Texas Psych

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I'm diving deep into the world of Texan psychedelia at the moment for a writing project, and wanted some recommendations on important stuff I might have overlooked.

So obviously you've got the Elevators and the whole IA scene, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn, Lost and Found, Bubble Puppy etc. There's the Fever Tree- often overlooked- and then on a garage tip you've got the Moving Sidewalks and Zakary Thaks, and slightly later and heavier I've picked up the two Josefus LPs.

Kenny and the Kasuals, Randy Alvey and the Green Fuz, I just know odd tracks on garage compilations.

Cold Sun of course.

I also want to follow it through to the present day. The Butthole Surfers seemed to pick up the tradition to some extent in the 80s and 90s, and in the 2000s the Black Angels. The Mars Volta I think could qualify as neo-psych, experimental prog anyway, and I guess Tripping Daisy / The Polyphonic Spree. Also maybe White Denim? Explosions in the Sky?

Thanks in advance...

Not an area I know much about sadly, but it sounds fascinating. Will be very interested in the results of your project...

It depends how deep in you want to wade.

In addition to the artists you've mentioned, Johnny Winter's early recordings (collected on the compilation "Birds Can't Row Boats") are worth including - in fact I'd say they're as good as any of the acts you've mentioned bar the Elevators and the Golden Dawn.

Then there's the Conqueroo, an Austin band featuring Elevators co-writer Powell St.John, whose live act was, apparently, legendary enough to make them local heroes at the time - but who sadly only got it together to release one single during their lifetime the marvellous "1 to 3"/"I've Got Time".

Endle St.Cloud's one album for International Artists ("Thank You All Very Much" - the last LP IA issued) is an interesting slice of hard bluesy psych, although not on a par with that label's best releases.

Not quite sure whether or not the Sir Douglas Qunitet qualify as psychedelic, since their sound was more of a rhythm'n'blues/Tex-Mex hybrid, but they were from Houston, existed during the same time frame and certainly shared more than a few bills with the major psych acts in the region - so it's your decision whether to reference them or not, I suppose.

If you haven't already, it's worth tracking down a copy of "Acid Visions -The Complete Collection : Best of Texas Punk & Psychedelia", a 3-disc set contains that contains tracks by most of the the artists I've mentioned plus a whole slew about whom I know nothing besides the songs included by them. there are two more three-disc sets in the same series, but Vol.1 is definitely the one to go for if you want a primer - the subsequent volumes contain way too much plodding blooze-rock filler for my liking.

As for more modern stuff like the Buttholes and the Black Angels ... you probably know as much as me in that department, although I'd definitely second both of those choices (and possibly Jandek and Daniel Johnston too?), and would be interested to read about more.

Keep us posted as to how the article goes.

Hunter T Wolfe wrote:
I'm diving deep into the world of Texan psychedelia at the moment for a writing project, and wanted some recommendations on important stuff I might have overlooked.

So obviously you've got the Elevators and the whole IA scene, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn, Lost and Found, Bubble Puppy etc. There's the Fever Tree- often overlooked- and then on a garage tip you've got the Moving Sidewalks and Zakary Thaks, and slightly later and heavier I've picked up the two Josefus LPs.

Kenny and the Kasuals, Randy Alvey and the Green Fuz, I just know odd tracks on garage compilations.

Cold Sun of course.

I also want to follow it through to the present day. The Butthole Surfers seemed to pick up the tradition to some extent in the 80s and 90s, and in the 2000s the Black Angels. The Mars Volta I think could qualify as neo-psych, experimental prog anyway, and I guess Tripping Daisy / The Polyphonic Spree. Also maybe White Denim? Explosions in the Sky?

Thanks in advance...

I think you got it just about licked. Maybe mention of so-called Tex-Mex scene (though this is confusing as many of the bands labelled with this moniker aren't from the area, such as Question Mark and the Mysterians), also Sam the Sham.

Look forward to the piece.

Texas:

SEOMPI
Children
Christopher
American Blues
Wailing Wall
Iota
Whistler, Chaucer, Detroit, and Greenhill

http://www.amazon.com/lm/R39K4U45247MGQ/ref=cm_pdp_lm_title_1

Shiva's Headband are another great Texan band.
Also, check out the Sonobeat Records website.
Numero put out a compilation called Lone Star Lowlands a while back which, whilst not being psych is a damn fine look at an early 70s local recording studios output.

This list looks pretty nifty (concerning the 60's): http://comps.soybomb.com/compsproject/location.php?&lifilter=4&sLocation=texas&litype=2&ssearch=1&lispeed=1

An then here's a small piece on texas scene in '90-'95 (if you scroll down a bit): http://www.scaruffi.com/history/cpt53.html

Some recent one's: Book Of Shadows, Carlton Crutcher's (formerly of ST 37) droney experimental 'band'. Rrreverberationsss (whose 'Music For Psychedelic People' was played almost(?) entirely on one of the 'Tue'sday Night/Wodnesday Morning shows, btw..). Also, i think Heather Leigh Murray was born in Austin...

Current Texian psych:

The Black Angels (indie rock popular)

Indian Jewelry (locally hip underground band; I've seen them, they're great)

Ringo Deathstarr (shoegazery JMC MBV etc.)


And this site might be worth a look: http://www.texaspsychedelicrock.com/

Post-60s

The Burnin' Rain (1988-93)


http://www.discogs.com/artist/Burnin+Rain

The Stereo Shoestring's 'On The Road South' is a class bit of Texas psych, filleting the hard rock segments from The Pretty Things' 'Defecting Grey'. The Austin Landing LPs have some good stuff, though oddly not all the artists seem to be from Texas, so I'm not sure what the comp criterion was there.

Also a mention for The Clique, who were more bubblegum/pop, but whose Superman (covered by REM) is still pretty sunshine-trippy.

Texas bump

Hey what became of your writing project? Did you publish anywhere, I would be interested to read it.