SPLASH 1

Listen to SPLASH 1 by 13th Floor Elevators.

This week is OU-Texas week, which has made...no difference to my life this year. Last season, I was pretty good about following every game where possible. This year, well, you might accuse me of being a fair weather fan, because we've lost a couple of games and I haven't even seen any of them, except for the Tulsa game. There are a few extenuating circumstances -- I was at a wedding for our first loss, I had a dinner engagement for the Miami loss, we've not been on free TV a couple fo the weeks, but it is what it is. I half-jokingly said after the Florida game last year that I was boycotting the team for awhile, but it's turned out to be true.

Anyway, why are we discussing this? I have a song for you, by Austin's own 13th Floor Elevators, clearly the best thing to come out of that town ever. But my digression has used up all of my blogging energy, so you'll just have to be in the dark about the song. Roll on Saturday.

SPLASH 1 (NOW I'M HOME)

Listen to SPLASH 1 (NOW I'M HOME) by The 13th Floor Elevators.

Since I had to go back into my backroom to fix the previous post, I thought I might as well share another tune here. I hope everybody's doing fine! I had a vacation beard about two hours ago, and now I don't. Now I'm home, indeed.

REVERBERATION (DOUBT)

Listen to REVERBERATION (DOUBT) by the 13th Floor Elevators.

Quick one, blast from the past. Would grace any music blog or any blog post.

Roky (Roger Kynard) Erickson, an 18 year-old Austin high school dropout, was riding high in the Fall of 1965 as the frontman of the Spades, a garage combo that had a local hit with "You're Gonna Miss Me" and held a residency at Austin's Jade Room club. He had caught the attention of Tommy Hall who had come to see the band play a few times. Hall introduced himself and invited Erickson to meet and jam with some of the Lingsmen. The meeting was a success and plans to form a new "super-group" took shape. Tommy Hall then added the X factor: a communal LSD trip where the agenda for the new band was outlined. Erickson and Lingsmen lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland were impressed enough to agree, and two more members, bass player Bennie Thurman and drummer John Ike Walton, joined in somewhat reluctantly. A few days later an appropriately clever and enigmatic band name was selected, and the 13th Floor Elevators were born.