Today’s Vinyl: Sixteen Deluxe

If you were in Austin in the mid-90s, Sixteen Deluxe were the absolute shit, the band that was going to make it huge, Austin’s psychedelic retort to the Jesus and Mary Chain – heavier, fuzzier, louder, and more ass-kickingly in-your-face. The band did eventually make it big, so to speak; they signed with Warner Brothers and released Emits Showers of Sparks (now out of print), but the record sold poorly (despite, if the nineties part of my brain hasn’t completely failed me, a couple of shots on MTV’s 120 Minutes) and Warner dropped them. They went on to release another full-length and one more EP and then broke up in 2000.

The A-side here, Idea, is a nearly perfect psychedelic pop song, clearly influenced by the Mercury Rev/Flaming Lips sound but heading off into territory less noodly and more aggressively fuzzy. This single was released on King Coffey’s (of the Butthole Surfers) Trance Syndicate label (good history of the label here), which debuted some of the finest Texas bands of the 90s, including Bedhead and The American Analog Set. Sixteen Deluxe will be doing a reunion show at the Mohawk next month. Should be face-melting.