The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators

The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators is a 1966 album by 13th Floor Elevators. The album’s sound, featuring elements of folk, garage rock, blues and psychedelia, is notable for its use of the electric jug, as featured on the band’s only hit, “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, which reached number 55 on the Billboard Charts with “Tried to Hide” as a B-side. Another single from the album, “Reverberation (Doubt)”, reached number 129 on the Billboard’s Bubbling Under Chart.

The November 1966 album title is purported to be the first use of the word “psychedelic” in reference to the music within. However, this is in dispute as two other bands also used the word in titles of LPs released in November 1966: The Blues Magoos’ Psychedelic Lollipop, and The Deep’s Psychedelic Moods.

In 2005, The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators was remastered and reissued in compact disc format by Charly Records, a British record label specialised in reissued material. It included bonus tracks of the band’s 1966 performance at the Avalon Ballroom, a music venue in the Polk Gulch neighborhood of San Francisco, and both sides of a single, “We Sell Soul” and “You’re Gonna Miss Me”, from Roky Erickson’s pre-13th Floor Elevators band, The Spades.

In 2009, the original mono version was released as part of the “Sign of the 3-Eyed Men” box set.