that it does not sound dated. Far out. 

 

 

 

 

The Moody Blues: Real beards or falsies?