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In the mid-sixties, in Austin, Texas, Tommy Hall, a sociology teacher, believed that the medium to express the hallucinations induced by lysergic acid and other drugs was music. The Spades, a group led by Roky Erickson, changed their name to the 13th Floor Elevators, to put their friend's theories into action. After their first album in '66: "The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators," in which they openly promoted hallucinogens on the album cover, the adjective psychedelic was coined. "to free thought from the superstructures of social conventions". A term that was applied to the music scene, indicating the groups that, using hallucinogenic substances, aimed to overcome mental impediments and were in constant search of expanding their sensitivity. The psychedelic movement found its most fertile ground in California, with the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Quicksilver, and the Doors.
The psychotic hallucinations of Roky Erickson and Tommy Hall reach their peak in "Easter Everywhere", the second album by the 13th Floor Elevators. "Slip Inside This House" "Slide Machine" "Earthquake" "I've Got Levitation" "Nobody To Love", interpreted with the awareness of those who have experienced the effects of LSD firsthand, are composed of a visionary, paranoid sound weave, a raw and obsessive music to which an extremely altered mood is added. Erickson does not scream and howl like he did in "You're Gonna Miss Me" but overall, I consider the album more coherent and cohesive than the first. The intricate rhythmic weaves, combined with the alienating slashes of guitar, remind me not a little of the more refined guitar riffs of "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds and the compelling instrumental suites of Quicksilver.
Much like Erickson's psychic disturbances, the 13th Floor Elevators, burned brightly and faded just as quickly. Those who consider them a minor group are mistaken, they were precursors of the American counterculture, a fundamental band of the American music scene.
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