Fan Group Issues Legendary 13th Floor Elevators Albums on CD.

Jan. 28, 2007 - PRLog -- The Roky CD Club has released the first volume of Attack of the LPs by the 13th Floor Elevators. This is the band’s first album, the Psychedelic Sounds of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators, backed by the “Live” album. What makes these different from all the other reissues are two things: 1) they are distributed FREE to the fans 2) the signal was ripped direct from original International Artists LP pressings. The Roky CD Club is a group of Internet-based fans (loosely affiliated with the Texas Psych Google group) who collect, catalog, restore, preserve and share ultra-rare American garage-psych music. They have been active for almost ten years producing upwards of fifty volumes of material with the emphasis being on Texas Psychedelic.

Their previous offering resurrected the seminal Texas garage-rock LP- Power Plant by the Golden Dawn. This was ripped from an original, International Artists label, LP. The signal was then de-clicked by hand taking upwards of twenty hours work. Added to this was the sole alternate take from the Golden Dawn; a version of Starvation from the long out-of-print Radar EP. George Kinney himself blessed their effort and contributed new liner notes for the CD art.

Much care goes into the production and distribution of their releases. First, the discs or tapes are ripped to digital in a professional recording studio. Then the signal is analyzed for what noise reduction/EQ techniques are needed. If the source is from LP, like Attack of the LPs, the Engineer de-clicks the signal by hand, sometimes spending upwards of twenty hours on a single disc. If the source is from tape, the Club has a vast array of noise reduction and equalizing programs that it can run on it. The emphasis is on “less is more” with a couple of packages being used mildly rather than one package being relied upon. Last summer, they released Attack of the 8-Tracks which was the four 13th Floor Elevators albums ripped from the original 8-track mixes.

Distribution is accomplished by a “tree and leaf” distribution method. Trunks are assigned and they make copies for Branches; Branches them make copies for Leaves. Distribution from the Trunks > Branches is done via some form of lossless compression (SHN, FLAC, APE). This helps ensure that pristine copies go out to the network. Additionally, any CD art is packaged with those files. Leaves have the option of going lossless or just getting a CD copy. After the initial distribution, the lossless files go up on FTP server and torrent sites for distribution worldwide.

Isn’t the Roky CD Club worried about running afoul of the Roky Erickson Trust? “No really” says a fan; “the Roky CD Club originally began operations with the blessing and help of the Roky Erickson Trust. For many years we collected a donation for discs traded that was sent to the Trust to be distributed to Roky Erickson as needed. It was only when “‘certain other’” people took over the Trust a few years ago that our long relationship with the Roky Erickson Trust soured. They have since proven that they are incompetent by surrounding Roky with his enemies and butchering the music. We call the gang running things now the “’Roky Robber’s Roost’”. No, the helm has passed to us to “’save’” this music and deliver it to the fans. We will not fail in that quest. Besides, we already tried working with the new “’Head’” of the Roky Erickson Trust. After a series of increasingly bizarre and obtuse communications from him we just cut him loose. They put out stuff like: Don’t Knock The Rok and this is just like dragging the name through the dirt. It is apparent to the fans that it is 100% up to them to save this music.”

Another fan says: “What's been done to the 'Elevators music when it was reissued on CD is a crime. The master tapes are long lost so "they" took any old album and ripped it to CD and did a crappy job. This CD became the future "master" for all subsequent reissues and there have been a lot. Like, if another company wants to reissue they license the music and then just go buy a CD to copy. It's crap. The sound is thin and bad. The band gets paid nothing.

Reviews from the fans are already coming in:

“My jaw hit the floor when these psychedelic sounds started flying out the speakers - it's like I've never heard this album before! I thought the 8-tracks were the ultimate, but jumpin' jiminy, this is just completely INSANE. Thank you *so* much for making this a reality!! Blowing my mind…”
JC

The sound of these discs is vibrant and alive. This music never sounded so good. Want copies? It’s best to join the Texas Psych Google group. That’s where all the fans meet. Thank God, SOMEBODY finally did this right…

Website: groups.google.com/group/Texas-P