12. Isaac Rother & The PhantomsThe Unspeakable Horror Of…

The Misfits are a good reference here. Having come off the question of where Dinosaur Jr. fit in, as with The Misfits, this is kind of hard to describe and hard to pigeonhole. They don’t belong in just one box. Like when I was back working with Roky Erickson, who had the 13th Floor Elevators – the Elevators were heroes and Roky’s voice was maniacal. Just that screaming. It was lovely.



The Phantoms aren’t quite psychedelic, but Roky was part of a group that popularised the term, a word which first emerged around 1957. It was certainly handy, to give a point of reference to what the Elevators were delivering. Back then I had the Moving Sidewalks. I chose that name because, well, elevators take you up, if that’s where you want to go. Moving sidewalks take you forward.