Piss Me Off

Well i have this song and it says 'feat Trent Reznor', certainly sounds like him, i can wing it your way if you want?
Great song, by the by.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

13th Floor Elevators - The Psychedelic Sounds Of The 13th Floor Elevators - 1966

Only 3 albums into this and I get to my first bona fide classic already.
Although the 13th Floor Elevators are considered to be one of the first , if not THE first psychedelia band that isn't really a good representation of their sound. The band called themselves psychedelic and took shedloads of LSD , but thats really where to comparisons to the psychedelia that we know and love today end. They're much rawer and more of a garage band than say something like Barrett era Floyd. To me their sound is kind of sandwiched somewhere between the MC5 ( Even though they came afterwards) and The Rolling Stones.
The two things that really make them sound out is the use of an electric jug , which makes it sound like someone is being obscene with a cookoo clock in the background. The other thing is a genuine fruitcake acid casualty vocalist in Roky Erikson who screams and shrieks his way though the album. Although on the slower tracks such as Don't Fall Down and Splash 1 he calms down and does a good job on them.
This album is stuffed with classic songs , the opener You're Gonna Miss Me the song that opens the album also opens the movie High Fidelity , if you know one song by the 13th Floor Elevators then it's probably that one. Roller Coaster is virtually identical to a Primal Scream song. Reverberation (Doubt) sounds like it could be a JAMC song. In fact listening to this album you begin to wonder which 80s guitar band you'll hear in the next song. Fire Engine is pure garage rock. You Don't Know (How Young You Are) reminds me of an early ballad by The Who , slow but with lots of energy behind it. Kingdom Of Heaven & Monkey Island keep the album at a high standard. The former being a slow droning song the latter being skewed pop with Erikson screeching away to his hearts content. The final song on the album Tried To Hide wants to be The Beatles in one aspect and The Rolling Stones in another , it's also the poppiest song on the album.
This album is solid the whole way through and deserves it's classic status. It's influenced far more music that it's ever credited for and in my opinion Roky Erikson was one of the best frontmen of that era and much better than some others who are almost revered today by some people.

Rating 10/10

Favourite songs - You're Gonna Miss Me , Rollercoaster , Splash 1 ,Reverberation (Doubt) , Kingdom Of Heaven , Tried To Hide

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boo boo

Do you have the Nuggets compilation?

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It's only knock n' knowall, but I like it

http://www.last.fm/user/kingboobs

Urban Hat€monger ?

I used to

It was a victim of the great 2005 hard drive crash

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Urban Hat€monger ?

13th Floor Elevators - Easter Everywhere - 1967

The 13th Floor Elevators second album Easter Everywhere pretty much carries on where the debut album left off. A few of the rough edges of the debut have been smoothed out production wise , and the manic rawness of the debut seems to be replaced with a kind of laid back confidence.
The album begins with the 8 minute epic Slip Inside This House , as covered by Primal Scream on their Screamadelica album. Whereas Primal Scream's version was dubbed up to the max with the throbbing bass dominating the track this version is all about the rhythm complimented by a simple guitar riff layered over the top. Totally different but both versions are good in their own ways.
Slide Machine is another highlight of the album , a glorious laid back white boy R&B number that floats along effortlessly.
The next couple of songs She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) and Nobody To Love are pure British invasion style pop.
Next up is a cover of Bob Dylan's It's All Over Now, Baby Blue , It's not all that bad actually. From what I can recall it seems pretty faithful to the original , albeit as faithfully as possible for essentially what is a garage band's cover of it. You can even hear Erikson attempt a couple of Dylan's vocal mannerisms too.
Sadly the second half of the album is where things begin to fall apart a little.
Earthquake is a bit of a throwback to the first album and hearing it makes you appreciate how far the bands songwriting has improved since then. It sticks out a bit from the rest of the material on this album up till this point as it has a much more primitive feel to it but then as you carry on listening to the rest of the album you wonder if they ran out of ideas and just went back to what they know I've Got Levitation which comes a bit later on the album suffers from the same problem.
Dust is the bands first attempt at an acoustic ballad. I'm not sure it totally works but it doesn't really seem out of place on this record , it just doesn't really work. I Had To Tell You is pretty much the same thing , A folky ballad that's part Dylan part Simon & Garfunkel. It's better than Dust , but only just. The final song on the album is Pictures (Leave Your Body Behind) which finishes the album on a low key note , it's an improvement on the rest of the second half of the album but it can't save it.
This is an album of two halves , the first half is brilliant , the second half just sort of slips away into averageness as you listen to it. It's probably fair to say this is the point the band began to run out of steam

Rating 6/10

Favourite Songs - Slip Inside This House , Slide Machine , She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) , It's All Over Now Baby Blue

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jackhammer

Very good review and an album that most people should hear once at the very least. I actually find the electric jug annoying after a while and have to listen to the album in small but perfectly formed chunks.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

Yeah it can get annoying after a while , but on the other hand it does give them a unique sound.
The guy who played it left after Easter Everywhere so their last album doesn't have any.
I can't actually remember anything about the next album.

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Urban Hat€monger ?

13th Floor Elevators - Bull Of The Woods - 1969

The 13th Floor Elevators third and final album Bull Of The Woods released in 1969 saw two major changes to the band since Easter Everywhere two years previous. First of all the electric jug was removed , secondly vocalist Roky Erikson was hardly involved in the making of this album having become a fully fledged acid casualty. This meant the album was almost entirely the brainchild of guitarist Stacy Sutherland.
Sutherland does a competent enough job but in the end this album just sounds like a generic 60s rock album lacking in the offbeat weirdness and spontaneity that Erikson gave the band.
The first few songs don't really inspire much confidence and then the rest of the album doesn't really do anything to change that opinion. I could go through the entire list of songs and tell you what they're like but there isn't any point really. A couple sound like the Rolling Stones , one borrows heavily from the Velvet Underground's Waiting For The Man , another rips off The Who's Substitute and between all that you get your typical late 60s rock with Byrds style harmonies.
There are however a couple of tunes that stand out Never Another is a uptempo soul influenced tune with plenty of horns that make the song bounce along. Street Song is a great acid tinged rock with tons of fuzz guitar which makes you remember just how great this band used to be. Then the album finishes with their version of May the Circle Remain Unbroken , which is easily the best track on the entire album. Dark & atmospheric and somehow fitting that it should end up as the final song on their final album.
This isn't a bad album by any means , it's just there's very little on here thats memorable or up to the standard of what this band were once capable of. I believe the phrase 'Only of interest to fans' should apply to this album

Rating 4/10

Favourite Songs - Never Another , Street Song , May The Circle Remain Unbroken

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NSW

What happened here? I've been waiting for more albums...are you slacking or what?????

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Hi.

NSW

But you can't do that! You're not Urban, it's just all wrong I tell you!

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Hi.