13th Floor Elevators

The debut album from Austin's 13th Floor Elevators, released October 17, 1966 on Houston's International Artists label. Produced by Lelan Rogers and tracked by Walt Andrus at his studio in Houston, the bulk of the record was cut in two days that October. With Roky Erickson out front on guitar and vocals and Tommy Hall blowing into a mic'd jug, the record arrived just as San Francisco was inventing what we now call psychedelic rock — and beat them all to the title.

The lineup is Roky Erickson (guitar, vocals), Tommy Hall (electric jug, lyrics), Stacy Sutherland (lead guitar), Benny Thurman (bass), and John Ike Walton (drums). Hall's wife Clementine Hall co-wrote a number of the lyrics and provided backing vocals.

Cool stuff:

• First album ever to use the word "psychedelic" in its title — the term existed in print, but this is its commercial-album debut, several months before any of the San Francisco bands released LPs
• Tommy Hall's electric jug is the band's signature instrument — a ceramic jug played into a microphone held flush against the lip, producing a warbling, vocal-like burble that runs through every track
• The single "You're Gonna Miss Me" reached #55 on the Billboard Hot 100 in fall 1966 — the band's only national hit, and the song that opens Easy Rider-era psych compilations to this day
• The liner notes (written by Tommy Hall) lay out an actual manifesto for psychedelic music as a tool for accessing higher consciousness — making this one of the first records to come with its own philosophical user's manual
• The cover art of an Egyptian eye-and-pyramid was designed by John Cleveland, an Austin artist who also designed posters for the Vulcan Gas Company

Spin it for: the ground-zero document of American psychedelic rock, Roky Erickson's wild banshee howl, and the unmistakable burble of an electric jug.

Standouts: "You're Gonna Miss Me" · "Roller Coaster" · "Reverberation (Doubt)" · "Fire Engine"

Sources: Wikipedia · Discogs · Houston Press: Tommy Hall interview · In Sheep's Clothing