[gtranslate]
News

There’s an incredible new 13th Floor Elevators book on the way

A new 13th Floor Elevators book will offer a rare insight into the influential ’60s psychedelic band, featuring previously unseen material.

A new book about pioneering psychedelic rock band 13th Floor Elevators is set to be released this April.

Written and curated by London author/antiquarian bookseller Paul Drummond, the book will feature rare photographs, posters, diaries, interviews, and more.

13th floor elevators
Photo: Guy Clark/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Announced by Brooklyn-based record label-cum-publisher Anthology Editions, the book will feature previously unseen photographs of the band, as well as psychedelic flyers, scrapbook photos, diary entries, newspaper clippings, and even material from the families of the bandmates.

Active during the late ’60s, 13th Floor Elevators were the first to coin the term “psychedelic rock”. Heavily influenced by psychedelic experiences, the American band released four albums during their colourful existence and were known for playing and recording whilst on LSD.

A description of the forthcoming book details:

“Writer Paul Drummond has gathered an unprecedented catalog of primary materials—including scores of previously-unseen band photographs, rare and iconic artwork of the era, items from family scrapbooks and personal diaries, new and archival interviews, dozens of contemporaneous press accounts, and no shortage of Austin Police Department records—to tell the complete and unvarnished story of a band which, until now, has been tragically underdocumented.”

“Before the hippies, before the punks, there were the 13th Floor Elevators: an unlikely crew of outcast weirdo geniuses who changed culture.”

Last year, frontman Roky Erickson passed away, aged 71.

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History will be released on April 21. Check out a trailer for the book below.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

△ Announcing 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS: A VISUAL HISTORY △ – Born out of a union of club bands on the burgeoning Austin bohemian scene and a pronounced taste for hallucinogens, the 13th Floor Elevators were formed in 1965 when lyricist Tommy Hall asked local singer Roky Erickson to join his new rock outfit. Four years, three official albums, and countless acid trips later—the Elevators’ pioneering run ended in a jumble of professional mismanagement, internal arguments, drug busts, and forced psychiatric imprisonments. But their short existence, the group succeeded in blowing the lid off the budding musical underground, turning their deeply hallucinatory take on jug-band garage rock into a new American institution: psychedelic music. Writer Paul Drummond has gathered an unprecedented catalog of materials—scores of previously-unseen photographs, rare and iconic artwork of the era, items from family scrapbooks and personal diaries, new and archival interviews, dozens of contemporaneous press accounts, and no shortage of Austin Police Department records—to tell the complete story of a band which has been tragically underdocumented. Before the hippies, before the punks, there were the 13th Floor Elevators: an unlikely crew of outcast weirdo geniuses who changed culture. – You can order now through our web store at the link in bio – the book will be available world wide April 21st

A post shared by Anthology Editions/Recordings (@anthology) on

Next Up: How classical became psychedelic: A brief history of baroque pop