Roky Erickson

[runaway]

In 1980 I was a teenager at an Air Force base in San Antonio, TX when I happened to hear a local radio station play a new song by Rocky Erickson and the Aliens called Creature With The Atom Brain. Luckily, I had a cassette in my little boom box and I recorded the relic, because that was the cool thing to do back then. The only other song I remember saving on that tape was Clues by Robert Palmer, but I'm sure there were many other songs and I know I still have that tape somewhere. I didn't know who Roky Erickson was, but I was struck by the utter strangeness of that song; it didn't belong to the New Wave, of which I was a fervent fan, and it wasn't Metal, nor did it sound like Hall & Oates or Steve Winwood's Arc Of A Diver. It existed solely on its own.
A few years later I happened upon the incredible Easter Everywhere, after having detoured through the Butthole Surfers and other equally important signposts. Hearing Creature With The Atom Brain opened my mind up to possibilities that existed outside the typical realm of popular music. It allowed me to fully appreciate the greatness of Daniel Johnston, Spacemen 3 and many other equally instinctive artists.

Just a shout out to Roky.

Burning temples, levitating churches!

[ro]

wonderful post, runaway.

this isn't exclusively about Roky, but was just listening to Psychedelic Sounds and wondering if anyone, just for kicks, has isolated Tommy Hall's jug playing for public consumption

[Laz69]

Glasgow's Los Tentakils have attempted to recreate the jug sound with relative success (guitarist from the Cosmic Dead does it). Sounds brilliant on their recordings!

[semisynthetic]

In 1980 I was a teenager at an Air Force base in San Antonio, TX when I happened to hear a local radio station play a new song by Rocky Erickson and the Aliens called Creature With The Atom Brain. Luckily, I had a cassette in my little boom box and I recorded the relic, because that was the cool thing to do back then. The only other song I remember saving on that tape was Clues by Robert Palmer, but I'm sure there were many other songs and I know I still have that tape somewhere. I didn't know who Roky Erickson was, but I was struck by the utter strangeness of that song; it didn't belong to the New Wave, of which I was a fervent fan, and it wasn't Metal, nor did it sound like Hall & Oates or Steve Winwood's Arc Of A Diver. It existed solely on its own.
A few years later I happened upon the incredible Easter Everywhere, after having detoured through the Butthole Surfers and other equally important signposts. Hearing Creature With The Atom Brain opened my mind up to possibilities that existed outside the typical realm of popular music. It allowed me to fully appreciate the greatness of Daniel Johnston, Spacemen 3 and many other equally instinctive artists.

Just a shout out to Roky.

Burning temples, levitating churches!

Another example that helps to explain that I am not at all comfortable when I use Fashion Titles like "rock" "psych(e)" "new wave" and on and on ad infinitum. The more music I have and hear, the more difficult, although convenient, these titles and "placements" are to use.

[pale blue eyes]

Another example that helps to explain that I am not at all comfortable when I use Fashion Titles like "rock" "psych(e)" "new wave" and on and on ad infinitum. The more music I have and hear, the more difficult, although convenient, these titles and "placements" are to use.[/quote]



if memory serves me correct the elevators were the first band to be described as psychedelic by the media. not so sure what a "fashion title" is tho? you have to separate music into nice little categories or going record shopping would be like always getting records at the thrift store where they have no fashion titles or sections, just pure chaos.

[ro]

Glasgow's Los Tentakils have attempted to recreate the jug sound with relative success (guitarist from the Cosmic Dead does it). Sounds brilliant on their recordings!

interesting, thank you!

[redcloud]

if memory serves me correct the elevators were the first band to be described as psychedelic by the media. .

Pretty much. But, I believe they are credited as being the first band to use the word "psychedelic" to describe their own music (it was printed on their business cards before the release of the 1st LP).

The Elevators, Blues Magoos and an obscure band called 'The Deep' all released albums with the word "psychedelic" on their front cover. I think, The Deep's "Psychedelic Moods" is generally accepted as the first LP with the word on its cover as it was released prior to the other two (but only by a matter of days/weeks). A good record but it's pretty odd and quite spooky. The complete opposite of, say, the kaleidoscopic, sunny and blissed out first two LP's by Country Joe & The Fish (released a few months later).

[semisynthetic]

Another example that helps to explain that I am not at all comfortable when I use Fashion Titles like "rock" "psych(e)" "new wave" and on and on ad infinitum. The more music I have and hear, the more difficult, although convenient, these titles and "placements" are to use.

if memory serves me correct the elevators were the first band to be described as psychedelic by the media. not so sure what a "fashion title" is tho? you have to separate music into nice little categories or going record shopping would be like always getting records at the thrift store where they have no fashion titles or sections, just pure chaos.[/quote]

Some music defy conventional labels; but I agree with you that for SOME kind of categorization is useful; The "fashion labels" I referred to were like those used, for example, in the essential Destruction of "Psychedelia" to something more PC, (and also vague) - "psych", as many have commented, often means something new and different almost with each subsequent usage! The way I (personally) categorize in my collection, is first Era, Date of FIRST Release, Band or Artist Name, Associations (like solo albums or music done by a Producer of this band's work, et cetera), and lastly, size of disc, 5", 6", 7", 8", 9", 10", 12" or 16". It helps with "older" recordings, newer recordings, and there are enormous interrelationships and connections between bands, so even if a band has ONE LP or single, and say that was a cover version, then even that disc is not difficult to find among thousands. I find that this also is really useful in learning about the bands and other relevant relationships that help me to remember many more details by association. I do however, just for fun, LIKE the CHAOS shoppe where who knows what I will find; I tend to see things I may have overlooked if I went strictly by convention. The media are not my Ideal when it comes to category; Shostakovich was once labeled as "Evil" by the media, a big deal at the time; it doesn't seem very helpful. Sometimes a single taken from a "Pop" LP could fit into more than one category, I won't rely on the media.

It might seem to be a silly method, but it has worked for me for a long time; I still can remember the Tangerine Dream LP, once listed in "Psychedelia-Acid Rock Music" turning up in "Ambient" many years later when the Political Correctness of the original category was now Verboten. I have also seen "Dream, Tangerine", and that doesn't seem very helpful, either.
Sometimes I use Categories and Name of Band together, especially when they self describe themselves are SO well placed in say "Punk", it is easy. Sometimes I make up Categories that Band's fit into well, and are also useful for memory. If I had 100 recordings, simple alphabetic arrangement would work fine, but not be very enlightening, over 10,000 and it gets more complicated; over 100k, even more so; it is helpful to know more details about the Artist(s), and this allows for mental cross referencing with increasing ease over time. One last thing, the more types and eras of music you have, the more likely I believe one is to find the more conventional system inadequate, some music from the 1930's had no category we would recognize until maybe the 1970's, or later. Musicians like Edgar Vare'se come to mind. But, surely use what works best for you. I certainly do.

[semisynthetic]

In 1980 I was a teenager at an Air Force base in San Antonio, TX when I happened to hear a local radio station play a new song by Rocky Erickson and the Aliens called Creature With The Atom Brain. Luckily, I had a cassette in my little boom box and I recorded the relic, because that was the cool thing to do back then. The only other song I remember saving on that tape was Clues by Robert Palmer, but I'm sure there were many other songs and I know I still have that tape somewhere. I didn't know who Roky Erickson was, but I was struck by the utter strangeness of that song; it didn't belong to the New Wave, of which I was a fervent fan, and it wasn't Metal, nor did it sound like Hall & Oates or Steve Winwood's Arc Of A Diver. It existed solely on its own.
A few years later I happened upon the incredible Easter Everywhere, after having detoured through the Butthole Surfers and other equally important signposts. Hearing Creature With The Atom Brain opened my mind up to possibilities that existed outside the typical realm of popular music. It allowed me to fully appreciate the greatness of Daniel Johnston, Spacemen 3 and many other equally instinctive artists.

Just a shout out to Roky.

Burning temples, levitating churches!

I tried to find what you described, in a quick, cursory way, and found only complilations. It is Fun for me as well to remember a piece of music, and the time and moment I first heard it. We both went through a similar "epiphany", when any boundaries of music just evaporated, and there was suddenly so much more great sounds out there!

[spunder]

i'm sure that we are all aware :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K ... 1_nrn_desc

[semisynthetic]

AHA!
Thanks spunder. I just sent in a pre-order.

[runaway]

i'm sure that we are all aware :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00K ... 1_nrn_desc

Looking forward to this and hoping the sound quality is decent.

Agree about the futility of labeling different genres of music - my kids recently asked me to explain the difference between "alternative" and "indie".

[semisynthetic]

Yeah "indie" versus "alternative", that's great. I guess "Indie" is Alternative that a big company doesn't necessarily control or make? But that certainly is not true now, if it ever was.

There are many pieces from the 1930's, even the 1920's that are hard to place in a nice little category; I know it can make things easier to do so, but the level of complexity of music, and the vastness in numbers of what is out there means I made up my own categories and system so I could find the unusual and obscure in my collection.

[spunder]

Agree about the futility of labeling different genres of music - my kids recently asked me to explain the difference between "alternative" and "indie".

indeed! i've given up pigeonholing...music is either GOOD or BAD

[ro]

...a remark Erickson made to a friend who asked him to define psychedelic music, to which Erickson reportedly replied "It's where the pyramid meets the eye, man."

[semisynthetic]

With my iPhone in hand, I found the single! It is just too hard to turn down a band with such a Bizzare and Fun Song Title! From a Music Library of a Radio Station. Coincidence?

[semisynthetic]

I received an email about the vinyl pre-purchase of the Vinyl Set; it seemed like a very nice set. So I ordered it. "just what I needed", says I.

[plastic37]

Just been watching the You're Gonna Miss Me film for the first time.
My favourite bit is someone talking about seeing Roky and The Aliens in 1975. Not difficult to track down recordings from that era. This one was put up on YouTube a coupe of days ago.

[plastic37]

clicking round during my Elevators/roky session last night turned up a significant rumour regarding an important announcement about a reformation at Austin Psych Fest 2015 - due in a week or so.

[plastic37]

Elevators to play Psych Fest!

[BzaInSpace]

Wow, didn't see that coming...

[semisynthetic]

I happened across this on a file while putting singles away. It has been ages since I Posted many images at all; I hope it is not duplicative!

[Huxley123]

Elevators to play Psych Fest!

wow! where was this announced?

[plastic37]

http://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/mu ... -festival/

Austin Chronicle