13th Floor Elevators' debut album - best version?

From the Sundazed site. This is huge! I wonder if there are plans for a CD release or Easter Everywhere?

"What is the source material you've used for your mono 13th Floor Elevators LP???

Bob Irwin replies: Many, many years ago - in fact, during the earliest years of Sundazed - I had extremely brief access to a 1:1 (Summit Sound) copy of the original mono master for the Elevators album; myself and another producer-friend were digging deep in a major label's vault and came across a huge load (hundreds?... thousands?) of ancient analog tapes, all undocumented, that were apparently intended for record-club use, (or had been submitted to the label/club for release consideration). Thankfully - with a wonderfully cooperative librarian's help - I quietly copied the reel (to 30ips 1/2" analog tape), because when I went to see if I could again extricate it just a few months ago, I was informed that all of those particular record-club tapes had been "scrapped nearly 15 years ago"... (And you can't believe some of the other things that were in there - it would make you cry...)

Admittedly, the reel was in less-than-stellar shape in some spots, ie: due to an improper wind, some of the endings of songs by the leader tape exhibited oxide-loss issues, etc.. When mastering our album, rather than pulling the fader early (as I believe has been done on all other versions of this release currently available), I sourced and attached approximately four endings/fade-outs, each less than 6 seconds, from a mint, mono, original I.A. pressing of the album.

As far as we're concerned, our new mono vinyl version is the best sounding Elevators master currently in existence. By far. The release, which KILLS in mono, to the best of my knowledge, has NEVER been reissued in anything but the less-powerful, less-exciting stereo mix. Again, we feel that the Sundazed mono vinyl of the Elevators album is positively DEADLY! Mono, mono, mono!!!"

 

Why, oh why, can't the guys at Sundazed be putting out the Elevators box instead of Charly? How long will we have to keep doing this sonic penitence in regards to the Elevators?

Life isn't fair.



James

 

Oh wow!

 

If that information about finding the master tapes is true, why did Sundazed not know anything about it?

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showpost.php?p=3291274&postcount=17

 

They are circulated as torrents, I believe

 

Wow! Wow! Wow!

Thanks for posting! I - LOVE - Sundazed!

 

I just got an email back from Scott at Sundazed, and unfortunately (for those of us without a vinyl rig), they only have the vinyl rights, so no CD for us.



James

 

I'm stoked....their debut LP in mono, from a good copy tape! Looks like it'll be needledrop time for the digital in us.

 

.............And a straight unadulterated shot of transcendent vinyl bliss for the rest of us!!! Gimme gimme gimme!

 

I still haven't found a commercial CD of the first two albums from the original master tapes. My original stereo albums of Pych & Easter sound great! Every release since the original LP's sound like bad rechanneled reverb.
How come we can't have the real stereo & mono masters after all these years?
Does this new book have anything on this?
If you want the good stuff, join an Elevators fan group like Tx Pych, if they're still around.

 

Yes, this is true. Amazing.

 

So far no 13th Floor Elevators cd has been issued from master tapes. Charly Records apparently has had master tapes for the 13th Floor's International Artists output sitting on their shelves (they've released and licensed varying degrees of crummy sounding cds and vinyl since they obtained rights to the catalog from Lelan Rogers). This info about a 13th Floor boxed set came from www.lysergia.com:

March 2008 "Also coming around the bend is an INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS BOX-SET from Charly/Snapper, including lots of old IA tracks never before on CD, plus a detailed (accurate) label discography, and a background story from the Lama. In case anyone missed it, here's the big news once more: the master tapes for the 13th FLOOR ELEVATORS albums have been found, and most inexplicably they had been sitting unused in the Charly Records vaults all this time, while the label licensed crappy-sounding vinyl-sourced tapes to whoever happened to ask. Watch for the first 'Vator tape trips in many decades later this year."

An earlier posting in October 2007 had this info: "*** Breaking News *** 13th Floor Elevators masters found! *** Breaking News ***
The master tapes for all three studio albums by the 13th Floor Elevators have been located, along with a bunch of other I A reels. The Elevators material is either in the form of mixdown master reels, or safety dubs from mixdowns. Reportedly this was all sitting in Charly's vault while they were churning out vinyl-sourced, crap-sounding reissues. Weird, huh? In any event, the 30-year Quest is over. Not to say that this means they will be released next month, or even next year... but the master recordings are in existence, and people can stop asking."

I won't consider getting that set until I see some reviews about how the mastering turns out - Charly recently put out a 3 disc set of IA singles covering the label's 45 output and it sounds pretty heavily No-Noised.

Sundazed has an lp of Psychedelic Sounds coming out in May (no rights for cd, just vinyl): http://www.sundazed.com/product_info.php?products_id=940

Also scroll down til you hit the "What is the source..." http://www.sundazed.com/index.php

 

Pre orders are up for Mono Lp at Sundazed and Amazon

 

Thanks! I was waiting for that. Sundazed has a sketchy record, as we all know, but it can't be any worse than the tripe I currently own on vinyl and CD.

 

How does Sundazed have a sketchy record? They are very upstanding. The pay the artist. They use masters whenever possible. Bob Irwin has done much work for Sony and a lot of that work is untouchable...

No...Sundazed are not sketchy at all.

 

SUNDAZED RULES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Yes! I'm very sorry--you guys are right. I feel like a complete *****; I was thinking Simply Vinyl, which doesn't even exist anymore.

I'll go ahead and call myself an idiot, so that no one else can beat me to it.

I recant! I recant!

 

See above. My bad!

Next time I'll make sure I'm clear on my research before I shoot my mouth off about the quality of a label. Man, and I supposedly do research for a living, too.....

 

No need to beat yerself up on this one!
We all make mistakes...let's hope that Sundazed corrects the mistakes of the past!

 

No one has mentioned this vinyl mono reissue:

"MONO L.P. - 1A - No. 1" under the pyramid on the back cover
"Printing by Tannner 'N' Texas, Inc. - 1422 West Poplar Street - San Antonio, Texas 78207" at bottom of back cover.

I prefer it over the Texas Psych Group needle drop.

 

Who put it out, and when?

 

The only attribution is to International Artists.

Interestingly, unlike on the reissues of the late 70s/ early 80s, the label design is modern - as though the actual I.A. (rather than a pirate) had updated its look for the 90s. It features a credit to Tapier Music Corporation [BMI].
The matrix numbers in the dead wax match those on back cover and labels, but something else has been scratched out.

I've always been really curious about this, too. Was the real I.A. behind those pressings of the early 80s?

 

I feel compelled to note something that I only belatedly discovered a few days ago.

Given the oft-repeated mantra about the sources of the ****** CDs we've been living with for years--bad needle-drops--I for whatever reason assumed that lots of that bad sound was built into the vintage stereo mixes (especially as I kept reading that the weird delay effect liberally layered over the first two albums in their CD incarnations was the band's attempt to "simulate an LSD trip").

However, I just grabbed the 13FE Fanclub "Attack of the LPs release," which duplicates the LP stereo mixes...and wow! So, so much better than the CDs! Actual discrete stereo! None of that godawful delay which, combined with channel-folding, makes everything sound sort of like mock stereo...even when it isn't.

So thus, the question: when the heck did these folded-in, mangled iterations start showing up? And why hasn't anybody just done a decent needle-drop from the original stereo LPs in lieu of using the same crappy tapes?

(by the way, despite the fan club's protestations to the contrary, I hear nothing unique so far in the eight-track mixes...except insofar as the guy who transfered them actually transfered about half of the tracks noticeably out of phase)

Here's a sample, from one of the less-offensive Easter Everywhere CD tracks (here taken from "Absolutely the Best") versus the same portion from the Attack of the LPs iteration

http://download.yousendit.com/2A57B24C73058BD6

 

It is too bad the Texas Psych group needledrop was done on pretty basic gear, I actualled emailed the head of the group and told him I would do it and give him a deposit for the LP's.