New 13th Floor Elevators Release

I just saw in the latest CCM catalog a new box set from Charley called "The Psychedelic World Of The 13th Floor Elevators" with all of the albums plus bonus live tracks and studio rarities. Could this possibly be from original masters for the first time. After all they do own the masters. Anyone know anything about this?

 

I don't think it's from the original masters. The sound quality is about the same as in previous Elevators CD releases (=quite poor).

 

Yes and no - yes, Sundazed did issue a live 13th Floor Elevators set (I think sourced from a 1960's Dallas tv show that Bud Buschardt was involved with); unfortunately, they're not the International Artists material that's in some sort of weird limbo (I smell legal problems conecrning that catalog...) You're Gonna Miss Me showed up in clean MONO (finally) on the Nuggets boxed set, and that lists Charly Records as the licensor. I think Charly owns IA now, but others have mentioned Charly went out of business (anybody able to verify that???). Now maybe Rhino was able to dig up a decent tape copy of that song (maybe in the Hanna Barbera vault since they licensed it back when it was charting???). Can't vouch for the box - I'm not a big psych fan, so somebody will have to brave it and try the box...

 

As regards Elevators master tapes, the following came from a post on the "TexasPsych" Yahoo Groups page [originally posted on the Bomp page]:

"Yeah I did let the cat out of the bag re: Elevators.... When I was at
Jim Dickson's house, i spotted a cdr marked "Elevators remixes". I asked
him, and he said "got 'em from Deniz". As for sound, i don't know 'cause
I haven't heard them yet. Jim said the new mixes sounded great: full and
up front. I asked Den about it the other day and he said that Mort
Bradly was searching through the library at Sugar Hill and came across
the multi track master of Psych Sounds. He mixed four tracks to see what
shape the master was in. Apparently very good. I don't know what the
situation is as far as rights, but who ever wants to put out the proper
legal reissue should start there. Don't know about the Easter Everywhere
tapes...sorry."

It's my understanding that other than the first two pressings on IA, no Elevators stuff has been sourced from the master tapes [including the reissues on Radar, as nice as they are].

 

Hey Ron, could you type up the address so I can find that page - I'm having trouble locating it. Man, if the multis for You're Gonna Miss Me exist I think I'm gonna pester Steve to remix that mofo - it's garage pounding at it's best!

 

Here's the address:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TexasPsych/message/3246

 

From the same site, here's some info re: the Radar reissue of "Psychedelic Sounds":


A post on the Bomp list finally clears up the story behind the Radar Elevator Reissues: (from Ron Sanchez )

Here is Andrew Lauder's reply to my question about the Elevators
"master" situation....read on:

Hello Ron:

Glad to oblige. Radar was sent "masters" from the USA which were
horrible. Seem to remember copies were made on the wrong side of the
tape. We couldn't use them.

We sent my old vinyl copies to be cleaned-up and made our own master
tapes from the cleaned-up vinyl. Love to hear the "new" mixes off the multi-tracks, wonder where those turned up!?

Talk soon

Best

Andrew Lauder

 

Thanks for the link - not much added to the above there - details, I want details! One of the previous posts on the 13th Floor boyz mentioned a British label had gotten master tapes and made up a comp that never saw the light of day. Fortunately, I'm not obsessed with Roky's band (BTW, is Roky pronounced with a short "O" like "Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit outta my hat!" or long "O" like The Big O, Oscar Robertson????)

 

Well, the comp currently out on Fuel 2000 is an indication of how the master tapes DON'T sound (definitely not even close to the source tapes), up front mixes would be good - the Fuel 2000 set is so wishy washy and lacking in wham that I hope the dudes who may have the real goods just mixed them like they should be with some Texas slam (and a little psychy throb wouldn't hurt, either)! Course, given the state of affairs concerning the IA catalog, don't hold your breath waiting for remixed from master tape stuff.