Austin, Texas

I've always had a fascination with this town. My mother was born there to students at The University of Texas, and naturally I grew up hearing stories about the crazy 60's and 70's in this town, where my Uncle would later go to school, and my family would often travel to.

As I grew up I found my musical upbringing would begin to blossom as I sat around a dusty turntable at my grandparents house In Fort Worth(where my grandmother had moved a few years after my mother was born) listening to the Beatles, Pink Floyd, and countless other bands. These years instilled a deep love of music in me, I was fascinated even by early Simon & Garfunkel tapes my grandparents would play to help me sleep. It was a starting point in my growing obsession with record collecting.



Even with this connection to Austin, I never truly knew of the influence Austin had on the Psychedelic music world until a few years ago after viewing High Fidelity and falling in love with the opening track of the film, "You're Gonna Miss Me" by The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. The Thirteenth Floor Elevators, who were led by frontman Roky Erickson, popularized the term "psychedelic rock" with the name of their first record, "The Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators"



Austin's influence only began with The Thirteenth Floor Elevators. The band's label International Artists, based in Houston, was largely directed by Lelan Rogers, the brother of country star Kenny Rogers. International Artists began picking up other Austin Bands such as The Golden Dawn, as well as Bubble Puppy, and Red Crayola(at the time based in Houston). These artists would have a wide stretching influence on the world of Psychedelic music and arguably play a more prominent role on the further development of garage and psych freakout music than even San Francisco.



The Red Crayola's tape loops and freeform noise, would become prominent in the development of the no wave and noise rock movements later based in New York City. The group's record The Parable of Arable Land is often cited as one of the biggest influences on modern lofi and noise music. In addition the records of Bubble Puppy and The Golden Dawn would become underground classics, masterworks of the acid generation.



The songs of these artists were not mere introductions to the world of lsd, or glorifications of the flower power generation. They were masterworks of psychedelia in a state that largely ignored the genre, and because of this they never received the proper credit they deserved. That being said, the influence Austin had on Psychedelic music cannot be ignored.