The 13th Floor Elevators

The 13th Floor Elevators were an American psychedelic rock band from Austin, Texas, active from 1965 to 1969. Led by singer Roky Erickson and theorised by jug player Tommy Hall — who provided an electric jug as a drone instrument — they developed an intense, ecstatic rock sound centred on feedback guitar and Erickson's passionate vocals, informed by Hall's belief in the transformative potential of psychedelics. The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators (1966) is often cited as the first explicitly psychedelic rock album. Erickson's later institutionalisation and Hall's philosophical extremism gave the band's story a tragic arc that deepened their mythological status.