Dirt Road to Psychedelia
For years the most you could find out about the Texas psych scene was from those Cicadelic 60s and Texas Punk Groups comps. Now there's no shortage of stoker coverage of the shit your grandprents lived through. Most of you have probably already read Eye Mind, the ultra-detailed saga of how Roky Erickson and his friends invented psychedelic rock and fed LSD to their pet monkey. Then there was that 83 Texan Nuggets from International Artists Records 1965-1970 CD that Charly did. And now I just heard somewhere about a TEN CD boxset of Elevators stuff coming out in the Spring from International Artists the most exciting part being it includes Stacy Sutherland's unreleased early '70s solo album, Beauty & the Beast. Jeez!
Speaking of eyes, if you feel the need to see more after renting I Have Always Been Here Before, now there's Dirt Road to Psychedelia, a visual trip through the dawning of Texas pre-hippydom. Here's the dirt...
"A folk-singing Janis Joplin, the dawning of the Thirteenth Floor Elevators and the first psychedelic venue in Austin, Texas created a fertile ground for the emerging counter culture of the 1960s. Seen as nonconformists, Beatnik-inspired hipsters were drawn together by folk, country and blues music. Traditional values became challenged as they sought a lifestyle outside of the system. Civil Rights and the war in Vietnam were galvanizing factors in 1960s American society, but the advent of psychedelics made it electrified. This documentary, by local filmmaker Scott Conn, tells how it all happened in Austin, Texas. Includes vintage footage of our beloved downtown historic parks as sites for love-ins and political rallies."
Don't know who all's in it but that fella with the big hair in the clip is parta Shiva's Headband.
If you missed the screening at a park in Austin last October (that featured 13th Floor Elevators cover band, the Tommy Hall Schedule), you can catch it again Feb. 4th at the Alamo Ritz. Or if Texas isn't in your itinerary, you can also purchase the film on dvd by clicking here.