For a band that was bordering on evangelical about LSD and drug use, their trip had turned very sour. Lead guitarist Stacy Sutherland also wound up in prison on drug charges.
A year later, in order to avoid marijuana possession and hefty prison time, Erickson pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and ended up in Rusk State hospital. In 1968 the band’s singer Roky Erickson had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital where he received electroconvulsive shock therapy. Similarly, the huge promise of the 13th Floor Elevators – a bunch of wild, acid-guzzling, jug-blowing Texans, who are largely credited with inventing psychedelic rock – had imploded. ‘I didn’t think it would ever come out’ … Lenny Kaye pictured in 2021. I thought the music was going to be forgotten.” The record company was letting us sit on the shelf. The band’s singer Sky Saxon left to join the Source Family, a religious commune that combined spirituality with experimental psychedelic rock. “I thought it was done,” says Daryl Hooper, who still tours and records with a new iteration of the group. But by the advent of the 70s, their run was seemingly over. Hailing from Los Angeles, the Seeds had middling chart success with their first two singles – a fierce one-two punch of pioneering proto garage via Can’t Seem to Make You Mine and Pushin’ Too Hard.
Fame didn’t last and a year later he was back in college studying business administration. “All of a sudden we’re touring with the Beach Boys,” recalls band leader James Donna. In 1965 Minnesota band the Castaways had a hit with Liar Liar, a perfect two-minute slab of surf-pop. Released in 1972, some of its songs had previously charted, but many bands were already looking destined to drift into obscurity or the depths of record shop bargain bins. Despite being a sprawling double LP, it’s a showcase for economy bursting with powerful yet compact blasts of proto-punk, psychedelic and garage rock by the likes of the Seeds, the 13th Floor Elevators, the Chocolate Watchband, the Castaways and the Standells.
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