Yes, after a long dormancy, the Jukebox of Horrors has awakened from its slumber!
October has arrived, and tonight, we're kicking things off right. For tonight... is the Night of the Vampire!
From the 1981 album The Evil One.
Plenty has been said about Roky Erickson's life and stuggles with schizophrenia (too much to mention in this post), but what's of real importance here is the music.
Starting his career fronting The 13th Floor Elevators, a band that was to the birth of psychedelic rock what Black Sabbath was to the birth of heavy metal, Roky and his bandmates made some of the most original '60s psych rock of all time. He spent time in and out of institutions in the years after the 13th Floor Elevators fell apart in the late '60s, but returned to music in the mid '70s with a very different style, and finally released a couple of great albums in the early '80s from which this track was taken.
He's certainly had loads of rough times since then, but is finally back on track (and back on his meds!) and released his first new album in 14 years this April.
pretty awesome song, and the music video was great as well.
ReplyDeletei have to say, as i saw that the movies were getting newer in the music video, i was praying i wouldn't see edward
Haha, for a brief moment I had the same thought when I first watched this little fan-made video.
ReplyDelete"Is that sparkling fucker going to ruin this video at the end? Am I going to have to link to the boring plain album-cover youtube video?" Thankfully, I don't think there will ever be enough crossover between Roky fans and fans of that sappy patriarchal rubbish to ever have anything to do with that series show up in Erickson-related stuff.
Nice song. I'm unfamiliar with the artist, as I expect to be with most of your jukebox, but I look forward to coming back day after day to hear something new! Happy October!
ReplyDeleteThanks! I'm always happy to turn people on to new music, and considering how much I hang around jaded music-nerds most of the time, I don't get nearly enough chances to do so, as I'm usually the one who's being introduced to something new...
ReplyDeleteAwesome choice! I use to play this waaaay back in the early days of Dark Entries, but have since honestly forgotten all about it. Nice to see the old jukebox officially up and running.
ReplyDeleteMight be time to bring it back into rotation again, then!
ReplyDelete