I was pleasantly surprised by last week’s GOOP, which included a much-cooler-than-expected Halloween playlist, including tracks from Roky Erickson- who (thanks to my father and uncles) I knew as member of the 13th Floor Elevators, a band from the experimental music scene in Texas in the 1960′s, which went on to influence many other bands in the elctro-rock genre.
(ZZ Top, R.E.M, T Bone Burnett and others have covered their songs, Brooklyn Vegan and NME still cover his shows, and you may be able to catch Roky on Austin City Limits or at SXSW.)
Roky Erickson
I shared the playlist with certain music-focused male members of my family (surely, the first time they’ve seen Gwyneth Paltrow’s weekly newsletter), particularly since one of my uncles had actually been a part of the psychedelic rock scene himself.
[...Have you heard of The Red Krayola (nee Red Crayola)? Well, when you hear The Red Krayola, you may also hear their 'interesting' use of percussion...like a mic recording the sound of ice melting on to aluminum foil. Trippy, man. OH, to have lived in the Sixties.]
The Red Crayola
So this playlist, curated by GP’s music supervisor friend, Randall Poster (soundtrack credits include, oh, about a million well known movies and TV shows…The Aviator, Boys Don’t Cry, Jarhead, Lost, Up In The Air, seemingly all of Wes Anderson’s films, – Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc., and many more), proved to be pretty darn groovy.
But I think we can do better.
One of my other uncles is a very cool DJ on an indie radio station in Houston (you may remember his very cool picks for a weekend in Chicago), and upon seeing the Randall Poster list, he sent me what he just happened to be playing on his radio show that night.
It’s a long one, and it’s a good one.
Enjoy & rock on.
FORMAT: ARTIST/song/SOURCE/label
John Hartford/ turn your radio on/ Aereo-plain/ rounder
Fairport Convention/ tam lin/ Fairport Chronicles/ a & m
Bicycle Thieves/ hurricane Halloween/ I Before E/ self
Richard Shindell/ are you happy now/ (various) When October Goes/ philo
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Michael Fracasso/ Elizabeth lee/ Saint Monday/ little fuji
Bobby Earl Smith/ dry creek inn/ Dry Creek Inn/ jackalope
Katy Moffatrt/ me and my uncle/ Cowboy Girl/ shanachie
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John Gorka/ raven in the storm/ Land Of The Bottom Line/ windham hill
Jason Eklund/ ghost train/ Captain Stringbean’s Dead Heart Days/ muzeekans
Donna Ulisse/ shady glen/ An Easy Climb/ hmg
Clairseach/ lakes of collfin/ Let Erin Remember/ self
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Darcie Deaville/ satan your kingdom must come down/ Plays The Fiddle and Sings/ taller dog
Frankie Armstrong/ the devil and the farmer’s wife/ …And The Music Plays So Grand/ sierra briar
Robert Johnson/ hellhound on my tail/ The Complete Recordings/ Columbia legacy
Martin Carthy/ devil and the feathery wife/ Out Of The Cut/ rounder
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Richard Dobson/ the stranger/ The Big Taste/ rinconada
Vernon Oxford/ bringing mary home/ Keeping It Country/ rounder
Tom Waits/ big joe and phantom 309/ Nighthawks At The Diner/ asylum
Michael Smith/ demon lover/ Michael Smith/ flying fish
Buffy Sainte-Marie/ the vampire/ The Best Of/ vanguard
Robert Earl Keen/ christabel/ No Kinda Dancer/ line
Vince Bell/ Frankenstein/ Phenix/ watermelon
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Austin Lounge Lizards/ highway Café Of The Damned/ watermelon
Trout Fishing In America/ big trouble/ Big Trouble/ trout
Vernon Oxford/ long black veil/ Keeping it Country/ rounder
Eric Hisaw/ ghost stories/ Ghost Stories/ self
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Townes Van Zandt/ the hole/ No Deeper Blue/ sugar hill
The Velvet Underground/ the gift/ White Light-White Heat/ verve
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ultimate spinach / ballad of the hip death godess [ultimate spinach] on the mgm label.
roky erickson / night of the vampire [gremlins have pictures] on the pink dust label.
red crayola / pink stainless tail [parable of arable land] on the charly label.
red crayola / hurricane fighter plane [parable of arable land] on the charly label
The Velvet Underground
